How a Rum Obsession Turned into a Publishing Business
Many of my posts here go into “how the sausage is made” topics. This time, I’m turning the camera around to take you behind the scenes of Wonk Press, the independent publisher I started with Carrie Smith (aka Mrs. Wonk). In 2016, I had a vision for a no-compromises, deep-dive rum book. I knew no traditional publisher would gamble on it, so Carrie and I decided to do it ourselves. In the years since, Wonk Press has grown into a business that now competes with rum for my time and attention.
2025 was a transformative year for us. We’re very proud of releasing three new books over six months:
However, just as importantly, albeit less visible, we revamped many of our operations to enable future growth. Like rum companies, we must constantly evolve and respond to events and market forces beyond our control. Here’s a brief peek at what we did this year.
Bringing in Outside Specialists
When we started in 2019, we shipped orders from our home to minimize expenses. When the first batch of Minimalist Tiki arrived, our kitchen table was our shipping station, and cases of books were stashed throughout the house. In time, we graduated to a storage space, and then multiple storage spaces when 16,000 lbs (11 pallets!) of Modern Caribbean Rum arrived.
As 2025 began, it became more cost-effective to use a 3PL (third-party logistics provider) to store and ship our books. The bonus benefit: spending less time packing orders ourselves. It took months of planning and integration, but when our books started shipping from an Illinois warehouse, the payoff was immediate.
Embracing Agility
Our first five books were hardcover and printed in South Korea using the best paper and bindings. However, it’s not economical to print a few dozen copies this way. Economies of scale don’t kick in until 1,000 copies or more, creating a substantial upfront cost for each print run. The bill for printing Modern Caribbean Rum? Ooof — it was tough! A huge monetary risk that thankfully paid off. Had I not already invested six years of my life into it, I might have made a different choice.
So, when we started production on The Rum Never Sets, our smallest book thus far, we decided it made sense to use a softcover, with the same quality paper and offset printers as our prior books. Embracing new printing options enables us to sell to our customers for less, which lets us price our books lower. It also lets us print in smaller quantities and in different geographical regions, which segues nicely into our next big change.
Enhancing Customer Experience
We’ve had high international demand for our books since we started, especially from European rum aficionados. But while our US-based warehouse ships worldwide, shipping rates from couriers like UPS, DHL, and FedEx often cost more than the product itself. Clearly, not an ideal situation for our customers—or for us!
In November, after months of preparation and tackling the issue of per-country VAT and import duties head-on, our UK-based fulfilment partner went live. We can now ship to the UK and the EU at a substantially lower cost than from the US. Is it glamorous work? No. Does it help us sell books? Yes.
Stocking the warehouse with our titles is another non-trivial task. By printing our navy rum books in the UK, the warehouse had them within a few days. We plan to stock the UK warehouse with our other titles in early 2026, likely from our US warehouse. This will be yet another “learning experience” in the freight logistics realm.
Another enhancement for certain customers is the availability of books in their native language. In 2025, we released our first French-language book, Royal Navy Rum and London Dock Rum. Christine Lambert, the well-known spirits expert and author, handled the translation of The Rum Never Sets into French. It’s currently available in the UK and EU, and will soon be stocked in our US warehouse.
Playing in Hard Mode
Completing all the above was a huge undertaking, which we did concurrently with an even larger project. We’d long contemplated transitioning our daily lives to Europe, in part for its vibrant rum communities and many rum-related festivals. In 2025, all the pieces came together, and we arrived in France.
[Hot tip for reading this far - between now and Dec. 19th, 2025, use promo code UPSPIRITS to save 15% on all in-stock Wonk Press Titles.]
What’s next? I have several rum and/or drinks-related books in various states of outline or execution. My 2026 goal is to publish at least one of them while keeping you up to date on the latest rummy happenings here.
It's exciting to hear that you moved to Europe. Congratulations on your decision. I hope you plan to organize rum themed meetups or just frequent visits to European festivals where we can meet you in person.