Business BY ANGELA MATUA Photos courtesy Shaun Randol What started as an online magazine in 2009 has become Queens’ only independent book publishing company, according to Astoria resident Shaun Randol. Randol is the editor-in-chief, publicist, marketer and publisher of The Mantle, a book publishing company that aims to provide “a platform for young and emerging, maybe overlooked voices.” The Mantle is run out of Randol’s home near Ditmars Boulevard and, since 2014, has published six books by emerging African writers. “My intention is to publish writers who don’t have access to markets like the U.S. to get their names out and get the publicity their writing deserves,” Randol said. Randol graduated with a master’s degree in international affairs from the New School in 2008 and currently works at Bloomberg L.P. and as an associate fellow at World Policy Institute. His background informs the type of writing he looks to publish: unique international voices in fiction and non-fiction. “We Are All Blue” by Botswana-born actor and playwright Donald Molosi was published in January 2016. It’s the first time drama has been published in book form in Botswana, according to Randol, and the forward is written by former Botswana president Quett Masire. Molosi also has a role in the upcoming film “A United Kingdom” starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, which follows the same storyline as his book – the love story of Botswana’s first president and his white British wife. Randol works with a typesetter and cover designer and establishes relationships with bookstores and distributors to give his authors the best chance of selling their books. Though he says book publishing is not extremely expensive, it took months for him to recuperate his costs. After paying the writers and the actual publishing, he must wait for the books to filter through the market and sell. “It’s difficult but it’s the dream and I’m just going to put in the hard work and the elbow grease learning everything I possibly can about the book publishing businesses,” Randol said. He also hopes that the publishing industry in the borough expands and that he can eventually pass down the company to a younger generation of publishers. Randol even named the company to reflect this hope. The idiom “take up the mantle” means to pass responsibility from a mentor to a student. “I take great pride in being based in Queens,” he said. “For me and for writers and the community, we see great potential in what can happen in Queens. There just needs to be a breakthrough moment in the literary community. I think maybe in the next 10 years we’ll see some of the momentum shift.” QUEENS’ ONLY INDIE BOOK PUBLISHER IN ASTORIA
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