Small Press, Big Prize: Inside Brooklyn Arts Press

Joe Pan, better known to the small press world as Brooklyn Arts Press, rarely enters his books into consideration for the big literary awards-one book, once a year, tops. For a one-man publisher with a yearly operating budget of under $20,000, the risk, he said, is rarely worth the rare reward. "When I make a decision to submit a book to a prize like this, it [costs] around $125," Pan said, referring to the submission fee for the National Book Awards, to which he submitted an uncharacteristic two books this year. "Some of our books cost $800 to produce," he added. "So it's the difference between using a quarter of the funds delegated to another book to send a book out for a prize, or just holding onto that money and using it for the next book."