I generally call my little endeavour a 'micro-press' as it uses printed b/w card covers and hand-stapled and taped binding. However I was wondering if this is sufficiently legit as an approach to...say list it here... should I generally consider my 'zine 'small press'? What are defining features?

That's a good question -- in the past , I have called some of my projects micropresses, because of their size -- i.e. small runs, chapbook projects, et al. Jesse and I (with Ahadada Books) use the term "small press" because we tend to produce books with spines (although that's not always the case -- i.e. our online chapbooks). Also, we've talked about producing projects that run outside of our traditional perfect bound run.

Jay Millar's BookThug has a discussion that relates to this somewhat. Click here for that.

What could be called a micropress is debatable I suppose. Could the term "small press" act as an umbrella term for all indpendent projects?

Dick Higgins (who passed away almost ten years ago) pointed out that a small press differs from a small independent publisher in that it usually follows the editorial vision of its founder and is a way of achieving that founder's vision of some kind.

It does not attempt, as a small independent publisher would, to publish the best manu_script_s which come its way in order to make a profit.

Rather it publishes the most appropriate works for the achievement of the vision of the editor in order to bring that vision to the public yet, hopefully, to make at least enough profit to cover one's losses.

Higgins wrote that "Small presses are the research and creative part of the larger world of publishing, and that is why the public as a whole needs them. Otherwise the whole field of our culture can only stagnate."

Pretty cool.

Practically speaking, many independent presses may also qualify as small presses. The difference is that the "raison d'etre" for independent publishers is not their small size but the types of books they publish and their cultural and financial point-of-view. Other independent publishers may be larger in size, and not considered to be a small press at all.

Sorry to bump this, but I prefer "independent"—but don't mind "small press".

"Small" carries an inherently pejorative sense, and though most small presses are indeed that, others are ill-served by the term.

It is true small presses are independent, but a press can be independent and large.

An independent press is just a company which does not belong to another company or corporation. Most of the commercial presses, large or medium, may appear to be independent publishers, but are actually owned by one of the giant corporations which have bought out many of the publishing houses over the years.