Our Story

Barrow & Bone was founded after I found myself sitting around a table with a group of authors and spiritual leaders I deeply respect—people from different traditions, identities, and levels of experience—who all shared the same story: we'd all experienced contracts, processes, and environments that made us feel unseen, unheard, or undervalued. We were all tired of feeling as though our creative, spiritual, and physical labor was treated as an afterthought in spaces that should have cared for us.

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And as we talked, a familiar ache rose in my chest. I had had this exact conversation before—over and over, with countless authors, and suddenly it was painfully obvious. These weren’t isolated moments—they were a pattern.​

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In that moment I knew I was done trying to fit myself into publishing structures that didn’t protect us. I wanted something different—for myself, and for all of us.

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So I stood up from that table determined to build a new kind of publishing home. One rooted in transparency, creative sovereignty, community care, and a commitment to integrity over profit. Barrow & Bone began as my personal commitment to ethical, author-centered publishing, and quickly became a cooperative model where every writer shares in the work, the wisdom, the success, and the decision-making power of the imprint.​

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Today, Barrow & Bone is a press where authors retain their voice, hold an equal stake in the profits of their labor, and participate fully in the choices that shape their books, our community, and the future of our imprint. We exist because I believe every creator deserves a publishing home built on care, respect, and integrity—not exploitation. And together, we’re building exactly that.​​

—Mortellus, Founder