33 1/3 knockback inspires contrarian publishing project.

Veteran music journalist Everett True – chief chronicler of the grunge and riot grrl scenes of the 1980s and 1990s and the guy who, as he’s always happy to remind us, introduced Kurt to Courtney – has launched a company to publish books by “the rejects and misfits of this world”.

Rejected Unknown will focus on printing works that he and other writers have found hard to pitch to the usual outlets, and was conceived when Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series rejected True’s proposal for a book about Daniel Johnston’s Hi, How Are You.

The knockback made True wonder: “What other wonderful potential projects have been turned down flat? I know that brilliant writers, such as Jack Sargeant and Karren Ablaze, had proposals rejected too. Absurd, I hear you cry! Absurd! Will no one do anything about this travesty of taste!?”

Since announcing his plans on Facebook earlier this year, True has gathered a team of supporters to get the company off the ground, with the first project set to be published within six weeks of the company’s launch on October 2. Titled 101 Albums You Should Die Before You Hear, the first book is a collection of “funny, cruel, clever, brutally honest, purely vitriolic and poetic criticisms of history’s most loved and most hated albums,” and is being supported with a crowdfunding drive on Indiegogo.

Rejected Unknown will release “three to five such books every quarter, crowd-funded and immaculately designed, on a rolling system of self-finance”, a press release states. “The company will specialise in publishing works that are too brilliant and/or off-the-wall for conventional publishers”.

True is now calling on other rejects to get in touch. “If you are one of the 522 writers that got passed over [by 33 1/3], send your original proposal to me. And who knows? If I see enough I find intriguing, I might be spurred into print publishing again.”

The company has two rules, he added: “1) All contributors are paid, and, 2) Equal gender representation.”