Portland Publisher: Time and Skin Media

I’m glad I was able to meet Jeff Stewart before profiling his publishing agency, Time and Skin Media, because this would have been a completely different and probably even more boring post if I hadn’t.  I have a feeling that upon meeting Jeff you instantly like him or don’t like him.  I was definitely one of the former!  Jeff mixes no words about how he feels about the publishing/writing industry in general.  Believing that work of lesser quality only leads to dilute the literary stew.  But he is also quick to point out that his opinion is just that, and that what he considers quality may not equate with everyone.

Jeff epitomizes following what your heart/soul says is your place in the world.  He has been unwilling to sacrifice his aspiration of becoming a successful writer/publisher, and to do it on his terms.  There is something sincere and honest about that.  Something that makes you want to believe that its all going to turn out great for Jeff and Time and Skin Media in the end.  Yes there may be a bit of stubbornness mixed in as well, but you have to be stubborn if you are going to make anything of yourself in this business.

Time and Skin Media came about from Jeff deciding that he wasn’t happy with what he was being offered from publishers in exchange for the “sweat equity” he had put into what would become his presses launching book, The March of Time and Skin (there is something incredibly unique about this book, but you will have to order it from their website to find out what it is).  He then discovered another Portland talent, Kurt Eisenlohr, through a mutual friend and the two of them decided to create Time and Skin together.  They may be small right now, but there is a fighters spirit in Jeff, and an energy for marketing his publications that will see him and the press through to bigger things (I came across him after he found our Meetup group page and messaged me asking how to get his books in our rotation).

Jeff gave me this list of books to read before we parted ways, and I wanted to share it with you.  I believe it provides some insight into who Jeff is and the kind of books he respects:

Ask the Dust by John Fante
The Last Night of the Earth Poems by Charles Bukowski
Hunger by Knut Hamsun (edited by Robert Bly)
The Neon Wilderness by Nelson Algren

Here is the video, please pay attention to Jeff as opposed to my shaky hands…