Kavaya Press is a sustainable publishing home for writers of the Global Majority.
Together, we unearth our connection to place–our lands and homes.
We offer writing and editorial coaching, book design and formatting, sustainable paper sourcing and printing, publishing logistics, and distribution, as well as careful and sensory world-building around the book through community activations.
Our Services
Writing & Editorial
1:1 writing coaching and workshops
Format & Layout
Personalized book design
Collaboration & Community Engagement
Branding, illustrations and book-specific merchandising
Paper & Printing
Environmentally friendly paper sourcing, printing
Publishing
Copyright protection, ISBN and Library of Congress registration
Distribution
Community activations, exhibitions, award submissions, and book delivery
Rewilding Publishing
-
In traditional publishing 95-98% of manuscripts rejected, at Kavaya Press we have an expansive defintion of what a book is; we work with what writers have and workshop what they want
-
Mainstream publishing companies take 18-24 months from acceptance to publishing, Kavaya Press can get your book to readers in 6 months
-
62% of authors are unhappy with creative control and concede global, digital, and future rights, at Kavaya authors have 100% ownership of rights; we value co-creation and collaboration
-
Only 1% of books each year account for 80% of book sales, we offer personalized distribution, marketing, and reader community engagement
-
Author only earns 10-15% of the book’s retail price, with Kavaya the author receives 100% revenue, sliding scale pricing for accessibility
-
76% of the publishing industry (executives, editorial, marketing, and sales departments) are white, 95% of books published are by white authors, at Kavaya we have a 100% intergenerational Global Majority team
The Unbearable Whiteness of Publishing Revisited 25 years later, 2021
Literary Legacy Continued
Real Ballers Read
Diverse Stories
We Need Diverse Books
People of Color in Publishing
Our Sustainability Values
Radical Hospitality
We are a community of people, not a corporation and we value that authors and their art are sacred gifts not products
Supportive
We coach writers to succeed through and beyond their book
Liberatory
Global Majority community invested in justice
Collaborative
Writers are collaborators; retain creative direction and full rights to their work
Adaptable
We meet writers where they are at; creatively define and carefully craft the book
Accessible
We help writers fund their craft; make their art affordable and accessible to their communities
Our Book Values
-
Sankofa means to go back and get it, the wisdom and learning from the past to build the future
Edutainment – educational entertainment and entertaining education
-
Dwennimen means the strength of mind, body, and soul, the whole self
Trans-disciplinary – we don’t silo writers into genres and encourage them to weave
-
Ananse Ntenton means the spider’s web of wisdom, craftiness, creativity, and complexity
Multi-sensory – accessible to learning differences, learning is a somatic experience, we imagine beyond the book
-
Asase Ye Duru means the providence and divinity of Mother Earth
Place-based – we help writers and readers historicize themselves and their art in the places that inspired them
-
Akoma Ntoaso means joining of hearts, a symbol of togetherness and unity
Honest – honoring writers’ authenticity in form, language, and story