What is the future of academic publishing? We’re celebrating University Press Week (8-14 November 2015) and Academic Book Week (9-16 November) with a series of blog posts on scholarly publishing from staff and partner presses. Here’s a quick round-up of topics discussed on the University Press Week blog tour, which kicked off yesterday.
For the last few years, the AAUP has organized a University Press blog tour to allow readers to discover the best of university press publishing. On Monday, their theme was “Surprise!” featuring unexpected ideas, information, and behind-the-scenes looks at the presses.
Cookbooks from a university press? University Press of Florida highlights recipes and photos from recent UPF cookbooks that have changed how people view the Sunshine State, highlighting a thriving food scene that has often gone unnoticed amid the state’s highly-publicized beaches and theme parks.
“If I can sell gay marriage, I think I can sell a book.” University Press of New England Marketing Manager Tom Haushalter reflects on the unusual success of Winning Marriage by Marc Solomon, tracing the years-long, state-by-state legal battle for marriage equality in America. Surprises came in many forms: from the serendipitous timing of the book’s publication with the Supreme Court ruling to the book’s ability to resonate with general readers and legal scholars alike—and many others surprises in between.
When a local newspaper, a local bookstore, and a university press run a features page. Steve Yates, marketing director at University Press of Mississippi, describes how the Press has partnered with Lemuria Books in Jackson and writers across the state to create the Mississippi Books page at the Clarion Ledger.
Guess the Press. University Press of Kentucky quizzes you on some surprising facts about university presses, from publishing Pulitzer Prize-winning novels to seventeenth-century bibles.
246 years and 8 months of work. University of Nebraska Press has an excellent infographic about their staff.
The best classical actor in the United States today” writes mysteries for a university press. Mystery fiction is a surprise hit, and a surprisingly good fit, at the University of Wisconsin Press.
Bonus: AAUP has a slideshow of surprising books, series, products, and more from university presses.
Bonus: The University of California Press’s Alison Mudditt speaks with five experts about innovation in scholarly publishing on Scholarly Kitchen.
Be sure to look out for blog posts from Indiana University Press, Oxford University Press, George Mason University Press, University Press of Colorado, University Press of Kansas, UNC Press, West Virginia University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, Fordham University Press, and University of Georgia Press later today.
Featured image: Colorado. Photo by Thomas Shellberg. CC0 via Unsplash.
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