Elder Glade Publishing Manifesto

We believe in unfettered storytelling.

Storytelling is a co-creative process between the work and the reader. It engages energy, stirs thoughts, and sways constructs. That’s why we pick up the book, the ticket to another experience—maybe even one we wouldn’t choose in real life, just to glimpse another perspective.

Storytelling is not about engaging in narratives for censorship or cancel-culture. As a medium, a story can be made to serve any purpose, even those that are unifying or divisive. A story, or a perspective, is only as powerful as those who believe in it. When you stop believing in a story, it becomes inert—it loses its power to impact.

We believe in telling stories that might cause discomfort. We believe stories are for everyone, and therefore seek to love equally, include all—and offend universally without prejudice. We tell the stories that need to be told and want to be heard. For these reasons, we don’t make concessions for potentially triggering semantics, tiptoe around preferences, or fret about topics discussed at the PTA. We don’t sidestep political traps or avoid conversations about spirituality. We don’t agonize about common terms or sexual content. We don’t cater to the book burning mobs or the angry cancel parties. In fact, we invite them. Please come have a cup of something warm and fulfilling, and we’ll tell you a bedtime story. You can burn our books when you’ve actually read them. We’ll even hand you the match—after you’ve filled out a three-page book report for extra credit.

We believe that humans tend to fear what we don’t know or understand. Stories are about revealing that knowledge, about creating bridges to understanding. We recognize that assimilating new information, or challenging outdated ideas, can be an uncomfortable growth experience for many. Growth is not mandatory, and it can be challenging for the individual ego. We sympathize—however; we do not capitulate or grant pardons to avoid those discomforts. They are up to the reader to choose or not; it is not our right to determine other’s comforts for them. Readers’ emotional responses are their own to manage as an empowered human being. It’s our job to tell the story.

We believe in being inclusive, and to honor that stance, we choose not to be exclusionary in our practices by limiting stories to be only comfortable, acceptable, or pleasantly contained by expectations not conducive to the narrative. We believe inclusiveness is showing all the facets, all the grit, the good, the bad, the abhorrent, and even the magical, brilliant, and magnificent. We set the whole banquet and let the readers feast upon the parts they like, then politely pass over the dishes they do not prefer.

To that end, we choose to publish only certain types of stories. We choose to support, uplift and generate content that encourages thought, pushes buttons, tests limits. We choose stories that allow the audience the opportunity to be unsettled, to lean into their own personal and emotional responsibilities as an individual living within a larger, interconnected human community. We don’t censor—we allow YOU to feel as authentically as you wish, as empowered as you choose. We don’t alter character voices; we let them speak how they choose to express their character and development within the story. We don’t cherry-pick language to make sure the audience is happy—we choose plain old common language, everyday terms, colloquialisms, and allow the audience to decide how and what will affect them individually. By trusting an audience is capable of emotional self-regulation and mental discernment, we can offer stories with more inclusive, global appeal.

In other words, we don’t believe in neutralizing content to avoid backlash, we believe in building global emotional resilience and cohesion. We believe in participating in social evolution, and creatively re-imagining a world with more harmony and inspiration by not supporting any one person, or agenda, over the whole of humanity.

By encouraging self-responsible audience participation, it frees readers to decide to cheer a book, story, character onward—it also allows a person to realize a particular book is not for them personally, and they can decide to leave it on the shelf for someone else to discover. Because being aware and self-regulated means understanding not every book is for you. Not every book is about you. Not every story is made just for you—but you can choose to engage with it anyway, or not. That’s what makes storytelling such a glorious kaleidoscope of adventure.

We only publish content for mature audiences, but we also do not always have control over where our books land, and in whose hands, they may end up. We support parents making decisions about their own child’s reading levels, and content management--inside their own homes.

Because we encourage free thinking and individual emotional responsibility, we publish content with a variety of sexual topics and relationship stories. All kinds. All varieties. We also publish content that includes violence. We believe if you’ve been deemed old enough to go to war or buy a semi-automatic weapon—you’re deemed to be mature enough to have authentic, and respectful conversations around sexual expression, intimacy, human desire and physical autonomy; rights all individuals have. We believe if one is deemed able to wield arms; they are also competent enough to respect individual differences in all areas of ideology. In fact, we support such discussions being had first and in the open—because if narrative history and story have ever agreed upon anything; it is that those responsible for indiscriminate violence are most in need of understanding the basic principles of love and human intimate connections, along with self-accountability, individual boundaries, and personal emotional regulation in relation to all the above.

The magic of the story allows us to dip into other worlds, different perspectives, new ideas, and unsettling new inspirations—then, when the story is over, we are safely back in our own environments, tucked into our old patterns and habits—returned to our normal way of life. Only then, from the comfort of our armchairs, do we get to look at the way it’s always been done and ask, “Is there another way to do this? Does it need to keep repeating if I don’t wish to live the same old pattern, rethink the same old thought, wear the same old fears?” You decide. It’s your story. It always has been and always will be.

Until then, we’ll be here, telling a variety of tales. We’ll be pleasantly, irreverently, joyfully—and probably offensively - placing content on the shelves for adventurers to sort through and find their perfect escapism, before returning it to the stacks for the next person to explore.

We support your human right to choose your story, trust your story, and live your own story.
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Happy reading,
EGP

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