Paula Dias Garcia

I’m a writer and designer based in Limerick, and I co-created Sans. PRESS in 2020 with my partner Sam Agar.

We’d just concluded an MA in Creative Writing in the University of Limerick when the lockdown began, and the business felt like the right way to both reconnect to the literary community and to apply the expertise we’d obtained. For the second year of Sans. PRESS, we received Arts Council funding, which provided our business with stability and allowed us to expand our investments and ambition.

Sans. PRESS is an indie publisher with a focus on magical realism. We produce themed short story anthologies, and our aim is to include both established and new writers in our books. Our main proposal is creating new narratives by combining multiple writers’ points of view in a single topic.

Our main activity is a curatorial practice, in which we select a feature artist for the cover and then host an open call for writers to respond to it. In our selection process, we look for stories that not only have high-quality writing, but also that reflect the values we hold and propose new ways of looking at the world.

What are your business objectives?

Our central objective is becoming a platform for new and emerging writers.

Through a combination of curating interesting sets of stories and producing engaging graphic design outputs, we aim to enable new writers to put their best foot forward, and have a competitive edge in the very competitive publishing market. We understand that stories might be overlooked because of their visual presentation, and want to make sure that new writers have a chance to be read and considered.

In the long run, I hope Sans. PRESS will also be publishing full-length novels, as it is the form I engage the most with as a writer. However, as it involves higher risks and investments, we’re still developing a schedule to include it in our projects.

At the moment, our main goal is increasing our public outreach. Much of the Sans. PRESS proposal is centred in engaging with the literary community and platforming artists, and for that to happen effectively, we need to improve our communication channels with the relevant public. This involves both establishing a consistent social media approach and participating in online and in-person literary events.

Tell the reader what you have learnt whilst on Crafting Business

The first significant outcome for me was realising the importance of outlining my business in structured terms. Filling out a business model canvas – and effectively organising information about my business I already had – was a lot more illuminating than I expected it to be, and I intend to develop some similar activities to come up with clearer, easier-to-communicate plans for my business.

I also changed the framework in which to measure the success of my business, moving my evaluation from terms of profitability into terms of artistic relevance. I’ve come to realise that our main value proposition is “supporting the arts” more so than “selling great books”, which led me down the path of thinking of new products for my business – such as workshops and tutorials.

I was also unaware of a lot of the funding and support opportunities that are available for new businesses. Although I had engaged with the Arts Council, I didn’t know about the Local Enterprise Office initiatives, or about the activities of projects such as Minding Creative minds, and I intend to make use of these in the near future.

Share your top 5 tips with the reader

1. Structure makes things manageable. My plans and ideas can become too overwhelming even for myself – luckily, there’s a wealth of resources on how to plan, schedule and organise businesses!
2. There’s no business if no one knows about it. Sure, making is more fun than selling, but a customer base is a central part of the business. Thinking of social media as more of outreach and less of a chore made it easier, and I’ve found that promoting the business in person can actually be fun.
3. Sometimes there’s gaps in your knowledge. Stuff that may seem intuitive can be a whole new field of knowledge, and there’s no way around it – you need to either study up or find an expert to help.
4. Help is out there – but you need to know where. There’s funding, training and resources available if you know where to look. Having a network of people in a similar situation than yours can be the key to finding solutions.
5. Allocate time for the things you dislike. Set your priorities based on what the business needs, because it’s easy to just focus on the bits you love, and neglect the boring – but necessary – parts.

Image credits: Paula Dias Garcia