Chicago is truly one of the great cities of the world, full of beautiful architecture, thriving businesses, and fabulous culture—and more than 125 publishers of books, magazines, newspapers, and other media.
Although Chicago is home to branch offices of some of the country’s largest publishers, including McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Random House, our fine city also is home to scores of smaller, independent presses. Some of these smaller houses have been around for decades, while some are newer entries. Many specialize in topics related to Chicago or the Midwest. Some focus on publishing authors who are based in the area. But regardless of their tenure, each of these Chicago-based publishers features unique books covering a variety of timely subjects written by interesting authors.
Over the past few months, Chicago Publishing Network has featured CPN Profiles of publishing professionals located in the area. This month, we launch a new feature: the CPN Publisher Profile. We are proud to feature brief e-interviews from some of Chicago’s local publishers, and we encourage you to investigate their offerings. With literally hundreds of thousands of new books published every year, it can be a challenge to weed through all the new titles. We hope that the brief introductions to some of Chicago’s local publishers will spark—or reignite—interest in reading the works of your local publishing brethren.
First up: Chicago Review Press. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll also be featuring Ivan R. Dee, Lake Claremont Press, and others (in no particular order, although vaguely alphabetical at least at the beginning here). (If you’d like us to feature your house, please contact us at cpn @ bibliobibuli.com.)
CPN Publisher Profile: Chicago Review Press
Publisher Cynthia Sherry shared this information about Chicago Review Press, one of Chicago’s thriving independent publishers.
1. Tell us about your publishing house. What are its origins?
Co-owner Linda Matthews tells the best birth story of the company, but the short version is that the company was started back in 1973 by Curt Matthews when he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago and an editor at the Chicago Review (hence the name Chicago Review Press). Curt would come across things that were too long for the journal to publish, so he started publishing them on his own out of his garage. At one point Curt and Linda owned a bookstore and ran the publishing company out of a funeral parlor. They published one of the earliest graphic novels and a book called Home Invaders that was made into the movie The Thief starring James Caan. Three decades and many successes later, the company has grown to include one of the largest book distributors in the country, Independent Publishers Group (IPG). Linda recently took a hiatus to write the book Middling Folk, just published by Chicago Review Press, and Curt is still involved with the daily running of the company. I have been here for the past twenty years and still love it. It’s a dynamic company that is not afraid to take chances on new authors and controversial topics.
2. What are some of your best-selling titles?
Backyard Ballistics, Assata: An Autobiography, My Bloody Life, Outwitting Squirrels, Mole People.
3. How many books do you publish annually? 50-60 titles. How many books per imprint? That changes every season, but generally about 20 Lawrence Hill titles and 30 to 40 Chicago Review Press titles. Is there a magic number? I wish. I try to shoot for 60 new titles a year, but publishing is so unpredictable.
4. How has digital media affected your publishing program?
Producing e-books has kept us on our toes for the past two years. By the end of 2009, we will have our entire backlist of approximately 300 books available in all the various e-book formats. As anyone who has done this knows, it’s time consuming. It’s also chaotic as far as formats and pricing go. I find the whole digital revolution in publishing both exciting and scary. I’m excited about the potential to increase readership overall, particularly among young people, and to provide accessibility to the market for specialized titles. It’s a new revenue stream that’s helping us keep titles “in print” longer (we’re going to have to come up with a new phrase for that). I have also been pleasantly surprised by how many e-books our distributor IPG has been able to sell. We sold nearly 1,000 e-books each for Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure and Family Secrets at the same time the hard covers were released, and it didn’t seem to hurt the hardcover sales in the least. That’s great news for the future. The scary part is the uncertainty about where the market for e-books is headed and whether or not authors and publishers will be fairly compensated for their books and content regardless of the format. I think behemoths like Amazon and Google undervalue the editorial, marketing, and authorial work that goes into producing e-books and the price pressure could be devastating for the book industry.
5. How has publishing changed over the past five years? What changes do you foresee in the next five years?
Five years ago we were straddling the fence between hard-copy and electronic ways of doing business, and now everything is electronic, from how we receive manuscripts and artwork to how we edit and typeset books. We used to ask copyeditors if they wanted to track changes in a Word file or mark up a print-out, but that just isn’t a question anymore. We trust in e-mail much more than we used to, and I think this has changed the relationship side of the business as well.
I hope things stabilize in the next five years and that the economic climate will become more favorable to authors and publishers. This last year has been a rollercoaster ride with newspapers and magazines going under, book review coverage being cut everywhere, independent bookstores struggling to compete with mega merchants, and even a mega merchant on the ropes. We need to drive more costs out of the business and encourage kids to read more books.
6. How would you characterize Chicago’s publishing world?
The publishing world here is small and disconnected, but welcoming. There is a lot of really interesting stuff being published in Chicago that flies under the radar of the New York houses. We have some great independent bookstores, independent publishers, and world-class writers. I am always happy to meet other publishing people at events and always am surprised by the chances they are taking and the way they are thinking about publishing.
7. What is unique about operating out of Chicago (as opposed to New York or other publishing hubs)?
It’s cheaper to live here. I like the Midwest sensibility: it’s more down-to-earth and honest, and we tend to favor substance over trends. I especially like all the interesting word nerds you find in this city.
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In other news, Saturday, November 7 is National Bookstore Day, a new initiative brought to us by Publisher’s Weekly. This is the first year for this event, which is designed to celebrate bookstores and bookselling. With every bookstore closing, we lose a little something: a bit of culture, a favorite neighborhood spot, access to unique titles. Chicago is in no way immune to the vanishing bookstore, with several in the city and suburbs closing during the past few months.
So far, about 100 bookstores across the country will be participating in National Bookstore Day, and the number continues to grow. Chicago-area venues include Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore in Forest Park. Consider stopping by Centuries & Sleuths and/or your favorite local bookstore to celebrate (and buy!) books.
