Cirrus@Austlit

Twelfth Planet Press is an Australian independent publishing company, established in the Perth suburb of Yokine in 2006 by Alisa Krasnostein. Its aim is to foster, develop, and promote innovative and quality speculative-fiction writing. By 2011, the press had published anthologies, short-story collections, and a novella series.

The idea for Twelfth Planet came about after Krasnostein had spent some time associated with the Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (ASIM). In a 2010 interview with Charles Tan, she records that her experiences with ASIM taught her not only how to slush read but also how to run a magazine. She notes that her decision to concentrate more heavily on novellas arose from a combination of economic and creative factors, notably the lower cost of production (and hence lower cost price) and the ability to take greater risks with what the press chose to buy and publish. Krasnostein also suggests that 'for writers it offers a next step, in a way, between the short story and the novel' (Tan, n.pag.).

Another option has been to go back to the Ace Doubles format, presenting two novelettes in the one publication. Krasnostein's reasoning is that the novelette is a tough form for publishers, because it takes up too much space in an anthology but is too short to be a stand-alone volume. The press has also been offering some of its publications in digital form through the ebook publishing and distribution platform Smashwords.

In 2007, Twelfth Planet Press launched the free youth-orientated online webzine Shiny as a means of both experimenting with the webzine form and hopefully carving out an audience for YA short stories. Twelfth Planet announced in 2009, however, that the sixth issue would be the last, citing an increase in planned publications for the 2010 and 2011 schedules as its reason for letting Shiny go.

Among the authors published by Twelfth Planet are Tansy Rayner Roberts, Thoraiya Dyer, Peter M. Ball, Dirk Flinthart, Robert Shearman, Sue Isle, and Lucy Sussex (qq.v.).

Since 2006, Twelfth Planet's authors and publications have won or been shortlisted for several prestigious Australian and international awards, including Thoraiya Dyer's Yowie (joint winner of the 2010 Aurealis Fantasy Short Story Award), Robert Shearman's Roadkill (shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella), and Tansy Rayner Roberts's Siren Beat (winner of the Washington Science Fiction Awards for Best Small Press Short Story). Siren Beat was also a finalist in the 2010 Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Speculative Fiction, Fantasy Division, and was shortlisted for both the 2010 Aurealis Best Fantasy Short Story and the 2010 Ditmar Best Novella/Novelette.