The Future of Publishing? Know Your Publisher, vol. VI: Red Lemonade

Before I dig in to this post, I must leave (yet another) a reminder that IB is moving to a new site starting March 5. We will no longer be posting here at our WordPress.com blog. If you want to stay subscribed and keep receiving content from our blog, please hop over to the new site (which is already up!) and subscribe in the sidebar or update your RSS feeds! Thank you!

Publisher: Red Lemonade

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Founded: 2011 by Richard Nash of Soft Skull Press

Distributor: Publishers Group West

Notable Authors/Works: Zazen by Vanessa Veselka; Lynne Tillman; Follow Me Down by Kio Stark

Open Submissions: Absolutely, sort of. More about this when you read on.

Kindle/e-reader available: Yes

Publishes Periodicals/Quarterlies: No

General Information: Today’s Know Your Publisher edition includes an interview. This is the first interview I have conducted for IB, and I don’t think I could have picked a better first interview topic than Red Lemonade, a press that some have called the future of publishing.

Red Lemonade is the product of Cursor, which is the brainchild of Richard Nash. Cursor provides a platform that approaches publishing in a new way–what has come to be known as crowdsourcing, a user-driven application where large groups of people are called to participate in achieving an end result. Red Lemonade does not just have a website where you go and buy the books they have to offer; the website hosts a writing community, where writers and readers alike participate in creation. A writer uploads a work, and other community members comment on the work, offering praise and criticism both; the works that get the most positive buzz over time have the best potential to be tapped for publication. The idea behind Cursor seems to be to create different presses with differently-themed communities, all powered by one platform; Red Lemonade leans toward “edgier, adult literary fiction”, but another Cursor-powered press may deal with science fiction, or even more specific topics.

I interviewed Brian McFarland, the community manager at Red Lemonade.

Susie: Some people perceive writers as being a bit . . . sensitive . . . about their work. How has the experience been with exchanging feedback between readers and writers?

Brian: It is an ongoing point of discussion, a fascinating type of writing workshop, a new way to experience literature and a bit of a conundrum (in a riddle, in an enigma) all in one. Feedback and suggestions are often perceptive and the writer can respond, make changes, or explanations.  Works that get more comments ‘bubble up’, so to speak, and it’s great that there is a focused community that is part of the review process.  On the Red Lemonade site, you can select a specific line or word, highlight it and then comment on specific parts of the text, which is really cool and interesting to follow.

Susie: I noticed when I went to look at Zazen that the online copy had a ton of annotations. I think I could have spent the whole day reading them if I’d had time.

Brian: Indeed. The work we are publishing in April, Matthew Battles’ Sovereignties of Invention, generated many responses as well.

Susie: Do the books remain available to read online after they’re tapped for publication?

Brian: Yes, you can read both books online for free at this very moment. And yet, people are tweeting, commenting, adding to reading list the Zazen physical book.

Susie: There’s an ebook controversy raging right now (what’s new, right?). What are your thoughts on ebooks?

Brian: There is so much focus on the means of delivery, and not enough on what is being delivered–the rough and tumble heartfelt and intellectual surprises that readers experience and writers love to create. That feeling you get when you talk to your best friend about your favorite authors, or someone suggests a new book to you, or you find a good author who loves another author and you follow that reading trail to worlds and words you never knew of before.

Susie: Does most of the editing happen organically through the community, or is there a separate, more thorough process that the work undergoes once you decide to publish it?

Brian: It’s a workshop not solely designed to be just a part of the selection process; it’s opening up the whole culture of the book. It’s Penn and Teller creating a plexiglass Chinese Box; the magic is still there but everyone is part of it, no need to climb the skyscrapers, so to speak. But yes, an editorial sense, vision, awareness of context and history with a certain approach to writing, that is part of the whole shebang, too. Readers contribute, writers talk to writers, the interns lend a hand, the editor has their say. The Hybrid Beasts submissions are this process going on right now and it’s exciting to see.

Molly Gaudry of the LitPub is our editor [for Hybrid Beasts]; it is her vision which helps define what works we are looking for and will contribute to the final selections and styles of the works.

Red Lemonade has a keen appreciation of language, words, the act of translations, other languages, dolphin speak. The whole culture of the word. Another aspect, and Zazen really touches on this, is a strong cultural awareness, battle reports from the field received long before they are received by sailing ship.

Susie: I don’t want to take up all of your time today ^_^ but I’d like to get any other  information that you wanted to share before I go. Any events coming up?

Brian: Richard Melo–whose novel Happy Talk will be published this summer–is going to hold an online class [tentatively in early summer], working as a writing facilitator/coach about approaches to writing a novel. The class will be five sessions of exploring writing approaches and methodologies. Another aspect of publishing that we see as part of our community.

//

Thank to Brian for having a chat with me about Red Lemonade. If you’re curious to find out more about what the crowdsourcing method of publishing looks like, pop on over to their website and sign up for a free account. Their library contains complete published and unpublished manuscripts to read for free; you can not only read the works, but join in on the conversation about them, highlighting and commenting on your favorite passages and talking to others who liked the same parts you like. (If you’re a writer, know that the site is still in Beta, and you must contact the publisher to be allowed to upload a work of your own.) Who knows? You could help publish a book!

You can also find out more about Richard Nash and Red Lemonade at The Next Best Book Blog.

What do you guys think? Is this the future of publishing? Are you guys interested in being part of the process, or would you rather stick to works that have already been through someone else’s wringer? Have you had personal experience using Red Lemonade? Let us know in the comments!

Know Your Publisher, Vol. V: New Directions

I’ve had this as a draft for about a zillion years (or a month, give or take) but have just now gotten around to delving into it. I had some time this morning before work and I thought, hey! It’s about time for another edition of Know Your Publisher, innit? Yes, yes it is. Today, I’m only doing one publisher, because it’s a very important publisher and I don’t want to distract you from all of its awesomeness.

Publisher: New Directions

Location: New York, NY

Founded: 1936 by James Laughlin

Distributor: W. W. Norton & Company

Notable Authors/Works: César Aira, Javier Marías, Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Bolaño, Vladimir Nabokov, Henry Miller–you know, there’s just a ton of ridiculously high-profile authors they have worked with, so I’m going to curtail this list and just say they have literary badassery oozing out of their pores.

Open Submissions: No; New Directions does not accept unsolicited manuscripts or queries.

Kindle/E-reader available: Not apparently. I looked at several books in their catalog, none had e-reader versions available. (Their website is also a bit unwieldy.)

Publishes Periodicals/Quarterlies: Not apparently, although they have in the past.

General information: New Directions was founded based on some advice that James Laughlin received from Ezra Pound, who told him to “do something useful” after graduating from Harvard rather than clinging to the hope that he would be a great poet (which Laughlin, apparently, was not). Laughlin translated that into a passion for experimental literature, which he would highlight in his anthologies, New Directions in Poetry and Prose. The anthology published early works by authors like Ezra Pound, Vladimir Nabokov, Tennessee Williams, Dylan Thomas, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Marianne Moore–many of the alumni of Laughlin’s annuals went on to be heavy hitters in the literary world, proving that he had a keen eye for spotting great talent and an ability to get it into the hands of readers.

New Directions has also long  been committed to bringing back worthy earlier publications, stories that Laughlin felt should be classics and that Laughlin was determined to restore to their rightful status. You may know one of those out-of-print classics that he resurrected: The Great Gatsby. Other classic works by authors such as Henry James, Evelyn Waugh, and E.M. Forster were republished by ND when no other publishers would do so. In 1993, ND launched the Bibelot line, which featured short but brilliant works from the “backlists” of authors such as Henry Miller, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams, along with reissues of short modern classics.

ND also has played a significant role in bringing translated work to America, something that I highlighted recently when I reviewed two New Directions works by Spanish language authors, César Aira and Javier Marías. (Did you notice that they were both published by New Directions?) Authors like Rilke, Kafka, Nabokov, Bolaño, Mishima, and a host of others, may not be as well known in America today without New Directions bringing their work to us.

New Directions publishes many small novels–they fit nicely in your purse–and some nice clothbound editions of their works. The designs of their covers are beautiful and often abstract, and never feature those weird stock images that you sometimes see on books (or multiple books, which is even worse). What irks me a little is the seeming lack of ebooks available from New Directions. I don’t personally read a lot of ebooks–in fact, I just finished my very first one the other night, and I have to say that it wasn’t a terrible experience at all–but their books are perfect for digital publication: they’re generally short, which I feel makes for a great ebook (I like to read longer books in paper), and they’re so interesting and experimental that I can see people taking a great interest in stocking up their Kindle or Nook with some reasonably-priced ebooks from New Directions. If the whole point is to get great literature into people’s hands when it wouldn’t otherwise get there, as seems to be the case, I’m disappointed that they seem to be shunning digital technology for the moment.

Update: I just saw that one of their upcoming publications is available in ebook format, so I guess they are moving toward this. Yay! Update the second: I started poking around and I found that even though they say you can purchase in e-format, this isn’t always the case. I had originally thought it was because the ebook wasn’t up yet, since the book I had been looking at was new, but a publication from 2010 returned the same result: click the link, nothing comes up in search, search directly on Amazon or B&N and the digital edition is nowhere to be found. ND, update your website!

I also think their website is kind of terrible. It looks nice, but the functionality should be reconsidered, especially when it comes to selling their books. You have to click a button to see the purchasing options, which creates a popup, which takes you not to the actual pages where the book exists on Amazon or wherever, but to a search for said book. Meh. There’s no reason to hide this behind a popup, and there’s also no reason not to put in direct links. (BTW–does anybody know, if one were to launch a product line on Amazon or a similar seller, such as ND books has their books on the site, and then one linked to them from their site, if one could still use Amazon Associates to get an extra little percentage for the advertising? If one could, then it’s even more unfortunate not to link directly there.)

Overall, this publisher is a literary gem. And not a crappy gem, like unpolished agate, but a nice one, like a diamond. If you’re interested in exciting new literature, New Directions is a publisher to keep a close eye on.

Know Your Publisher, IV: Coffee House Press + Dzanc

It’s been a minute since we explored the action-packed world of indie publishing. Today, I bring you two new offerings: Coffee House Press and Dzanc Books.

Publisher: Coffee House Press

Location: Minneapolis, MN (inside of an historic brewery, score!)

Founded: 1984 by Allan Kornblum, who was succeeded by Chris Fischbach

Distributor: Consortium Books

Notable Authors/Works: Donald Duk by Frank Chin, Through the Arc of the Rainforest by Karen Tei Yamashita, Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage, Somewhere Else by Matthew Shinoda, The Ocean in the Closet by Yuko Taniguchi

Open Submissions: Yes, although not for poetry. Coffee House Press accepts submissions only during their open reading times, March 1 – April 30 and September 1 – October 31; works submitted otherwise will not be considered or returned, so mark your calendars. CHP also doesn’t publish genre fiction, only literary fiction.

Kindle/E-reader available: Yes, although not on their own website. Available on both Amazon and B&N as ebooks.

Publishes Periodicals/Quarterlies: No

General information: We chose Coffee House Press for this post because we actually read a book that they published, The Cry of the Sloth by Sam Savage. CHP is a non-profit press that has its roots in the 1970 mimeograph magazine Toothpaste, founded by Allan Kornblum. This magazine was apparently about books, rather than dental hygiene; Toothpaste became Toothpaste Press, which published letterpress books and poetry for ten years before Kornblum closed the doors and headed for Minneapolis. Along the way, Kornblum realized that Toothpaste was kind of a silly name for a serious publisher. He rechristened it Coffee House Press and made it a non-profit publishing house when he started over the next year. Kornblum stepped down in 2011 as Publisher, and is now the senior editor–the really senior editor (rimshot!).

I did a search on Allan Kornblum to find any interesting tidbits. The first article that popped up was this one, which was exciting; it talked about how Kornblum helped to shape F.B.I. surveillance policies in the 70′s, helped convict a murderer with witness testimony, and . . .  oh. Died in 2010. Wrong Kornblum. Who would have thought that Allan Kornblum would be such a common name?

The Kornblum of our story learned his publishing techniques under Harry Duncan, who had published first editions of the works of William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens, and possibly published the first book by Robert Lowell. In the interview where he talked about his publishing origins, Kornblum revealed that he is a bit of a publishing geek, discussing the history of writing and publishing; he also gave a hopeful prognosis to the future of publishing, stating that electronic publishing will–he hopes–force publishers to improve. I enjoy that perspective; it’s a bit fresher than the usual gloom-and-doom predictions that publishing is going straight down the toilet.

Some of the things that I like about Coffee House Press: their trade paperbacks are very reasonably priced for a small operation (as are the electronic editions), which must be thanks to their NPO status; they seem to have a diverse mix of authors, which I appreciate; their website, while not flashy, is soundly designed and doesn’t make my eyes bleed; and, most importantly, the book that I have read from them so far, I really liked. I found Sam Savage to be a very talented individual, which makes me feel more confident purchasing from their press in the future.

Publisher: Dzanc Books

Location: Westland, MI

Founded: 2006 by Dan Wickett and Steven Gillis

Distributor: Consortium Books

Notable Authors/Works: All Over by Roy Kesey, In a Bear’s Eye by Yannick Murphy, Terese Svoboda, Allison Amend, Jeff Parker, Peter Selgin

Open Submissions: Yes, for literary fiction, both novels and story collections. There are also writing contests.

Kindle/E-reader: Yes. In fact, you get a free e-book copy of every print book you purchase through their website (unless it is one of the few that doesn’t come in electronic format). And they have an eBook Club!

Publishes periodicals/quarterlies: Yes, The Collagist, which is a free online literary magazine, along with Absinthe and Monkeybicycle.

General information:

Wow! Can I just say that I’m already impressed with Dzanc and the features that they offer? This is a publishing house that seems to understand the modern needs of both readers and writers; they not only offer their books in multiple formats for one price, but they host online writing workshops, a writers-in-residence program, an international literary program in Portugal, and have several literary imprints–pretty impressive for a publishing house that is so new to the scene.

The seeds for Dzanc were planted when one of its founders, Dan Wickett, decided to e-mail ’round a review he had written about the book Keeneland. He began e-mailing book reviews regularly, amassing followers who would take his book recommendations and ask for more. “That was foolish on their part,” he said in an interview with Poets and Writers magazine. (And oh, how that self-deprecating humor warmed me to him immediately.) His mailing list snowballed, and he eventually started a website, the Emerging Writers Network. Meanwhile, his future publishing partner, Steven Gillis, was practicing law but yearning to be a writer. Eventually, Gillis said, in his words, “Fuck law”–he was going to live off of a nest egg he’d been building up and try writing. He published a book in 2003, Walter Falls. He also brought–and fully funded–a branch of the San Francisco writing center 826 Valencia to Michigan.

When the pair met in 2005, their chemistry just worked. And Dzanc was created out of the projects they had been working on up to that point.

Dzanc is a nonprofit publisher; Gillis and Wickett both believe in doing good for others, and they do a lot of charitable work. The pair also fully believes in championing good writers, something that I think all of us book-lovers can get behind in an age of too many publishers choosing what is marketable too often over what is truly outstanding writing. They have managed to thrive in hard economic times by spending responsibly; they work from home, not wanting to waste valuable capital on an office. “Authors don’t care,” said Gillis. “We’re not trying to impress anybody.”

Dzanc remains selective in what they publish, only putting out a handful of books a year. This number varies, because the publishers determine their number based on the number of books they enjoyed. Said Gillis, “If we like a book, we want it. We’ll worry about how to sell it later.” Not only are they selective in their publishing, but they’re selective in other people’s publishing; Publishers Weekly posted a story in which the fellas from Dzanc criticized the “20 Under 40″ list of literary fiction writers that the New Yorker put out in 2010. They produced their own list of literary fiction writers to counter the list from the New Yorker, which they claimed was too New York-centric in an age where small, independent publishers are popping up all across the nation. I both agree with them on this point, and also admire their massive cojones.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Dzanc has to offer. Has anybody read books from one of these publishers, or done any business with them? Let us know in the comments!

Know Your Publisher, Vol. III: Quirky Presses

Today has been a day of finding presses that are a bit out of the ordinary–for better or for worse. I’m doing more than two today, so I’ll jump right in without further ado.

Publisher: Soft Skull Press

Location: Berkeley, CA.

Founded: 1992 by Sander Hicks

Imprint of Counterpoint Press LLC

Notable Authors/Works: Fortunate Son by James Hatfield; Jameston by Matthew Sharpe; Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet; African Psycho by Alain Mabanckou; Choir Boy by Charlie Anders; Hos, Hookers, Call Girls and Rent Boys, an anthology; Rajiv Joseph (a Pulitzer finalist in drama)

Open Submissions: Yes. For fiction, a cover letter and completed manuscript are required; for non-fiction, a cover letter, a full proposal, and three completed chapters are required.

Kindle/E-Reader available: Yes

Publishes Periodicals/Quarterlies: No

General information: I clicked over to Soft Skull because, wtf — “soft skull”? While I’m sure some would be put off by a name like that, to me it indicated a sense of humor, and a sense of humor is a very good place to start. Soft Skull was founded by Sander Hicks, a politically-charged writer and lead singer of the art-punk band White Collar Crime.  The backstory of this press is intentionally murky–instead of writing a definitive “about” section, they offer this:

“The history of Soft Skull is long and twisty, spotted with loveable zealots, underground literati, noble scofflaws, financial bullet-dodging, and indie-lit soldiers fighting the good fight. Someday, we’ll tell you the whole shameless story, and you’ll shake your head with a respectful whoa dude. If you can’t wait, you’ll just have to come visit us in Berkeley. We’ll buy you a drink and spill the secrets of our sordid literary past.” (from SoftSkull.com)

Which led to this:

@softskull While I appreciate your edgy lack of backstory, it makes it a bit difficult to feature you in my publisher series —
Insatiable Booksluts (@thebooksluts) November 12, 2011

One must appreciate Twitter.

Soft Skull seems to publish a little bit of everything as far as genre goes (fiction, non-fiction on a variety of topics, drama, poetry), and yet, their overall vision is strong. Their books tend toward the controversial and provocative, and from what I’ve seen, progressive (and possibly a bit radical).  The authors’ bios read like profiles of people that you’d really like to meet at a party.  I’d like to read books from this press and then put them out on my coffee table so I can look cool.  It’s that kind of publisher.

And they used the word “fucking” in a book description, which I can always get behind.

Check out their blog, too. Sometimes they let you download free e-books from Amazon, an excellent way to dip your toe into a new publisher. (Also? Props to them, because their website doesn’t look like shit, which means they give a damn.)

Publisher: Gival Press

Located: Arlington, VA.

Founded: 1998

Notable Authors/Works: Dreams and Other Ailments by Teresa Bevin; The Smoke Week: Sept. 11-21, 2001 by Ellis Avery; The Spanish Teacher by Barbara de la Cuesta; Second Acts by Tim W. Brown

Open Submissions: No, submissions are suspended at this time; publication by winning one of their contests appears still to be feasible.

Kindle/E-reader available: Yes

Publishes periodicals/quarterlies: Yes, ArLiJo (Arlington Literary Journal) is produced by Gival Press

General information: Let me just start off by saying that I do not understand this publisher at all.  Their website could use a lot of work (if you’re reading this Gival Press? Contact me, I can do better than what you have and I’ll work cheap) and it’s confusing to navigate.  They are a multi-lingual, multicultural press that seems to be fairly progressive (they have won awards for publishing lesbian poetry, even)–but then, I ran across this page, a conservative-based compilation of the most “harmful” books of the 19th and 20th centuries (stuff like The Communist Manifesto and The Feminine Mystique can be found on this list), without any editorial or explanation as to whether they agree or disagree with the list. Massive confusion by yours truly.

But, their seeming lack of organizational skills doesn’t mean that their books aren’t worthwhile . . .  even if they are a bit scant in awards that don’t come from ForeWord Magazine. They publish in English, French, and Spanish, which can make for some interesting reading; they also publish a lot of LGBT-related books, it looks like.  (If only they would work on their cover art . . . again, GP, contact me for help. I am no novice when it comes to Photoshop. Check out our snazzy site graphics!)  Honestly, I can’t figure out what to make of this press.  If you have read anything from this press, or if you do in the future, drop it in the comments and let me know how it went.

Publisher: Fiction Collective Two (FC2)

Location: Tuscaloosa, AL (and all over the place, apparently, but they utilize the University of Alabama Press)

Founded: 1974 as the Fiction Collective, “by a group of avant-garde writers”; current incarnation founded 1989

Notable Books/Authors: The Blue Guide to Indiana by Michael Martone; The Kafka Chronicles by Mark Amerika; Revelation Countdown by Cris Mazza; Hogg by Samuel Delaney

Open Submissions: No, although they are still responding to queries; hopefuls are invited to enter their contests for a chance at publication.

Kindle/E-reader format available: For some titles, yes

Publishes periodicals/quarterlies: No

General information: FC2 is a publishing cooperative, where authors become members rather than clients. Their publishing is handled through three different universities (Alabama, Utah, and Houston-Victoria). FC2 describes themselves in their mission statement:

Fiction Collective Two is among the few alternative presses in America devoted to publishing fiction considered by America’s largest publishers too challenging, innovative, or heterodox for the commercial milieu.

If this statement is totally true, I kind of love them already.  And I love this story that is included in their long bio on their website:

I went around with Spielberg (and sometimes with Mark Mirsky and Jerome Charyn) interviewing potential distributors. The head of one distinguished publishing house, initially interested in the possibility of distributing our books, woke up one morning (so it was reported to us) furious at the idea of the Fiction Collective. “Who do they think they are?” he said, or was reported to have said. “We publish all the good fiction that comes our way. There isn’t any worthy fiction not getting published.” It was an attitude we would encounter, directly and obliquely, again and again.

Yes, yes, I’m sure all the good fiction is being published. Forever.

Their titles look compelling at first glance, a catalog that Publishers Weekly describes as having “uncompromising adventurousness.” FC2 hosts two annual innovative fiction contests that result in publication and prize money, and the authors who are already members submit between 3-12 books for publication annually, contributing to a small but steady stream of new work.  Their books have been nominated for awards that are, while not a Pulitzer or a Nobel, serious-seeming enough, and they’ve gotten mentions in the Nation, The New York Times Book Review, and the Village Voice.  Not bad for a press that started in someone’s apartment 37 years ago.

Publisher: Feral House

Location: Port Townsend, WA

Founded: 1989 by Adam Parfrey

Notable Authors/Works: Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr.; American Hardcore: A Tribal History by Steven Blush; Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, a.k.a. “The Unabomber”

Open Submissions: Sort of. Non-fiction only. “… if a personal obsession has caused you to investigate a fascinating piece of history or cultural phenomenon, we’d be interested to hear about it. Email a profile of your project, its intended audience, a table of contents and sample chapter…”

Kindle/E-reader Available: Yes (not sure if all books)

Publishes periodicals/quarterlies: No

General information: From an article in Seattle Weekly:

“I want people to question things—that not everything is in The New York Times, which, as they say, is ‘All the news that’s fit to print.’ I wanted to include the unfit,” Parfrey says with a mischievous grin.

That certainly caught my attention.  As did this, from their website:

Feral House has been publishing innovative and celebrated non-fiction books since 1989. Movies have been made, cultural trends influenced and political crimes exposed by our small, independent press.

Interest piqued. Well-played, Feral House.

Even the name of Feral House catches the eye; it speaks to wildness, something that we all have in varying degrees.  And in case you didn’t notice, they published work by the fucking Unabomber, and from what I can tell from the Seattle Weekly article, the Unabomber might not be the most twisted mind in the lot.  Feral House seems to be the circus sideshow of publishing, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. They’re dead-set against the sanitation and sterilization of the written word, scooping up all the talented misfits and proudly putting them out for display.  I’ve actually already linked them to someone, even before I published this post.  I plan to check out their titles when I’m in a non-fiction kind of mood.

Whew–four new publishers, four offbeat publishers, four hours (or more!) of researching this post. Do you have experience with any of these publishers? Plan to check out any titles in the future? Leave your comments below!

Know Your Publisher: Hawthorne Books + Other Press

Welcome to another edition of “Know Your Publisher”! [cue: brightly-lit applause sign, cheering, beautiful women strutting onstage in sequined dresses]  In this post, we’ll be exploring two more indie publishers: Hawthorne Books and Other Press.  Since someone mentioned in the comments of the last post that they are reading this from a writer’s perspective and not just a reader’s perspective, I am attempting to put in useful information for writers this time, as well. I may or may not (I did) go back and edit the first post about McSweeney’s with additional information, so you may want to pop back over and see if there’s anything new!

Publisher: Hawthorne Books

Location: Portland, OR.

Founded: 2001 by Rhonda Hughes and Kate Sage

Notable Authors/Works: Clown Girl by Monica Drake (Chuck Palahniuk’s 2008 book of the year, Playboy magazine, excerpt available here), 501 Minutes to Christ by Poe Ballantine (excerpt available here; I admit, I include this one only because I read and liked it, I’m not sure how famous it is for them, although they do seem to publish a lot of Ballantine’s work), A Very Minor Prophet by James Bernard Frost (available for pre-order Jan 2012, excerpt available here), Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead, the story of Frank Meeink as told to Jody M. Roy

Open submissions: No (agent required); will re-evaluate the open submission policy in fall 2012.

Kindle/E-reader available: Yes (through Amazon and possibly others)

Publishes periodicals/quarterlies: No

General information:  I picked out Hawthorne because I had actually read a book that they published–and own the book–and I really liked it.  Hawthorne specializes in both new literary fiction and non-fiction; the publisher also reissues award-winning books by living American writers that are currently out of print, complete with new introductions by “notable” writers.  (I didn’t recognize any of the notable writers, although it seems Chuck Palahniuk is a big cheerleader for this publisher that operates in his hometown.)

Information culled from an article in Publisher’s Weekly:

The company’s founders, Rhonda Hughes and Kate Sage, met several years ago in a medieval lit class at Portland State University, where they were both studying for their M.A.’s in English. They started the press and named it for their Portland, Ore., neighborhood.

The seed money for Hawthorne came from Sage’s small savings (she was a literary agent in New York before moving to Portland) and Hughes’s print brokering company, Print Vision, which she founded in 1992 and remains the “literary arts” part of Hawthorne. The press published its first book, September 11: West Coast Writers Approach Ground Zero, in time for the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The New York Times included the anthology, which contained essays by Alice Walker, T.C. Boyle, Ken Kesey and Maxine Hong Kingston, in a roundup of 9/11 books.

– “Hawthorne to Reissue Prize Winners” by Bridget Kinsella

Something I love about their website is that they have excerpts available for many of the books.  It looks like they are also on top of re-issuing books as needed/as demanded (I see a 2007 and a 2010 paper version of 501 Minutes to Christ on Amazon) and they take advantage of the “Look inside!” Amazon feature and Kindle format, so those who prefer digital editions can obtain Hawthorne books.

Overall, Hawthorne looks like a promising place to find a good book–especially since it seems like a good third of their books are by Poe Ballantine, for whom I can personally vouch.

Publisher: Other Press

Location: New York, NY

Founded: 1999 by Michael Moskowitz and Judith Gurewich

Notable Authors: Antoine Wilson, Lara Santoro, Tom Sancton, Christian Oster, Jeffrey Lewis.

Open Submissions: No unsolicited manuscripts accepted

Kindle/E-book: Some titles appear to be available electronically, both for Kindle and other e-book formats.

Publishes periodicals/quarterlies: No

General information:  I found this in one of their catalogues:

“Other Press publishes literature from America and around the world that represents writing at its best. We feel that the art of storytelling has become paramount today in challenging readers to see and think differently. We know that good stories are rare to come by: they should retain the emotional charge of the best classics while speaking to us about what matters at present, without complacency or self-indulgence. Our list is tailored and selective, and includes everything from top-shelf literary fiction to cutting-edge nonfiction— political, social, or cultural—as well as a small collection of groundbreaking professional titles. — Judith Gurewich, Publisher

Although Other Press started life as a publisher that was devoted to psychoanalytic texts (which is what happens when two psychoanalysts get together and start a publishing house), by 2002, Gurewich wanted to expand the press to a larger readership base.  After hiring a ton of people from Random House’s layoffs, Other Press “re-engineered” the company, closing the associated bookstores and web retail site and optimizing it to focus on publishing only.  (Although you totally can still buy books on their website.  But I guess that’s different.)

More from Publisher’s Weekly:

“Gurewich’s background is different from most U.S. publishers, including that, for her, English is a second language. Born in Canada and reared in Belgium, Gurewich holds a degree in law from Belgium as well as a master’s of law from Columbia University and a doctorate in sociology from Brandeis University. A Lacanian analyst who still sees patients 10 hours a week, Gurewich says, ‘I can’t give up my practice. This is where I learn the work it takes to get to the truth.’ She taught a popular seminar on Lacan at Harvard University for a dozen years before starting the Other Press with analyst Michael Moskowitz, who has since left. Originally established to publish professional analytical titles, Other Press has since moved to a mostly trade focus, releasing fiction and narrative nonfiction.

‘Judith has the great advantage of being an outsider. As a publisher, she’s completely an autodidact and does it in her own way,’ comments [Michael] Greenberg …  Other writers, like Sheila Kohler, who published four novels with Other Press, praise Gurewich’s generosity and enthusiasm. She often invites her writers to stay at her home in Cambridge, Mass., and works closely with them on the editing of their book.

‘Judith comes from Europe, the way a lot of the best publishers in the 1930s and ’40s did,’ says Zachary. ‘Other Press reminds me of what it must have been like in the early days of publishing. They spend a lot of time on editing, on the cover and on the marketing of each book.’

Gurewich is equally unstinting of her time and uncompromising in selecting the 25 books the press publishes annually. ‘I refuse to cater to the unreflective side of the reader,’ she says. ‘I’m not interested in what will sell. What I ask from writers is that they push themselves to the limit. It may seem obvious, yet so many writers forget that to produce a meaningful piece of writing cannot go without passion or pain. If there’s anything left from my skill as an analyst, it has to be this: writing a book is giving a pound of flesh.’ ”  “Change Maker: Judith Feher Gurewich” by Judith Rosen

Other Press appears to be an interesting place to shop around for literary fiction, especially if you enjoy works in translation, of which they have published at least 65 titles (there are 65 titles on the list, anyway).  There’s a special section for Jewish Interest titles, which, despite not being Jewish myself, piques my interest.  In fact, I already see several titles that I want to read (and I just know they won’t be at my local library, ugh–oh wait, they do have some of the titles at the library. Huzzah!).  If you’re a reader looking for interesting new fiction, or a writer (with an agent) looking for a unique publishing experience, Other Press could be a great candidate.

Have you read books from either of these two publishers? Have a favorite publisher you’d like to see in this series? Leave it in the comments below! As always, I will be adding these links to the sidebar so that they can be accessed any time you visit the blog.