Bay Area Spotlight

BAY AREA SPOTLIGHT
A look at publishers, bookstores,
libraries, startups, and the literary
life in one of the country’s most
vibrant book regions

P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY . C O M

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Bay Area Spotlight

Something for Quite
Literally Everybody
From self-help to spirituality and anarchism to feminism,
Bay Area publishers’ interests run the gamut

C

alifornia embodies the spirit
of the West, a place where
reinvention is possible, so
it is no surprise that many
independent publishers call
the Bay Area home. In that
same spirit, as the publishing landscape
changes, companies have adopted a variety
of techniques to keep up with the
shifting scene.
One major factor that allows many
independent publishers to remain in
business in the Bay Area is nonprofit
status. For example, being a nonprofit
allows Parallax Press to keep “compassion” as its bottom line. “We are a very
financially successful publisher and we
do this while ensuring that we are amplifying new and often marginalized voices,
that all our books are available free to
people who are incarcerated, and available in all formats to those who need
them,” says publisher Rachel Neumann.
To keep costs under control, Parallax
has its offices in the East Bay instead of
waging war with San Francisco’s skyhigh rents.
In October 2014, the iconic San
Francisco–based indie publisher
McSweeney’s, founded by author Dave
Eggers, announced that it is becoming a
nonprofit. According to the publisher’s
website, the move will allow McSweeney’s
to “sustain itself for many years to come,
with the help of an expanded community of donors, writers, and readers.”

By Anisse Gross
Executive editor Jordan Bass says
McSweeney’s wants to be “a great home
for writers, and a place for readers to
come to for new and ambitious and
hard-to-pigeonhole work—the business
model, and the move toward nonprofit
operation, are a means toward that
end.” In addition to the nonprofit shift,
McSweeney’s launched a successful
Kickstarter campaign in May to help
support the press.
Crowdfunding has also helped San
Francisco’s Last Gasp, a publisher and
distributor of comics and art books.
Colin Turner, associate publisher and
son of Last Gasp founder Ron Turner,
says that crowdfunding is a “great way
to connect with fans.” Last Gasp’s
Kickstarter campaign, which ended in
October, exceeded its goal of $75,000,
with 1,229 backers pledging $83,762.
While Last Gasp says it’s scaling down
slightly, publishing a few less titles
this year, the successful Kickstarter
has helped to keep it in the publishing game.
Last Gasp is one of a number of
indie presses that have been in the
Bay Area for quite some time.
Take Berkeley-based
Heyday Books,
founded by
Malcolm
Margolin in
1974, during
part of what he calls

“an explosion of small press activity in
the Bay Area.” Heyday celebrated its
40th anniversary in 2014, and Margolin
says sales in the first five months of 2015
increased substantially over the same
period in 2014, adding that “for the
first time in our entire history we seem
to be getting through the spring without
a major, sleep-disrupting cash-flow
crisis.” One change that has helped
boost sales is a more aggressive use of
consignment sales arrangements, which
Margolin believes provides booksellers
and other outlets a low-risk option to
stock Heyday titles. Heyday has also
recently opened an office in Los Angeles,
Heyday South. With Heyday in a good
financial spot, Margolin says he’ll be
stepping back from—but not out of—
Heyday’s day-to-day operations by the
end of the year, and the press is currently
searching for a successor.
Another mainstay is City Lights
Publishers, which celebrates its
60th anniversary this year.
Executive director and
publisher Elaine
Katzenberger says the
company owes its longevity to the lasting
political ideals that
founder Lawrence
Ferlinghetti put
in place when
opening the bookstore and launching its
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

1

Bay Area Spotlight
publishing arm. “It was a utopian and
democratizing project, grounded in a
firm belief in the power of creativity to
inspire and influence social change,”
Katzenberger says.
In its 60th year, City Lights has published its first-ever children’s title, Rad
American Women A–Z: Rebels, Trailblazers,
and Visionaries Who Shaped Our History...
and Our Future!, written
by Kate Schatz and illustrated by Miriam Klein
Stahl. The feminist book
highlights 26 women
who have helped shape
contemporary American
culture. City Lights v-p
Stacey Lewis calls the book
“an immediate success,”
hitting the #5 spot on the
New York Times bestseller
list within two months of
first going to print—and revealing that
the old publisher is full of fresh ideas.

Following the Trends
Because the Bay Area is also home to
Silicon Valley and its digital ways,
publishers are trying out innovations
to stay on top of changing consumer
needs. Seal Press, a Berkeley-based
imprint of the Perseus Books Group,
is “interested in cultural trends and
how they affect the lives of women,”
says associate publisher Donna Galassi.
She cites the movement surrounding
body acceptance, highlighting the title
Gorge: My Journey up Kilimanjaro at
300 Pounds, a memoir that “challenges
the limits women place on themselves.”
When the press spotted a trend in the
hashtag #wycwyc, they decided to
publish What You Can When You Can,
a book to accompany the online fitness
and health movement. Currently the
press is focused on building the “Seal
community” with a new mobile-friendly
website and increased social media
presence.
Viz Media, which specializes in manga
novels, animation, and licensing Japanese
entertainment content for Englishlanguage audiences, has held steady in
2

terms of product releases and staffing
while watching revenue increase,
according to Leyla Aker, senior v-p of
publishing at Viz. Viz’s major properties include Pokémon, The Legend of
Zelda, and Naruto. “In the past year
we’ve launched several new digital publishing initiatives,” Aker says, “including
exclusive manga serials in our Weekly
Shonen Jump online magazine, and digital-first and/
or digital-only graphic
novel releases via our own
apps and all major e-book
retailers.”
Berrett-Koehler, publisher of progressive books
and other resources on
current affairs, personal
growth, and business and
management, is launching
three new initiatives this
year, according to president and publisher Steven Piersanti. The first is
BKpedia, a new digital subscription
service that offers curated collections
of digital content. The second is BK
Expert Directory, a service that helps
people find and engage experts and
consultants with expertise in a variety
of fields. And, lastly, BK will bring
about its first digital audiobook program, where all BK books will be
simultaneously published in audiobook format.
Piersanti says the proximity to Silicon
Valley has “facilitated our having connections to many tech companies and
having many of their executives visit
our offices.” He notes that when Apple
launched the iPad and iBooks Store,
BK was one of seven publishers in the
world whose books were available on
those platforms on day one.

Getting Spiritual
As mindfulness goes mainstream, spirituality is no longer a marginal category.
Publishers across the country both big
and small are taking spirituality seriously. The increased expansion into
various alternative categories, spirituality among them, has long been a

P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

staple of several Bay Area publishers.
Psychologist Matthew McKay and
writer Patrick Fanning founded
Oakland-based New Harbinger
Publications in 1973 with the idea of
pioneering a new kind of self-help book.
McKay describes the self-help books
at the time as “ain’t it awful books”
that focused on the problems without
offering solutions. Fanning’s love of the
magazine Popular Mechanics sparked
the idea for a new kind of book that
focused on finding answers.
That idea helped them change the
self-help market with titles like The
Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, which has
more than one million copies in print
in six editions since 1990. Therapists
were hungry for adjunctive materials
they could give to their clients, and
started using and recommending our
titles, which became a big source of
marketing for us,” McKay says.
Long known as a niche publisher
tackling self-help and psychology, in
the last several years New Harbinger has
gotten into other categories, including
professional books, textbooks, and the
social sciences. McKay says the press is
going to aggressively “double down” in
the spirituality category. Other areas of
growth include self-help books for children and adolescents, a category McKay
describes as “untapped.” Since entering
that market in 2008, sales have doubled
in that category.
New Harbinger’s staff have started
to think of themselves not as book publishers, but as “information providers.”
To that end, in 2014, New Harbinger
launched Praxis, which offers in-person
and online workshops that accompany
the press’s titles. “It gives our authors
platforms to tell people about their work,
and we are selling a lot of books through
these workshops,” McKay says. “It is
substantially increasing our sales.”
San Francisco’s HarperOne, an imprint
of HarperCollins, focuses on health,
wellness, and spirituality. Senior v-p
and publisher Mark Tauber says when
HarperOne first published books on
topics such as alternative health and
spirituality, “it was bold and forward-

Bay Area Spotlight
thinking. Now every single publisher
is doing these alternative titles. In the
early ’90s, no one had heard of the
Dalai Lama—now you’ve got Arianna
Huffington talking about mindfulness
at work. It’s been great for us.”
Last year, HarperOne announced the
new imprint HarperElixir, focused on
physical, mental, and spiritual themes.
“I firmly believe that to grow, particularly as a major house, you have to
invest in your strengths, the things
you think you can do better and quicker
than the market can,” Tauber says.
HarperElixir, set to release its first title
in the fall of 2015, capitalizes on the
interest in this category. “We certainly
have plenty of body, mind, spirit titles
in our backlist,” Tauber says, “but we
weren’t focused on it exclusively, especially on the frontlist.”
HarperOne inked a new deal with
Learn It Live, a company that will create
a course to accompany each title on the
HarperElixir imprint. “We identified
that readers in the body, mind, spirit
category are quite involved in digital
conferences courses both physical and
online,” says Tauber, adding that every
HarperElixir title will come with a
Learn It Live course.
The nonprofit Parallax, which began
in 1986 with Zen master Thich Nhat
Hanh’s Being Peace, continues to publish
books on mindfulness. Neumann, the
publisher, says Parallax has seen “explosive success” with a new line of small
illustrated pocket-size books. Priced at
under $10 each, books in the Mindful
Essentials series—which includes titles
such as How to Sit, How to Eat, How to
Love, How to Walk, and How to Relax—
have sold a combined 90,000 copies in
the past 12 months.
“These books, are designed almost
like an app that you can open anytime
and get a little dose of clarity and centering in the midst of daily craziness,”
Neumann says. She adds that Parallax
had its best year ever in 2014, with
$1.5 million in net sales, and is on
track to double that this year. “We’re
just ramping up,” she says, adding
that the house is focusing on “smart
4

and sustainable expansion, doubling
our list in 2016, and looking at other
ways, outside of our print and e-books,
that we can reach our readers.” One of
those ways is through accompanying
video assets, and Parallax is also planning webinars and audiobooks.

A Global View
The Bay Area’s proximity to Asia
brings advantages for some publishers.
For China Books, one of the largest
and oldest U.S. publisher of books
from and about China, that proximity
has helped from a printing and shipping
perspective, senior managing editor
Chris Robyn says.
China Books has released more than
two dozen new titles in the last three
years, including new editions of literary classics and philosophical texts.
In addition to expanding the publishing imprint, Robyn says the press is
moving into Latin America, where there
is much demand for materials about
China that is not being met. “We are in
a state of slow expansion, by increasing
the number of titles, looking into different disciplines, and converting
backlist to digital format or POD within
the next two years” Robyn says.
Aker, the Viz Media v-p, says that
conversations about relocating the
company to New York or Los Angeles
“never went very far. As a media com-

P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

pany specializing in Asian pop culture
content, and increasingly specializing
in the digital delivery of said content,
the Bay Area is a great location for us
both geographically and culturally.”
At Chronicle Books in San Francisco,
president Jack Jensen says the past three
years have been among the most successful in terms of revenue and earnings in the history of the company,
which publishes a mix of art, children’s,
culture, food and drink, and lifestyle
titles. Jensen says that early on Chronicle
“looked to Japan and Australia for
trading partners rather than the U.K.
and Europe and that has had a rich
influence on our publishing that makes
us distinctive even today.”
In 2011, Chronicle formed a joint
distribution venture with Abrams and
opened offices in London to gain wider
market share in the U.K. and Europe
and continues to expand international
distribution. Chronicle will be
opening new retail boutiques in Japan,
including Chronicle-branded boutiques in Tsutaya Mega Bookstores
and a standalone microstore in central
Tokyo this year through a partnership
with Top Partners Inc. “This exciting
new expansion will help us reach an
ever wider international audience,”
Jensen says.
Avalon Travel publisher Bill Newlin
says that there is “an appetite for travel
among Bay Area residents, and the
Bay Area is one of the top tourism
destinations worldwide.” Newlin
reports that Avalon’s travel guide sales
have increased 10% in the past two
years, driven by strong results in core
series and augmented by the introduction of new lines, including the
Pocket guides to European cities by
Rick Steves, which will soon publish
its 10th title, and is selling more than
150,000 print units per year. Avalon’s
market share was 9% in 2008 but was
19% last year, Newlin says, citing
Nielsen BookScan Travel Publishing
Year Book.
Many publishers remain focused on
titles closer to home. Linden Publishing,
for example, offers how-to and crafts

Bay Area Spotlight
books, as well as regional titles such
as When San Francisco Burned, a photograph book about the 1906 earthquake and fire. Owners Kent and
Richard Sorsky say they are both “avid
readers of history, so it’s a joy for us to
publish in the California history category.” Richard, Linden’s founder, is
Kent’s uncle. They add, “We aim to
continue to have a strong presence in
the space.”
Counterpoint Press, founded by
Charlie Winton and Jack Shoemaker,
celebrates its 20th anniversary this
year. Publisher Rolph Blythe says the
“tradition of strong environmental
writing continues to inform and sustain Counterpoint,” citing two 2015
titles, Wendell Berry’s essay collection
Our Only World and Gary Snyder’s first
new book of poetry in a decade, This
Present Moment. At 75 originals a year
and about 120 titles in its paperback
program, Blythe says Counterpoint
has reached the “operational high point
in terms of the volume of titles we can
publish at current staff levels. It’s a
robust clip, but we’re able to give
every book significant time and attention at this level.”

Staying True to Roots
While some presses are experimenting,
others are focusing on maintaining
their mission. The worker-owned and
collectively run AK Press, which began
in the U.K. but has also operated in
the Bay Area since the 1990s, celebrated
its 25th anniversary this year. With its
U.S. headquarters in Oakland, the
press focuses on “anarchist and antiauthoritarian titles,” but publishes a
full “range of radical material, even
when it’s fiction or poetry.”
Collective member Charles Weigl says
the Bay Area is “a vibrant place politically, often contentious, and therefore
fertile ground for new ideas and strategies for social change”—in other words:
a good place for the press to call home.
When AK Press had a fire in its warehouse in March, supporters came out to
help with cleanup and donations.

Weigl says the press “tries to understand what tools and information people
want and need in their struggles.” He
cites the forthcoming Our Enemies in
Blue: Police and Power in America as a
timely example.
Weigl says AK is taking a moment
to “rethink the press’s future direction
before expanding.” The collective is
currently made of five people who
have been working there for 10–15
years. While he acknowledges that an
“anarchist business” might seem oxymoronic, Weigl celebrates the benefit
of collectively “deciding what sort of
business and, more importantly, environment we want to exist within.”
Known for titles on spirituality,
alternative health, and martial arts,
the Berkeley publisher North
Atlantic Books marked its 40th
anniversary last year. North Atlantic’s
range of books includes the Sacred
Activism series, a partnership with
the global mystic Andrew Harvey.
Titles in the 2015 series include
Thanissara’s Time to Stand Up, described
as “the Buddha’s life and message
through feminine eyes,” and Empty
Hands, a Memoir: One Woman’s Journey
to Save Children Orphaned by AIDS in
South Africa, by the nurse Sister
Abegail Ntleko. “I do think there is
a shared understanding and appreciation that our bottom line at North
Atlantic is always the storyline, and
not profit. We look at books inherently less as products and more as
outlets of information,” director of
publishing Tim McKee says.
Being far from New York has allowed
the local publishing industry to create
a unique character. Experimental,
diverse, and a little less cutthroat than
their East Coast cousins, the Bay
Area’s indie presses have found the
freedom to find their own way. Heyday’s
Margolin speaks for many local publishers when he expresses doubts that
his operation could have found a
home in New York. “The publishing
scene in the Bay Area was less developed, leaving space for experimentation and self-invention,” Margolin

says. “There’s something about not
being in the center stage that allows
more freedom.”
Neumann says Parallax is a Bay
Area publisher “through and through.
We are at our core committed to
racial and economic justice, deep and
engaged mindfulness, and to having
a very good time in the process.
What could be more Bay Area than
that?”
Chronicle Books was founded in 1967,
“coincidentally the Summer of Love,”
says Jensen, the president. “The whimsical spirit of that era is still reflected
in our publishing today.” He adds
that the press doesn’t adhere to the
traditional New York–centric view of
publishing, which has “allowed us to
offer more diversity in both what we
publish and how we publish.” He
sums it up neatly: “The Bay Area is the
home of independent publishing.” ■

Berrett–Koehler
Publishers

Connecting people
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W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

5

NEW
FROM UC PRESS
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
MARK TWAIN, VOLUME 3
The Complete and
Authoritative Edition
Mark Twain; Edited by Benjamin
Griffin and Harriet Elinor Smith
The surprising final chapter of
a great American life. This last
volume includes the previously
unpublished “Ashcroft-Lyon
Manuscript.”
Hardcover, 792 pages, $45.00
October

THE ILIAD
Homer; A new translation by
Peter Green
Renowned scholar and acclaimed
translator Peter Green captures
the Iliad in all its surging thunder
for a new generation of readers.
Hardcover, 608 pages, $29.95
Available now

JEWEL CITY
Art from San Francisco’s
Panama-Pacific International
Exposition
Edited by James A. Ganz
Timed with the centennial of the
Panama-Pacific International
Exposition of 1915, Jewel City
presents a large and rich selection
of artworks from the fair.
Hardcover, 400 pages, 365 color
illustrations, $75.00
October

LETTERS FROM
LANGSTON
From the Harlem Renaissance
to the Red Scare and Beyond
Langston Hughes; Edited by
Evelyn Louise Crawford and
MaryLouise Patterson;
Foreword by Robin Kelley
This invaluable collection of newly
published letters sheds light on his
life and politics.
Paperback, 340 pages, $27.95
January 2016

DAVID BROWER
The Making of the
Environmental Movement

RIESLING
REDISCOVERED
Bold, Bright, and Dry

Tom Turner

John Winthrop Haeger

Until now there has been no
comprehensive professional
biography of this dynamic leader.
This book looks back at his life
and the impact he had on the
environmental movement.

Riesling Rediscovered is a
comprehensive, current, and
accessible overview of what many
consider to be the world’s finest
and most versatile white wine.

Hardcover, 312 pages, $29.95
October

Hardcover, 320 pages, $39.95
November

ISLAMIC STATE
The Digital Caliphate

THE LAND OF OPEN
GRAVES

Abdel Bari Atwan

Living and Dying on the
Migrant Trail

This timely and important book
draws on Abdel Bari Atwan’s
unrivaled knowledge of the global
jihadi movement and Middle
Eastern geopolitics to reveal the
origins and modus operandi of
Islamic State.

Jason De León, with
Photographs by Michael Wells

Hardcover, 256 pages, $24.95
September

Anthropologist Jason De León
sheds light on one of the most
pressing political issues of our
time—the human consequences of
US immigration policy.
Paperback, 360 pages, $29.95
October

HOLLOWED OUT

THE SCHOLAR DENIED

Why the Economy Doesn’t
Work without a Strong
Middle Class

W. E. B. Du Bois and the
Birth of Modern Sociology

David Madland
As David Madland explains, to
have strong, sustainable growth,
the economy needs to work for
everyone and expand from the
middle out.

Aldon Morris
In this groundbreaking book,
Aldon D. Morris acknowledges the
primacy of W. E. B. Du Bois’s work
in the founding of the discipline.
Hardcover, 320 pages, $29.95
August

Paperback, 272 pages, $27.95
July

LISTENING TO KILLERS

SIDEWALKING

Lessons Learned from
My Twenty Years as a
Psychological Expert
Witness in Murder Cases

Coming to Terms with Los
Angeles

James Garbarino

A compelling inquiry into the
evolving landscape of Los Angeles,
Ulin gets at the experience of LA’s
street life, drawing from urban
theory, pop culture, and literature.

As a leading expert psychological
witness, Dr. James Garbarino
offers a fascinating look inside
twenty years’ worth of murder
files.

David Ulin

Hardcover, 153 pages, $16.95
October

Paperback, 312 pages, $24.95
Available now

@UCPRESS
@ E D U C ATE DA R T S
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LEARN MORE
www.ucpress.edu

Bay Area Spotlight

Patrick Marks, owner
of the Green Arcade,
gives a performance at
the store.

Bookstores Find
A New Groove
Embracing the needs of their communities has allowed
booksellers to counter many challenges

W

ith the seven-squaremile city of San
Francisco as its focal
point, the Bay Area is
a vibrant literary
environment that has
long nurtured independent bookstores.
Yet Bay Area independent bookstores
face many challenges. In the last few
years, the Bay Area has seen a rapid influx
of wealth and population, causing rents
to soar and many businesses with small
profit margins to fold. A variety of factors, including surging real estate prices,
8

By Anisse Gross
online sales, no-fault evictions, and an
increase in minimum wage contributed
to the closing or relocation of many
independent bookstores, including A
Different Light in S.F.’s Castro district
and the nation’s oldest African-American
bookstore, Marcus Books on Fillmore
Street.
Still, most Bay Area bookstores have
survived the turmoil, and some are
downright thriving. Hut Landon,
executive director of the Northern
California Independent Booksellers
Association (NCIBA), reported that

P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

more than a dozen additional independent bookstores opened in Northern
California in the past two years,
including Diesel in Larkspur, Folio
Books in S.F., Copperfield’s Books in
San Rafael, and Napa’s Bookmine.
And shops such as Orinda Books,
Stinson Beach Books, and Bay Books
in San Ramon successfully changed
owners.
NCIBA also reports that Bay Area
independent bookstores have seen sales
grow in each of the last three years, and
are up 2% for early 2015. S.F. proper is

Healing with Whole Foods

Book of Stones, Revised Edition

Paul Pitchford
9781556434303 | $35.00 | TR
9781556434716 | $60.00 | HC

Teaching Yoga

Robert Simmons & Naisha Ahsian
9781583949085 | $29.95 | TR

Sacred Economics

Mark Stephens
9781556438851 | $22.95 | TR

Charles Eisenstein
9781583943977 | $22.95 | TR

,

COMING
SOON

Diary of a Teenage Girl, Revised Edition
Phoebe Gloeckner
9781623170349 | $18.95 | TR | 7/21

CEL EB R AT I N G

Empty Hands, A Memoir

Abegail Ntelko
9781583949320 | $12.95 | TR | 9/1

40 Y E A R S

The Cannabis Manifesto

Steve DeAngelo
9781583949375 | $18.95 | TR | 9/22

Trauma and Memory

Peter A. Levine
9781583949948 | $21.95 | TR | 10/20

OF INDEPENDENT BOOK PUBLISHING

North Atlantic Books
North Atlantic Books is a nonprofit publisher located in Berkeley, California
and distributed to the book trade by Penguin Random House.

- For our full list, visit us at www.northatlanticbooks.com -

Bay Area Spotlight

SAMMY SHAW

was also near bottom for the devaluahome to three dozen independent
than they were five years ago. “The S.F.
tion of book culture, where books were
bookstores and no chain bookstores,
economy is booming, e-book growth
talked about as being obsolete,” Marks
Landon says. Alameda County, home to
has leveled off, the sales tax playing
says.
Berkeley and Oakland, boasts 25 indefield has been corrected in California,
Despite those odds, the Green Arcade
pendent bookstores and one chain
and publishers are putting their money,
has succeeded. “Here we are in a city
bookstore. Overall, NCIBA has 150
or policies, where their mouths are in
that is ground zero for thinking that we
members, the majority of whom are in
better supporting indies,” he says.
will all be saved by technology,” Marks
the Bay Area.
Mulvihill says a study conducted by
says, “but smart people of all types,
One of the reasons for the positive
M.B.A. students from the California
techie or Luddite, still read books and
statistics offered by NCIBA is the fact
College of the Arts in 2013 found that
shop in the store.” Marks credits the
that some stores have found creative
Green Apple owed its success to four
solutions to survival, opening
new locations or inventing
creative ways to stay in the
game. Other stores have been
able to survive based on a
combination of location, lease,
legacy, and community support. For some, it’s a shifting
adaptation to the landscape
and a willingness to keep up
with changing consumer
demands while also staying
true to the mission of their
business. In a recent KALW
radio roundtable of independent booksellers, Green Apple
Books co-owner Pete Mulvihill
said that “some booksellers
actually have shirts that say
‘We are not an algorithm.’ ”
Mulvihill tells PW that the
phrase “speaks volumes about
the power of one-on-one bookselling,” adding, “People simply Emily Ballaine, assistant manager of Green Apple, behind the counter.
have a more rewarding human
support of the neighborhood, particuexperience in any decent bookstore
key concepts: duty (the shop local ethos),
larly his relationship with Robin
than they do in front of a screen on
discovery (people find books in ways
McRoskey Azevedo, current owner of
Amazon.”
they can’t online), community (interMcRoskey Mattress Company, founded
Green Apple is located in the Inner
acting with people), and beauty (the
in 1899 by her grandfather, which is
Richmond district, but in 2014—the
store itself and the physical book as an
situated directly across the street from
same year that online real estate comobject).
the Green Arcade. McRoskey Azevedo
pany Zumper labeled S.F. the most
Patrick Marks is owner of the Green
lets Marks use the top floor for events.
expensive market in the U.S. for a oneArcade, which specializes in books
“We have been hosting smashing events,
bedroom apartment—it opened a second
on the environment, politics, activism,
including one for John Waters where
location in the city. Mulvihill says the
urban planning, and nature, with a
we had 300 people in this fantastic loft
decision to open the store in the Inner
focus on local authors. Marks had
setting of [McRoskey Azevedo’s] store,”
Sunset district was “relatively easy.” He
been a buyer and manager at Cody’s
Marks says.
notes, “We saw a vibrant neighborhood
Books in Berkeley, but when Cody’s
This kind of community support has
that had long supported bookstores but
closed in 2008 (after more than 50
been key, particularly for bookstores
was currently without one, and imporyears in business), he leased the S.F.
threatened with extinction. When Adobe
tantly, we had a lease opportunity that
location to open his own store. “Some
Books faced a huge rent increase and
was favorable.” In some ways, Mulvihill
people thought that I was nuts as 2008
subsequent eviction, the owner, wellthinks times are less tumultuous now
brought the bottom of the market and
10 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

Bay Area Spotlight
known bohemian businessman
Andrew McKinley, was prepared to
shut down. It was the community and
lovers of the store that rallied to save
Adobe Books; they raised over $60,000
on Indiegogo, found an affordable
new location, and transformed the
business into the Adobe Books & Arts
Cooperative.
Jeff Ray, one of the founding members of the new cooperative, used the
skills and resources from his 21 years
of work at S.F.’s Rainbow Grocery
Cooperative to help draft bylaws.
According to Ray, “it made sense to
become a collectively run and owned
bookstore because it would take a
group to both save Adobe and keep
it running.”
The group moved the store in July
2013. Together the founding members,
along with volunteers from the community, built the store out, and kept
the well-known art space in the back,
known as the Adobe Backroom gallery,
which is run as a fiscally sponsored
entity, allowing them to write grants.
While the store isn’t making a profit,
Ray says it is doing well enough to be
able to pay staff, rent, and other operating expenses.
Adobe Books manager Christine
Shields and co-manager and founding
board member Jon Fellman worked
with local bookstores in the Mission
neighborhood to form a coalition.
Known as the United Booksellers of
S.F., the coalition is currently in its
beginning stages and includes Alley
Cat Books, Modern Times Books, and
Adobe Books. “It formed as a way to
build strength through unity for
independent Bookstores in S.F.,” Shields
says. “There was talk of it being a
citywide thing, but for now it is a 24th
Street thing. Through this alliance we
also build alliances with the rest of the
neighborhood.”
Kate Rosenberger, owner of DogEared Books and Alley Cat Books,
says that in short the key to the survival of her stores is “adapt or die. We
keep going out in the world to see
what is going on. It’s important to

respond to your current neighborhood’s needs.”
The communities in the Bay Area
have shown consistent interest in
keeping independent bookstores
in their neighborhoods. Elaine
Katzenberger, executive director and
publisher of City Lights Books, says
that the key to the store’s more than
60 years in business is that “City
Lights means something to people.
The bookstore became a place to be, a
sort of ground zero meeting place for
anyone interested in writing as a
means to liberation—be it personal,
social, or political.” Katzenberger says
City Lights offers customers a bookstore “where they can be reassured
that there are still places in this world
where it’s not about the money, not
about the next best shiny gadget that’ll
lull them into a nice, deep consumer’s
slumber. This place offers a port in a
storm for creative, thinking, idealistic
humans, and it always has. Perhaps it’s
simplistic, but I think that’s the reason
we’re still here, and thriving. We serve
an actual need.”
The science fiction bookstore and
cafe Borderlands found that it served
a need in February, when customers
responded en masse to an announcement that the store would close by the
end of March after voters increased
the minimum wage in S.F. last fall.
That announcement prompted an overwhelming amount of media attention,
and customers voiced their support for
the store. “We hosted a public meeting
to answer questions and talk about
possible solutions,” Borderlands owner
Alan Beatts says. “As a result of the
enthusiasm shown at the meeting and
other conversations that I had with
customers and staff, I came up with the
idea of a yearly sponsorship program.”
The program would ask that a minimum of 300 people purchase sponsorships at the beginning of each calendar
year. If that number were reached, the
store would stay open for the remainder
of that year.
When Beatts announced the sponsorship program idea, the response was

“immediate and pretty overwhelming.
We had 300 sponsors in 42 hours,
and the numbers have continued to
grow since then. At this point we have
almost 800 sponsors for the year.”
While he is unsure that it’s a long-term
solution, the sponsorship program is
keeping Borderlands open for the time
being. Beatts says that the most ambitious plan he’s working on is to ultimately purchase a permanent space for
Borderlands. “That’s going to be a very
difficult process, but I think it’s crucial
for our long-term stability.”

Outside of S.F.
The rest of the Bay Area has its own
success stories. Michael Tucker, president of Books Inc., says the regional
chain is opening three new locations in
the next nine months (bringing its total
number of locations to 12): in Santa
Clara, in Terminal 3 of the San Francisco
Airport, and in the old Black Oak
Books location in Berkeley. While he
acknowledges the various challenges
Bay Area indie bookstores are facing,
he is quick to highlight some local
advantages, one being the 15 recent
closures of big-box bookstores in the
Bay Area. Tucker says the demise of
the chains and an uptick in the economy
is helping to “raise all ships.” He adds,
“We really held our own during the
advent of the chain. The stores that
drove us out are gone—and now we’re
taking them back.”
Tucker says that the Bay’s small geographical footprint helps make booksellers feel like a relatively close-knit
group. “The pie here is very small,” he
says. “We only open in locations where
other stores have gone dark.”
According to Tucker, “The bookstore
business has always been in an existential crisis.” He says, “The next thing
is always just around the corner—
but I don’t know another industry
that has as much collegiality as we
do. We really want everyone to succeed. We even give away trade secrets
to each other. There was a time when
we thought we were all going to die
off. Look at us now.” ■
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

11

Bay Area Spotlight

The Wild West
Of Kids’ Books

small presses, many of them new. Marissa
Moss, editor and publisher at Creston
Books, says she’s excited about the
resurgence of small presses in the Bay
Area: “These unique small presses give
diversity to the publishing landscape,
which is really important.” Moss is also
an author and illustrator. When she was
shopping her book Amelia’s Notebook back
in 1995, publishers deemed it “too weird”
until Berkeley-based Tricycle Press, the
children’s division of Ten Speed Press,
said yes. “Tricycle took a chance, and it
By Anisse Gross
has been by far my most successful book
ith numerous small
and series, with five million sold and
growing category for Chronicle, and on
presses, the Bay Area
translated into six languages,” Moss says.
upcoming list they account for about
is an innovative playTen Speed was acquired by Random
20%–30% of the total.
ground for adults who
House in 2009. When Tricycle subseSeo says the Bay Area is “startup cendevote their lives to
quently stopped publishing new work,
tral,” adding, “There’s an energy and
publishing the best
Moss says, it had a big effect on local
drive in the air, every day, and it’s
in children’s literature. Ginee Seo, chilwriters of books for kids. “They were a
catching. That atmosphere combined
dren’s publishing director of Chronicle
quirky small press and when they closed
with the fact that there isn’t a huge pubBooks, describes her company as “the
it was hard on this vibrant children’s
lishing presence here the way there is in
indie Wild West Coast innovators—the
book community here,” she notes.
New York makes for a way of thinking
ones who publish the kinds of projects
That closure prompted Moss to start
that is definitely not tradition-bound.
that make everyone sit up and say, ‘How
Creston in 2012. “I can’t replace
There’s also the fact that we’re in a proudly
did they do that?’ I do think our indeTricycle,” she says, “but I am hoping to
progressive part of the country. I think
pendence and left coast background works
do a little bit of what they did—give
because of that we’re all more willing
to our advantage. I think we see things
debut people a chance and publish the
to tackle potentially controversial subdifferently, and our commitment to the
quirky books that no one else will do.”
jects that other publishers might shy
book as object, and to beautiful gifts, has
Shirin Yim Bridges, the author of
away from.”
meant that we’ve published children’s
Ruby’s Wish and The Umbrella Queen,
While Chronicle Books is a large,
books with a distinctly different point of
founded Goosebottom Books in 2010
established publisher, the San Francisco
view for over 25 years. It’s in the comfor similar reasons. She was having difBay Area is populated by a plethora of
pany DNA to be creative and
ficulty finding a publisher
look ahead and be trendwho would take on an
setters rather than folentire series of feministlowers.”
oriented books for girls. “I
Chronicle puts out
realized how important it
around 100 new chilwas to bring these stories
dren’s titles each year, 50
out in series,” Bridges says.
each season, in a combi“One assertive princess is
nation of hardcover,
only an aberration. A
paperback, and novelty/
series says that you’re
gift books. Seo says that
looking at a pattern: that
picture books make up
across time and across
35%–40% of the list,
cultures, women have
novelty and gift books
found a way, despite great
make up 20%–30%, and
odds, to assert themselves
board books, chapter
and to achieve.”
books, middle-grade,
In October 2010,
and YA fiction and nonBridges, who serves as
fiction make up the rest. Author and publisher Kathryn Otoshi reads from her picture book One at the publisher and executive
Board books are a
editor, launched
Smith Center of Performing Arts in Las Vegas.

As with everything else, when it comes to
children’s books, the Bay does it differently

W

12 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

Bay Area Spotlight
Goosebottom with the Thinking Girl’s
Treasury of Real Princesses, a series
that now has seven titles and a silver
medal from the Independent Publisher
Book Awards. Since then, Goosebottom
has introduced additional series, and
Bridges says that there is a “strong
feminist bent to the press.”
For Tuttle debut author Allison
Branscombe, whose first book, All About
China: Stories, Songs, Crafts and More for
Kids, aims to foster appreciation for
Chinese culture, the diversity of the Bay
Area is key. After adopting two infant
children from China, she took an interest
in learning more about the country and
its culture in order to help her children
learn about their heritage. Branscombe
wants her children to become “global
citizens, aware of their own culture, as
well as other cultures,” and she says the
diversity of the people and cultures in the
Bay Area have helped to inform her work.
Berkeley-based KO Kids Books is
best known for its award-winning trilogy
of the novels Zero, One, and Two, which
deals with character-building issues.
Publisher Kathryn Otoshi says that the
company is teaming up with schools by
creating teachers’ guides and other collateral to support KO titles within
schools. She started the company as KO
Kids Books and Design, with graphic
design work making up nearly 95% of
the company’s product. Now, 12 years
later, Otoshi says the company is “completely the opposite,” adding, “It’s all
about the books; we’ve evolved the
company to where KO Kids is now
pushing out 20,000–25,000 first print
runs instead of 2,000.”

Challenges and Benefits
Just as the Bay Area has its unique
advantages, the region also has many
specific challenges. “Being based in
the Bay Area always keeps you outside
the New York power hub,” Bridges
says. “This expresses in small ways.
I’m an associate member of the Children’s
Book Council, for example, but I can
never attend any of their meetings or
educational programs. I may meet some
New York editors and publishers, but

I can’t keep up those relationships with
a casual coffee or lunch.”
Rana DiOrio, founder of Little Pickle
Press in S.F., shares that concern but
mentions the benefit of having access to
the wealth of human resources, capital,
and services that the Bay Area offers.
“When the Big Six, now the Big Five,
started making cuts during the recession, some of the most talented people
in the industry became available to
consult for or be hired by Bay Area
indies,” DiOrio says.
Bridges left the region in 2004, only
to return in 2010. “I returned to the Bay
Area specifically because I think it’s a
much better place to publish children’s
books,” she says. “There’s a wealth of
talent in this area. I like the Bay Area
children’s book industry vibe, where my
competitors feel more like my co-conspirators.”

A Sense of Community
Chaired by Summer Laurie, the children’s
bookseller at the regional chain Books
Inc., the Northern California Children’s
Booksellers Alliance (NCCBA) helps
reinforce a reinvigorated sense of community. Several years back, when the
group was called the Northern California
Children’s Book Association, membership and energy had started to dwindle.
The group took a break and
relaunched after joining forces with
the Northern California Independent
Booksellers Association (NCIBA).
Though it still operates under the
NCCBA acronym, this time around the
A stands for alliance. “I love that word,
alliance,” Laurie says, “because we are
independent booksellers who are
allied.” She adds, “Last January 2014
was our first meeting and it has been
growing since then. The meetings are
more like get-togethers; they are educational and we discuss best practice
and what we’re excited about.”
Laurie attributes some of the revitalization to changes in the industry: “The
children’s book market has really grown
in the last two years. There’s a huge
influx of new members, and I’ve been
so energized, humbled, and thrilled by

14 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

attendance. We have a lot of young
people coming at bookselling from different industries that are socially connected. This is the most collegial environment I’ve seen.”
Collaboration is a distinguishing
characteristic of the Bay Area publishing
scene. DiOrio of Little Pickle Press
worked in the technology industry
before becoming a publisher in 2009.
“I am continually amazed at the amount
of collaboration that occurs in publishing,” DiOrio says. “For the same
reasons why technology thrives in the
Bay Area, so does publishing. The Bay
Area is innovative, creative, dynamic,
collaborative, and entrepreneurial.”
DiOrio says Little Pickle has created
brand partnerships, teaming up with
like-minded
for-profit companies to raise
awareness of
issues that
affect children
and offer financial support for
nonprofits that
address these issues. An example of this
is March’s #BCorps4One campaign, in
which Little Pickle partnered with the
Cabot Creamery Cooperative to raise
awareness about food insecurity and
donated 15% of the net sales of the book
The Cow in Patrick O’Shanahan’s Kitchen
to the One Campaign, which focuses on
issues surrounding poverty.
“As a small publisher that lacks the
resources of our larger competitors, it’s
clear we need to go outside the traditional norms to reach new audiences and
sell our products,” says Laura Mancuso,
v-p of sales and marketing at Little
Pickle Press (and daughter of longtime
children’s bookseller Valerie Lewis,
co-owner of Hicklebee’s in San Jose).
DiOrio also says new digital distribution channels such as Humble
Bundle, Reading Rainbow, and Epic!
have helped small presses.

The Digital Impact
Based in Palo Alto, the children’s
e-book subscription startup Epic! was

Bay Area Spotlight
founded in 2013 and offers thousands
of children’s books personalized for
each reader. Epic! cofounder Kevin
Donahue says digital is an area of rapid
growth, especially as kids spend more
time on mobile devices and on the
Web. The founders of Epic! combined
their years of experience in Silicon
Valley with the culture of children’s
publishing by bringing on an advisory
board that includes several children’s
publishing experts. “We care about
quality children’s literature and have
developed a unique app that puts kids
in control of the books they choose to
read in a fun, refreshing way,” Donahue
says. “As parents ourselves, our goal is
to bring the best possible book discovery and reading experience to
mobile devices and the Web for kids.”
Donahue reports that Epic! has been
growing rapidly in both the consumer
and school channels and is working
with more than 60 children’s book

publishers, including HarperCollins,
Macmillan, National Geographic, and
Andrews McMeel. (A deal with the
Macmillan Children’s Publishing
Group was signed in late May.) “In just
one year, we’re a top-10 app in Kids
and Education in the App Store and a
top-grossing app in these categories,”
he notes.
Emily Scheinman, content curator
for Epic!, is also the founder and CEO
of Bananaseed Book Fairs, the largest
independent school book fair company
in the Bay Area. After graduating
from Stanford with a master’s degree
in education and after teaching in the
classroom, Scheinman decided to start
a children’s book fair company dedicated to providing quality books to
local schools.
“I created the company to provide
schools with a book fair experience that
emphasizes quality children’s books,
customized to meet each school’s spe-

cific needs,” Scheinman says. “The company has successfully helped thousands
of children get access to quality books
and to encourage a love of reading, as
well as help schools raise significant
funds. The book fairs are a collaborative
partnership and this leads to greater
sales and a more successful fund-raiser
for the schools as well as getting relevant books into the hands of young
people and their families. We also work
with independent bookstores on special
school events and on finding ways to
highlight the books of local authors.”
Scheinman says that she is consistently inspired by the interest that
young people show in books: “When I
visit school book fairs and I hear the
spirited conversations that young
people are having over books, I feel
immensely hopeful for our future. Mac
Barnett recently said that we are living
in a ‘second golden age of children’s literature,’ and I agree.” ■

Proud to be a Bay Area Publisher

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NORTH
KOREA

CULTS

UNMASKING THREE
GENERATIONS OF
MADMEN

Print: 978-1-942411-64-2
Ebook: 978-1-942411-65-9
July 2015

DRINKING THE KOOL AID:
JONESTOWN TO
SCIENTOLOGY

Print: 978-1-942411-68-0
Ebook: 978-1-942411-69-7
July 2015

Print: 978-1-942411-54-3
Ebook: 978-1-942411-55-0
July 2015

TERRORISM
THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION TO ISIS

Print: 978-1-942411-66-6
Ebook: 978-1-942411-67-3
July 2015

Bay Area Spotlight

Startups have found opportunities in the
new publishing ecosystem

Digital Winners
In the Bay Area
By Anisse Gross

N

o examination of the
Bay Area publishing
scene would be complete
without highlighting
the many digital publishing and distribution
startups in the area. By rejecting the
rules of the mainstream publishing
industry, these companies embody the
Silicon Valley spirit.
About 10 years ago, Mark Coker and
his wife, Lesleyann Coker, were unable
to sell a satirical novel about television
soap operas that they had coauthored,
despite being represented by a top
New York literary agency. Mark Coker
describes the experience as frustrating:
“Publishers don’t always know what
readers want to read. Most of their professionally curated books are commercial
flops anyway.”
So Coker aimed to solve the problem.
“What if I could say yes to every author?”
he wondered. “What if I could let any
writer publish for free and let the readers
decide what’s worth reading?” With
that goal in mind, in 2008 Coker founded
Smashwords, a free e-book publishing
and distribution platform for self-published authors, some of whom have
gone on to become bestsellers, earning
royalties of 60%–80%. Smashwords
has more than 350,000 titles distributed via partnerships with Apple iBooks,
Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Kobo,

OverDrive, Oyster, and Scribd.
“Unlike some of our competitors,
we only make a profit when our books
sell,” Coker says. He adds that while
many Smashwords authors have gone
on to become bestsellers, providing
authors the freedom to publish is what’s
most important to him. “If you talk
with self-published authors, you’ll learn
that their measure of success isn’t limited to the financial metrics. There’s
success and pleasure simply in being
given a chance to publish on your own
terms with total creative control.”
Coker calls Smashwords a “true-blood
Silicon Valley startup.” He adds, “Like
many SV entrepreneurs, I’ve always
believed that technology holds the power

Smashwords
has more than

350,000
titles distributed
via partnerships with
Apple iBooks,
Baker & Taylor,
Barnes & Noble, Kobo,
OverDrive, Oyster,
and Scribd.

18 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

to effect positive social change.” Coker
notes that most people in the publishing
industry “still don’t understand selfpublishing, and they don’t understand
how Smashwords has only scratched
the surface of what’s possible in the
future.” He says, “Someday, I expect
we’ll surpass one million authors
published.”
With all those e-books comes a
need for a way to access them. The San
Francisco–based e-book subscription
service Scribd offers unlimited access
to more than half a million e-books for
$8.99 a month. Scribd’s v-p of content
acquisition, Andrew Weinstein, says
that two years ago the e-book subscription market was “an entirely new
concept and publishers in general were
hesitant. Now, we’re working with the
majority of the Big Five as well as more
than 1,000 other publishers.” He says
the focus is currently on continuing to
build the Scribd library.
Weinstein says that one of Scribd’s
advantages is the “sheer length of
time we’ve been in the market” since
launching as a document-sharing platform in 2007. “We’ve had years to
build our relationship with our publishing partners and our readers, and
it’s served us well,” Weinstein says.
“One of the really exciting things
about the subscription model is that
it’s driving attention to content that
might otherwise not be discovered,”
he adds.
Being headquartered in S.F. “gives us
access to some of the most sought after
engineering talent around,” Weinstein
says. “It’s also given us the ability to
work closely with local publishers—
Chronicle, McSweeney’s, Counterpoint
Press, Soft Skull, and Outpost19 just to
name a few—who are right here in our
own backyard.”

Inscribe Digital
The San Francisco–based e-book distributor Inscribe Digital helps more
than 300 publishers and a select set of
independent authors get nearly 50,000
titles out to a web of distribution

In just a year, the Mindfulness Essentials series has sold over 100,000 copies.
FEATURED ON the New York Times relationships bestseller list, National Public

Radio bestseller list, and every Regional Trade Association bestseller list:
NEIBA, MPIBA, NAIBA, SIBA, SCIBA, NCIBA, GLIBA, PNBA, MIBA

MEETING READERS WHERE THEY ARE FOR THIRT Y YEARS

“George helped me understand the art of mindfulness:
to be neither distracted or focused, rigid or flexible,
passive or aggressive. I learned just to be.”
—KOBE BRYANT, five-time NBA champion
FEATURED ON

• NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook
• Nationwide sports radio
• The cover of The Boston Globe Magazine
• Publishers Weekly: “Debut author Mumford teaches mindfulness
techniques to champion athletes, including Michael Jordan and
Kobe Bryant. But the advice he packs into this book isn't just for
athletes: his tips will come in handy for anyone's performance. . . .
This straight-talking, practical guide will earn a keeper spot on many
bookshelves.”
• Shelf Awareness for Readers: ”Getting ‘Mumfied’ (as Phil Jackson
calls it) is not just for the athlete; conscious flow, the spirit of love,
less room in life for distractions—who couldn’t use more of that?”
978-1-941529-06-5, $21.95, hardcover

Distributed by PGW

Bay Area Spotlight
channels through its Athena distribution platform, an ONIX-based system
that “turns chaos into order.” The company provides strategic planning, file
conversion and management, marketing
expertise, and analytics and consolidated
reporting, in addition to an evolving set
of subscription services.
Last year, Inscribe released a new tool
called Instore, which lets publishers
keep track of their content in the supply
chain and leverage retailer-specific information to scale their marketing efforts
efficiently. “We see publishers like
parents sending their kids out into the
world without always knowing if they
arrived safely at their destination,”
says executive v-p and general manager
Anne Kubek, adding, “Instore helps
publishers keep track of their titles once
they’ve gone out the door.” She notes
that Instore allows publishers to track
titles with critical real-time information
that aggregates data about e-book titles.
Kubek calls this a “time of shifting
sands for authors and publishers.
Authors have more flexibility to work
outside a traditional publisher relationship than ever before, but also are
finding that they still need an infrastructure to support their efforts if
they want to sell books and also protect their writing time. There’s a
reason why publishers have existed as
long as they have.” She says Inscribe
works with authors and publishers to
map out strategic sales plans. Kubek
cites the digital startup Ink Monster as
an example and says Inscribe helped
the publisher grow one of its series to
250,000 units sold in less than a year.

Aer.io
The Aer.io retail network lets anyone
make a bookstore in minutes, curating
inventory with one line of embed code.
Founder and CEO Ron Martinez says
Aer.io is for publishers selling direct to
consumers and for bloggers, media
properties, and organizations who would
like to create new revenue by recommending and selling books. Martinez
says Aer.io has “real interest from

brick-and-mortar indie booksellers
who’d like to add a contemporary,
customizable e-commerce storefront
to their website and social presence,”
adding that it can be profitable for
bookstores “right out of the box.”
Martinez has also observed that
offering a mix of nonbook products
has helped independent bookstores
continue to thrive. That has led Aer.io
to bring new categories into the catalog. “If you’re publishing parenting
books and marketing the vertical, you
might want to add baby monitors to
the product mix. We’re excited about
extending our catalog to include products like these, shipped direct to your
customer’s door.”
For book publishers, Aer.io handles
inventory, payments, taxes, shipping
for print, customer service, e-book
sampling, and multiformat fulfillment, with optional social digital
rights management and watermarking.
Martinez says that, unlike other
direct-to-consumer solutions, Aer.io
comes with a built-in affiliate network,
allowing publishers to offer complementary titles from other publishers.

Goodreads
With an overwhelming number titles
to choose from, and myriad ways to
access them, how does a reader know
where to begin?
Otis Chandler, CEO of Goodreads,
says he had an epiphany one day while
checking out the bookshelves in a friend’s
room. “I’d been a big reader growing
up but had lost the habit at college.
I’d made a commitment to read more
and was looking for book recommendations,” Chandler says. He remembers
grilling his friend and coming away
with a long list of books to read. “It
got me thinking about an opportunity
here,” he says.
That epiphany spawned Goodreads.
Chandler had previously worked an
early social network called Tickle,
which gave him a good understanding
of “online social dynamics. I thought
that if I could only get my all friends

20 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

to put their bookshelves online and
say what they thought of them, it
would just be a really good way to
find good books.”
Since launching in 2007, Goodreads
has accumulated 35 million members
and over 42 million reviews. The site
lists more than 1.1 billion books.
Chandler highlights two major milestones in the company’s history, the
first being the launch of a recommendation engine in 2011: “We’ve learned
that the way to get a person excited
about a book is through a strong recommendation.”
The second milestone is Goodreads’
presence on Kindle. Chandler says the
biggest change brought about by
being acquired by Amazon is being
able to combine Kindle, the world’s
largest e-reading platform, with
Goodreads, the world’s largest community of readers. He says that being
part of Amazon gives his site the
support and infrastructure of a large
company, allowing Goodreads to
achieve its vision faster.
And Goodreads doesn’t just help
readers, but works with writers, as
well. “We sell advertising campaigns
to publishers and authors, and are in
the business of amplifying a book
around its launch,” Chandler says.
Goodreads provides a platform for
authors to directly connect with
readers and build their fan base; the
Ask the Author feature includes
more than 144,000 authors. Recently
Goodreads updated its iOS and
Android apps. “Mobile is growing
fast right now, so it’s important to
our members to keep updating and
improving our mobile apps,” Chandler
says.
“One of my favorite things I’ve learned
from Jeff Bezos is that the best way to
invent the future is not to think about
what will change, but rather to think
about what won’t change,” Chandler
says. “In 10 years’ time, I can’t imagine
readers will be saying ‘I don’t want to
find a great book to read’ or ‘I don’t
want to talk about books I read with
other readers.’ ” ■

Bay Area Spotlight

The Bay Area’s
Literary Landscape
Long-running series and newly
launched festivals bring readers
and writers together
By Anisse Gross

T

he Bay Area has long been
known for its literary happenings. From Mark Twain’s
reading about his travels
through the Sandwich Islands
at Maguire’s Academy of
Music in 1866 to the famous Six Gallery

reading in 1955, when Allen Ginsberg
first performed “Howl,” the area has
always buzzed with literary life. That
spirit lives on today through the extensive network of literary series, festivals,
and programming that serve the needs
of Bay Area readers.

One of the best-known annual
events is Litquake, a nine-day festival
that takes place each fall. Litquake
first began in 1999 as Litstock, a oneday series of readings in San Francisco’s
Golden Gate Park, and has since grown
in size and scope, from an all-volunteer
group with no budget to having a
paid staff that puts on programming
throughout the year.
Founded by Jack Boulware and Jane
Ganahl, Litquake hosts events at a variety
of venues all over the city. Boulware
says the fact that San Franciscans con-

cOuNterPOiNt
SOft Skull
ALL THIS LIFE by Josh Mohr

“Mohr’s narrative is by turns heartrending and humorous,
with never a dull moment.” —Publishers Weekly
SHADOW WORK by Craig Lambert

“You doubtless feel too busy to read yet more about why
we all feel so busy, but here’s a short book to put on
your long to-do list.” —The ATlAnTic
THE SPIRAL NOTEBOOK by Stephen and Joyce Singular

“This is a compelling look at gun control, mental-health
treatment, and the underlying social issues that contribute
to rising violence, especially that committed by young men,
in our nation.” —booklisT
BLACK HOLE by Bucky Sinister

“Black Hole is designer drugs so new they haven’t been
outlawed . . . Bucky Sinister nails the incomprehensible
demoralization of the addict’s existence.”
—Patrick O’Neil, authOr Of Gun, needle, sPoon

Distributed by Publishers Group West

Bay Area Spotlight
figures such as Paul Beatty, Edwidge
Danticat, Lewis Lapham, and Tracy K.
Smith. Don adds that literary events
and festivals are “absolutely crucial,”
noting, “Arts and letters, the life of
the mind, great fiction, committed
politics, and profound thought—these
are not things that spring from the earth
like grass. You have to make them,
and making them takes sweat and time
and work.”

MICHAEL HITCHNER

sume a lot of books and alcohol helped
inspire Lit Crawl, the bacchanalian
literary pub crawl held on the festival’s
closing night. The event is now franchised, taking place in several cities
in the U.S., as well as in London and
Helsinki.
Litquake breaks down the distance
between authors and their readers.
“Many festivals position authors as
superstars to be revered on a pedestal,”
Boulware says, adding that the event
aims to represent a diverse literary
community, including writers who
aren’t necessarily big stars. Because
the Bay Area boasts quite a few digital
book enterprises, Litquake also offers
panels and seminars on nontraditional
publishing. Litquake is “platformagnostic, and our mission is to showcase
great writing no matter the medium,”
Boulware notes.
Boulware says Litquake faces the same
challenges that many other organizations in the Bay Area do: primarily, it
needs more money and better access to
real estate. Despite those challenges,
Litquake has thrived, much like what
Boulware describes as the “terrifically
fierce mafia of independent bookstores”
that he praises for their ability to
adapt and innovate their models for
long-term survival.
In addition to the established Litquake,
2015 brought two new festivals: the
Bay Area Book Festival and the Oakland
Book Festival. The latter took place
on May 31. Cofounded by Kira Don,
founding editor at Lapham’s Quarterly,
and her husband, the designer Timothy
Don, the Oakland Book Festival
offered the usual tables for authors to
promote their work, but the emphasis
was on engagement through a series
of interdisciplinary conversations,
presentations, and panel discussions.
“It has been our plan from day one to
start as a small, focused, highly curated
festival that gets it right the first time,”
Kira Don says. The programming draws
on local talent, including Elaine Brown,
Vikram Chandra, Adam Johnson,
Anthony Marra, Mary Roach, and Ben
Fong-Torres, and on national literary

Skits were featured in the children’s area at
the Oakland Book Festival (top).
Daniel Handler (r.) and Rabih Alameddine at
the Bay Area Book Festival.

The inaugural Bay Area Book Festival
was held June 6–7 in a 10-block radius
in downtown Berkeley. The two-day
free festival featured over 300 local and
international authors giving lectures,
conversations, and performances, as well
as an area for children and teens. The
Bay Area Book Festival also offered
free books for children who attended,
donated by Half Price Books in collaboration with the East Bay Children’s
Book Project.
Designed by the Flux Foundation
arts nonprofit, the temple-like Lacuna

22 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

installation was built on-site and featured 50,000 books donated by the
Internet Archive. The books were
removed from the walls of the art
piece throughout the weekend as festivalgoers took them home.
The festival also featured music,
dance and theatrical performances.
Other highlights included an evening
with Judy Blume, a keynote by
Google’s Laszlo Bock, and interviews
with Pico Iyer and Mac Barnett.
Cherilyn Parsons, the festival’s founder
and executive director, says the festival
celebrates new forms of publishing,
pointing to the region’s status as both
a literary mecca and the “global capital
of digital innovation.”
Since 1980, City Arts & Lectures
has offered cultural programming for
a theater and radio audience. Operating
in the newly restored 1,600-seat Nourse
Theater in S.F., the series presents some
of the city’s largest literary events.
The often sold-out shows pair speakers
together in conversation, and the
programming has grown to include
multimedia presentations, live music
performances, and unusual pairings
like chef David Chang with screenwriter David Simon.
Associate producer Holly MulderWollan says that City Arts & Lectures
has worked hard to “establish San
Francisco as a routine stop for any
book tour or author event. Our public
radio broadcasts bring literary conversation to an even broader audience—
our programs air on more than 130
public radio stations across the country.”
Some recent programs that stand out
to Mulder-Wollan include academic
Cornel West in conversation with documentary filmmaker and author Astra
Taylor, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik
with philosopher Alain de Botton, and
actress Frances McDormand with author
Dave Eggers Mulder-Wollan says she
hopes people “trust our curation over
time, and are willing to take a chance
on seeing a writer, artist, scientist, or
cultural figure they may not already
know. We are also working to expand
our audience by presenting programs

Bay Area Spotlight
that appeal to a younger, more diverse
demographic.”
Also looking to tap into S.F.’s diverse
population, Radar Productions is a nonprofit organization that produces literary
happenings with a focus on queer and
underground literature throughout the
Bay Area, including its Radar Reading
Series. Started by S.F.–based author
and literary maven Michelle Tea, Radar
Productions is undergoing a changing
of the guard. Tea is stepping down
after 12 years as artistic director and
passing the torch to local author Juliana
Delgado Lopera, who begins July 1.
Lopera stresses the importance of
preserving community spaces in the
face of soaring rents. “The queer community has been hit disproportionately
hard by these changes, in particular
queers of color,” she says. “We know
how important spaces like Radar are
for the survival of our communities.
There are few reading series left that
focus on radical queer artists in San
Francisco. Radar is one of those.”
Lopera hopes to disrupt the homogenous landscape with “glitter and
fabulous storytelling” and that her
priority is to “create a fiscally stable
organization that engages deeply with
the queer community.”

Beyond the online mapping tool, the
Litography Project holds live storytelling events and collaborates with
other local literary organizations.
Gaensler-Debs says that literary
events are “beyond crucial,” noting, “San
Francisco is what it is because of a history of literary, artistic, and musical
diversity and creativity. When that goes
away, we lose a lot.”
John McMurtrie, book editor at the
San Francisco Chronicle, launched an
interactive digital literary map of S.F.
in 2013. McMurtrie, a self-professed
“map geek” says it’s not just the geography of maps that appeal to him, but
the ways in which maps can present
information creatively.
The project was developed from a
printed literary map that McMurtrie
made in collaboration with illustrator
Ian Huebert in 2009. They wanted an
online version “that not only brings
the region’s rich past alive through

such relevant passages and landmarks,
but also features hundreds of authors
and booksellers who make it such a
thriving literary city.” He regularly
updates the map with new writers
and bookstores and locations, and says
he gets feedback from people around
the world.
McMurtrie says much of S.F.’s allure
is embedded in the beauty of its landscape, which is reflected in the writing
about the city, this “end-of-the-earth
place where anything seems possible.
Waves of people have been coming
here for generations, not just from
around the country but from around
the world, and the writers among
them—from Mark Twain and company
to the Beats to Isabel Allende—have
been swept up, like so many others,
by what they’ve seen. As Maya Angelou
wrote, ‘I became dauntless and free of
fears, intoxicated by the physical fact
of San Francisco.’ ” ■

Lost in a book?
There’s a map for that.

Digital Directions
Radio producer Ninna Gaensler-Debs
launched the Litography Project, an
interactive multimedia literary map,
in 2014. She got the idea when crafting
her own literary tour of Dublin. “I
connected deeply with the city because
I knew the literary history wrapped up
in its streets,” she says.
Gaensler-Debs wanted to create
something similar for S.F.. The
Litography Project mixes her favorite
things, “radio, the Bay Area, and
books.” She notes that S.F.’s small size
means that even though events are
“literally all over the map,” they aren’t
hard to get to. The Litography
Project’s goal is to look at literature
from as many perspectives as possible,
and through a variety of mediums.

Plotted
A Literary Atlas
By Andrew DeGraff
$24.99 | 8 x 10 | Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-936976-86-7
Available in fine bookstores
and online on October 20, 2015

Distributed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
www.zestbooks.net/plotted

Bay Area Spotlight

Bay Area Libraries
Look Forward

By Anisse Gross

The books are still
on the shelves,
but the attraction
is increasingly in
multimedia

I

n the Bay Area, where technology
reigns, libraries are rebranding
themselves as 21st-century centers
of information while staying true to
their roots as community centers
that provide people with access to
resources, programming, and services.
Jill Bourne, director of the San José
Public Library system, which includes
a main library and 22 branches, says
libraries in the Bay Area are working
hard to connect people with technology
and tools, and working with software
developers and companies to develop
digital platforms and apps. As one
example, Bourne cites the partnership
between the San José Public Library
and eBay engineers to develop the
SJPL Summer Reading Challenge app
for Android and Apple devices.
In another such partnership, the
Contra Costa County Library is working
with Quipu to develop its Discover &
Go online service, which offers members
free or discounted tickets to cultural
institutions throughout the Bay Area.
That program has been widely adopted
by libraries throughout the region.
In San José, it’s not just the library
system that is keeping pace with technology, but also the library sciences.
In August 2014, the School of Library
and Information Science at San José

Children at work inside
San Francisco Public
Library’s Techmobile

State University changed its name to
the School of Information, or iSchool
for short. The director, Sandra Hirsh,
says the new name “better represents
the school’s current programs and future
initiatives, and is keeping pace with
the evolving information profession.”
The program has expanded its offerings beyond a master’s degree in library
and information science and was one
of the first schools in the field to move
to exclusively online education.
Hirsh says the school is “always
innovating and evaluates and updates

24 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

its curriculum to align with the job
market.” New initiatives on the horizon
include an expanded focus on cybersecurity and big data. In spring 2016, the
school plans to launch a new advanced
certificate program in strategic management of digital assets and services.
Hirsh says the iSchool is quick to
adopt new technologies that advance
the online learning environment.
Executives from eBay and Google lend
their expertise and guidance as members
of the school’s International Advisory
Council and the International Advisory

Bay Area Spotlight
Board of the Center for Information
Research and Innovation. Because the
school is online, students can gain
real-world experience at leading hightech companies, regardless of where
they live.

Upgrades and
Updates in S.F.
In San Francisco, any rumors of the
waning relevance of libraries are immediately put to rest. One only need to
look to the San Francisco Public Library
system to see that libraries are, as city
librarian Luis Herrera says, “more relevant than ever.”
The SFPL annual report from 2013–
2014 shows that the library had nearly
seven million visits during the year and
the circulation of e-collections, about
one-tenth of the total circulation,
nearly doubled in size. Part of this success is because the SFPL system, which

includes the main library and 27
neighborhood branches, benefited
from the largest capital improvement
project in its history, when voters
passed a $106 million bond measure in
2000 that called for the renovation of
16 branches and the construction of
eight new buildings. It also enabled the
SFPL to expand hours dramatically,
with 19 of its locations now open seven
days a week. “We are fortunate to have
tremendous community support and
stable funding. San Franciscans really
understand the role of libraries and the
quality of life and cultural value that
libraries provide,” Herrera says.
Herrera says SFPL staff has long
anticipated the need to “make libraries
relevant in the 21st century.” He adds
that the renovations, additions, and
expanded hours are an acknowledgment
of the changes needed in the libraries’
physical infrastructure, as well as the
increased use of e-media. “A lot of our

libraries are beautiful Carnegies that
weren’t accessible,” Herrera says, referring to the seven branch libraries built
by money donated by Andrew Carnegie
in 1901. “These renovations changed
that, and created a renaissance for
neighborhood branches.”
The SFPL has also focused heavily on
making technology accessible, Herrera
says. “Last year we provided 600,000
hours of free public computing for our
residents.” Another part of the project
focused on what he calls the “third
space”: community meeting rooms.
“We realized that libraries are now the
civic anchors in our neighborhood,”
Herrera notes, adding that attendance
for SFPL programs has jumped 20%
over the last year.
Herrera says libraries are “still about
reading and accessing information—
it’s just the formats are changing.” The
SFPL has seen more and more young
people visiting the library, as well as

Bay Area Spotlight
increased demand for e-media,
e-books, and audiobooks, which
requires collections to be much more
diverse in terms of format. “We are
spending a considerable amount in
e-learning and e-media: 29% of our
budget is e-media,”Herrera adds.
The SFPL has also repurposed some
of the spaces at its main library,
including a remodel of its fifth floor
to house a new learning center, the
Bridge at Main, and a resource center
for veterans. In addition to traditional
programs for adults who never learned to
read, the Bridge offers classes on digital
literacy, including teaching children,
seniors, and recent immigrants how to
use technology to access available
resources. Some branches offer automated laptop-lending kiosks.
A space that will open right before
June’s ALA conference is the Mix at
SFPL, a 21st-century learning space for
13–18-year-olds that focuses on digital
literacy and engagement. Designed
with the help of a teen advisory board,
the Mix includes a maker space, a video
and audio production studio, a performance space, and computer access. “It’s
a great place for collaborating with
peers, because it’s all about connected
learning,” Herrera says. “That’s how
young people engage in learning about
topics they are interested in. This affords
a whole other environment for learning.”
He adds that the venture has invited
partners to share their expertise—from
the California Academy of Sciences to the
Bay Area Video Coalition and Microsoft.
“We want to connect young folks to the
tech sector.”
Herrera says the SFPL has also just
rolled out its Techmobile: a repurposed
bookmobile that features computer
workstations, a robotics curriculum, a
3-D printer, and Surface Pro tablets
donated by Microsoft. “It’s an exciting
hybrid approach to providing access,”
he adds, noting that traditional bookmobiles are still around and the SFPL
has one stationed outside a single room
occupancy hotel in the city.
In San José, Bourne says the SJPL is
also developing a mobile maker space

The Techmobile hits the streets.

called the Maker[Space]Ship, a “21stcentury bookmobile” to be built this
year. Bourne says the SJPL also circulates tools like Makey Makey kits,
Arduino boards, and Squishy Circuits
Kits, which promote technology literacy and the development of applied
skills, as well as provide coding classes
for children and teens.

Success Through
Partnerships
Another innovative partnership is
the SFPL’s collaboration with the
Internet Archive, which aims to build
the world’s largest digital library. That
partnership will give the SFPL hardware to digitize its collections, providing users greater access to archival
material. The library’s Digital Imaging
Garage and Innovation (DIGI) Center
partners with tech companies to scan
archives and teach nonprofit groups
how to digitize their assets.
Collaboration with the technology
sector appears to be a key to libraries’
future success. Herrera says the SFPL
is working with the Digital Public
Library of America to create a service
hub that would offer some resources
and collections to smaller libraries, as
well as help them with digitization.
This distributed network of libraries
and academic and cultural institutions—rather than isolated locations
with individual collections—is part of
a larger vision to keep libraries relevant.
The SFPL has also launched a new
online discovery layer with Biblio-

26 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

Commons software, which allows
patrons to connect with millions
of users nationwide, as well as a
mobile app. Herrera says, “All of
these projects align with our key
priorities, providing access to technology and promoting reading. We
are a high energy organization that
is looking at the evolving change of
the urban library landscape.”
One of San Francisco’s oldest
libraries is the Mechanics’ Institute
Library, a membership-based independent library designed to serve the
public. Founded in 1854, the library
was created in the “belief that knowledge and information is the pathway
to a better society, something that is
in the DNA of San Francisco,” says
Ralph Lewin, executive director of the
Mechanics’ Institute. “The library was
also open to anyone of any race and
gender before the Civil War, and they
used to hold fairs that drew 600,000
visitors.” As San Franciscans struggle
with the rapidly changing identity
of the city, he says, the Mechanics’
Institute Library is holding on to its
core values: innovation and democracy.
“The idea of a library was a radical
move to make knowledge accessible
to everyone, and it’s still a radical
idea.”
Lewin started as executive director
in September 2014, and updating
the relevancy of the Mechanics’
Institute’s programming for a wider
range of audiences is one of his goals.
To that end, the library recently partnered with San Francisco’s Litquake to
offer members classes with wellknown writers. At the library, he says,
use of e-books is increasing, and the
fastest-growing segment is members
under 40.
Lewin notes that as community
spaces in S.F. are shrinking, “libraries
are relevant because they step into that
space, providing a place where people
can come together and have conversations about things that matter.” He
adds, “For a democratic society, it’s very
important we preserve and value those
spaces.” ■

Bay Area Spotlight

Farm to Table
To Shelf
By Anisse Gross

As the center of
the culinary universe
shifts from New York
to San Francisco,
two Bay Area
cookbook presses
are thriving and
experimenting

F

rom innovative restaurants
on every corner to foodies
clamoring for the next trend,
the Bay Area has one of the
nation’s hottest culinary scenes.
According to the U.S. Census
Bureau, San Francisco has more restaurants per capita than any other American
city. Between its large number of restaurants and active publishing industry,
it’s no wonder that the Bay Area is home
to a cookbook scene that is anything
but cookie cutter.
Chronicle Books and Ten Speed Press
anchor the region’s vibrant cookbook

publishing industry, releasing topselling cookbooks nationwide each year.
Lorena Jones, publishing director of
Food & Drink and Lifestyle at Chronicle
Books, says the epicenter of the culinary
world has been shifting from formerly
dominant New York to the Bay Area.
She notes that in the Bay Area, “you
have a culture that cares deeply about
food and creativity and the income
levels and fascination with new ideas
that can support all the newcomers,”
adding, “The consumer shift to seasonal
and sustainable also fueled the rise of
food talent in S.F., where cooks and
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

27

Chronicle Books

WELCOMES ALA

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黑武士和朋友 皮壳 美版

BOYD

Praise for INSI DE OUTSI DE :
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—The New York Times

*“Chock-full of homey details that children

will enjoy poring over. . . . This lovely concept

Big
Bear

book succeeds on multiple levels.” —School

it again. Using her inimitable style
to expand upon a familiar concept,
she has created a deceptively simple
compendium of opposites that is
also a warmhearted tale about Big
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bring them together.

Library Journal, starred review

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Praise for FLASH LIGHT:

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“Positively breathtaking. . . . Nothing short of

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brilliant.” —The Boston Globe

Reviews, starred review

“A delicately drawn riot.” —The New York Times

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Contemplative children will spend hours on each

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page.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

A CCBC Choices reading list selection

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K.A. Holt

—Library Media Connection, starred review

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Master book creator Lizi Boyd is at

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LI ZI BOY D is the author

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eaters have had a geographic and agricultural advantage.”
Jones says approximately 15% of
Chronicle’s sales are cookbooks. The
house publishes 25–30 cookbooks
annually, on average, with 31 set to
come out in 2015. The publisher has
had great success with books from San
Francisco–based establishments such
as Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson
and Miette by Meg Ray. Jones, who has
over 20 years of experience editing and
publishing cookbooks, attributes the
popularity of print cookbooks to the
fact that they “put recipes in context
with storytelling that is relatable and
transporting.” She says, “They provide
technique instruction that inspires
trust, and they are objects in and of
themselves that make a style statement
the cook finds compelling and identifies
with—or wants to.”
Ten Speed publishes roughly 40 food
and drink books each year, with 42
titles on its 2015 list. Executive editor
Jenny Wapner says that “cookbooks
are more beautiful than ever,” adding
that people gravitate to print cookbooks “for the thrill of the physical
object.” Improvements in design and
printing have also helped lead to new
sales. “Because the books are beautiful
and unusual looking, they’re finding
their way into stores that didn’t
previously carry cookbooks, so a more
varied audience is discovering them,”
she notes.

28 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

As examples, Wapner highlights a
trio of upcoming Ten Speed cookbooks.
This Is Camino, from the Camino restaurant in Oakland, is “one of the smartest
cookbooks I’ve had the chance to work
on,” she says. And she calls The NoMad
Cookbook, from Manhattan’s NoMad
restaurant, “show-stopping.” Wapner
is also looking forward to Near & Far:
Recipes Inspired by Home and Travel,
Ten Speed’s third book with the San
Francisco–based food blogger Heidi
Swanson.

“Because the
books are beautiful
and unusual looking, they’re finding
their way into
stores that didn’t
previously carry
cookbooks.”
Celia Sack, owner of San Francisco’s
Omnivore Books on Food, a bookstore
centered on cookbooks, has found a
devoted fan base in the Bay Area. She
attributes the interest in cookbooks to
the fact that as e-books and blogs have
grown in popularity, publishers have

Bay Area Spotlight
responded with “more and more aesthetically pleasing books.” She notes,
“Cookbooks are tactile, and, when
done well, weave a story throughout
their pages that cannot be told the
same online.”
The aesthetic value Sack mentions
may be one reason cookbooks tend to
fare better in their physical form than
in digital editions. Jones says
Chronicle developed some of the first
cooking-content apps and expanded
in-house production skills to include
video, audio, and animation for apps
and enhanced e-books. She adds,
however, that “the market for tech
add-ons never gelled on a scale that
supported ongoing development; apps
didn’t work on a broad scale, nor did
enhanced e-books for cooks.” More
niche digital content does have a place
in the market, Jones believes. She says
that, in general, apps have not fared as
well because the average cookbook
buyer “values the tactile quality of the

physical object and chooses that as
the form factor for their creative habit.”
She offers a food metaphor to explain
how digital works in the cookbook
market: “The current relationship
between the cooking consumer and
their books and digital equivalents is
that the physical books feed the whole
cook and digital is supplemental,
used to aid mobility and searchability
of content. Blogs provide snacking
that ultimately leads this consumer to
want longer-form content that is curated
and packaged to maximize the identity
statement of creator and follower.”
Jones says the Bay Area has “an
amazing confluence of factors that
keep its restaurant and recreational
cooking scene vital: access to spectacular produce and other foodstuffs,
a culture of experimentation and creativity, the influence of innovation
from the technology industry, and an
abiding appreciation of the good things
in life.” ■

Extraordinary Books
on California History

A Cross of Thorns
The Enslavement of California’s
Indians by the Spanish Missions

When San Francisco Burned
A Photographic History of the
Great San Francisco Fire and
Earthquake of 1906

Pardon My Hearse

A Colorful Portrait of Where
the Funeral and Entertainment
Industries Met in Hollywood

Celia Sack,
owner of Omnivore
Books on Food

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cravenstreetbooks.com
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Bay Area Spotlight

© TACEY LEWIS

Lawrence
Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, cofounder
of City Lights Books, turned 96
this year. A poet, publisher, artist,
and activist, Ferlinghetti is also
known as an advocate for free
speech. City Lights published
Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, which
became the center of an obscenity
trial in the 1950s. Ferlinghetti’s
support of Ginsberg cemented his
legacy as a free speech champion.

The Bay Area’s
Bookmakers

One reason for the strong publishing presence
in the Bay Area is the long history of leadership and vision provided by men and women
who rose to become prominent publishing
figures across the nation
By Anisse Gross
Ron Turner

Felice Newman and
Frédérique Delacoste
Felice Newman (l.) and Frédérique
Delacoste cofounded Cleis Press in
Berkeley in 1980. Both Newman and
Delacoste retired in October 2014,
months shy of Cleis’s 35th anniversary,
but the award-winning press continues
its work publishing books on human
sexuality and LGBTQ topics. When
word came that Cleis’s new owner is
moving its offices to Jersey City,
Newman offered “best wishes to all as
Cleis goes brightly into the next
chapter of its story.”

In 1970, Ron Turner founded Last
Gasp, an underground comics publisher
and distributor. Headquartered in San
Francisco, Last Gasp focuses on fostering
the counterculture, publishing art and
pop culture books, graphic novels,
fiction, poetry, and such notable artists
as R. Crumb and Ron English. Turner
is equally known for throwing some of
the most memorable parties
in town. Turner told PW that he would
rather die in harness than retire.

30 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J U N E 2 0 1 5

Malcolm Margolin
Malcolm Margolin is publisher and
founder of Heyday Books, an independent
press that celebrates California’s unique
culture and landscape. Margolin is an icon
in the world of alternative publishing; the
National Endowment for the Humanities
called him “a national treasure.” He is
known not only for his vision and commitment to publishing great work, but also
for his vibrant, amiable, life-loving personality.

Charlie
Winton
Charlie Winton is
currently CEO and
chairman of
Counterpoint Press.
But Winton is
known for more: in
1976, he founded
Publishers Group West (PGW), which
became the largest distributor of independent publishers in North America. In
1994, he created Avalon Publishing
Group and served concurrently as its CEO.
While PGW and Avalon have been sold,
Winton continues to run Counterpoint
LLC, which has merged the publishers
Counterpoint Press, Shoemaker & Hoard,
and Soft Skull Press.

Bay Area Spotlight

Innovation is key at Bay Area university presses

A Different
Vibe

T

By Anisse Gross

hough the University of
California Press (UC Press)
and Stanford University Press
(SUP) are the only university
presses in the Bay Area, they
are among the country’s most
innovative academic publishers. UC
Press, a nonprofit publishing arm of
the University of California system, is
the largest university press west of the
Mississippi and is one of the six largest
university presses in the U.S. It publishes
175 books on average annually and 30
multi-issue journals in the humanities,
social sciences, and natural sciences, and
maintains approximately
4,000 book titles in print.
Recently UC Press made
some significant changes:
it moved its offices from
Berkeley to Oakland in
2014, and, as of May 1,
it changed its distribution to Perseus.
Alison Mudditt
Alison Mudditt,
director of UC Press, says that for
decades, book and journal publishing
at UC Press were very independent
of each other, and that only over the
course of the past four years has the press
brought them together. “We know that
the distinction between book or journal
container is becoming much less critical
than the value of the underlying content itself,” Mudditt says. Over the last
several years, UC Press has realigned
its publishing strategy to focus on content and audience first, format second.
UC Press has also upgraded its systems

and made significant investments in
marketing and business information
systems, redefinition of production
workflows, the move to a new office
space, new sales representation partners, and the transition to a new thirdparty distribution vendor. “This infrastructure work, while the decidedly
unsexy part of publishing, is critical for
us to deliver excellent content most
efficiently,” Mudditt says.
Mudditt also notes that UC Press has
begun building its digital-first publishing program, which includes
defining digital strategies and the cre-

ation of a director of digital business
development role, filled by Neil
Christensen. Mudditt says the former
Wiley executive has been instrumental
in launching the press’s open access
initiatives (the journal Collabra and
Luminos, a monograph program),
which expand publishing options for
scholarly authors and researchers.
UC Press is also building partnerships
with technology firms, including
HighWire Press and Ubiquity Press,
to “ensure we have the tools and flexibility to develop new products rapidly.”
In addition to investing in new modes

of publication, UC Press has reinvigorated its traditional book program in
order to support the progressive mission
of the University of California, which
includes not only research but education
and public service. This is reflected in
two areas: publishing upper-level undergraduate and graduate text and course
materials, and translating scholarly work
for a wider audience. “We believe that
by breaking down barriers between the
ivory tower and a wider public, we can
drive an informed civic and democratic
engagement that is for the public good,”
Mudditt says. Some forthcoming titles
that exemplify this aim to extend the
conversation outside of academia to the
general public are Jason de León’s The
Land of Open Graves (Oct.), which focuses
on undocumented migrants crossing
the Sonoran Desert; Abdel Bari Atwan’s
Islamic State (Sept.); and former Los
Angeles Times book editor David Ulin’s
Sidewalking (Oct.), an investigation into
the evolving landscape of Los Angeles.
Mudditt says that UC Press “benefits
from a left coast perspective.” She adds,
“California has both a reputation for
being progressive and a long history of
successful innovation. Our location,
away from the dominant influences of
Europe on the other coast, encourages
us to look towards the emerging economies and nations of the global South.
This perspective brings a unique voice
to our publishing and underpins our
progressive mission to foster a deeper
understanding of our world.”
Alan Harvey, director of SUP, which
moved offices from Stanford to Redwood
City in September 2013, says that
being situated near Silicon Valley
“definitely makes a difference, and I’d
love it to make more of a difference.
There’s an attitude that permeates
everything at Stanford, and it definitely reaches into the press. We
operate on a shoestring, and yet manage
to achieve some great things—in part
because of the Stanford brand, but also
because of our exceptional staff. We
can react to opportunities quickly, and
I give staff leeway to try things out,
just to see how they fly—that’s how the
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

31

Bay Area Spotlight
including, Foreclosed
Briefs were started.”
America by Isaac William
Harvey is referring to
Martin and Christopher
Stanford Briefs, the press’s
Niedt, a portrait of people
short-form digital pubwho lost their homes
lishing program, which
during the foreclosure
released its first title in the
crisis; How Culture Shapes
summer of 2012. “The
the Climate Change Debate
philosophy behind Stanford
by Andrew Hoffman; and
Briefs was actually pretty
#iranelection by Negar
simple—to rethink our
Mottahedeh, which
traditional long-form
explores the role of social
publishing model to more
closely fit the modern
One of the debut titles from media in the demonstrations that followed the
media appetite,” he says.
Stanford’s Redwood Press
2009 election in Iran. The
Harvey notes that SUP
initial
concept
was for digital only, but
wants to preserve the value of tradiHarvey says SUP quickly discovered
tional scholarly publishing but present
that “as with all books, there was high
the core of an argument through
demand for print copies as well”—so
shorter books. SUP can also produce
titles are available in both formats.
shorter books more quickly, “allowing
In February, SUP announced its
us to capitalize on timely issues,”
new trade imprint, Redwood Press,
Harvey adds.
which will publish four to six titles
SUP has released 12 briefs in total,
annually. Initial titles include the
and has five slated for fall 2015,

CREATIVE

WRITING
AT

SFSU

http://creativewriting.sfsu.edu/

32 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J U N E 1 5 , 2 0 1 5

novel The Woman Who Read Too Much,
by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, and The
Shared Society, a manifesto on the
future of Latin America by former
Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo.
SUP also received a three-year, $1.2
million grant from the Mellon
Foundation to publish interactive
scholarly works (ISW). “The purpose of the grant is to allow us to
publish material that could not easily
be presented as a book,” Harvey says.
The first ISW title, Enchanting the
Desert by Nicholas Bauch, an interactive project that uses geographic
information system mapping and
3-D renderings to explore the Grand
Canyon, will be published this fall.
Harvey says SUP plans to publish 10
or more ISW works per year by 2017,
and is currently reviewing projects
that use text mining, video games,
digital imaging, and graphical
mapping. ■

M.A. and M.F.A. programs in Fiction, Poetry, Playwriting,
Creative Non-Fiction, and Translation (Fall 2016), as well as a
large undergraduate major
•
An outstanding faculty including Peter Orner, ZZ Packer,
Maxine Chernoff (Chair), Robert Glück, Michelle Carter,
Paul Hoover, Andrew Joron, Daniel Langton, Toni Mirosevich,
Roy Conboy, and Chanan Tigay, as well as adjunct faculty
including Barbara Tomash, Dodie Bellamy, Truong Tran, &
Anne Galjour
•
The literary magazines Transfer, 14 Hills &
New American Writing
•
The Poetry Center at SFSU featuring weekly readings & the
American Poetry Archive of recordings, 1950s to the present
•
Outstanding former students include Ernest Gaines, Anne Rice,
Opal Palmer Adisa, Michael McClure, Forrest Gander,
Cole Swensen, Laura Walker, Robin Romm, Gail Tsukiyama,
Peter Nachtrieb, and Pulitzer Prize winning poets
Philip Schultz (2007) & Rae Armantrout (2010)
•
Five Joe Brainard Fellowships of $5,000 in Fiction and
Creative Non-Fiction, Five William Dickey Fellowships of $5,000
in Poetry, Highsmith Award in Playwriting of $2,000, Kathryn A.
Manoogian Scholarship of $1,500, Miriam Ylvisaker Fellowship
in Fiction of $1,000, Michael Rubin Book Award in Poetry and
Fiction, Provost Award of $7,000 to an out-of-state MFA student
in first enrollment year, and seven to eight paid GTAs annually

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