Looking ahead

The weather in the publishing world was harsh and inclement last year, and most of us who toil there were glad to see it end. Layoffs, store closings, grim statistics: even for a fragile business accustomed to lean (or no) margins, the news wasn’t good, and the forecast for 2009 is even worse. But what are you supposed to do if this is your line of work? No one who chooses to make a living as a publisher does it for the money; we do it, obviously, because we love books and imbue them with a compelling if irrational power to change our lives.

I’m excited about our ’09 list. It features two beautiful, disturbing memoirs: Last Journey: A Father and Son in Wartime and The Honor Yard: A Life in Prison. Both Darrell Griffin, Sr. and Kenneth E. Hartman are first-time authors, and both recount stories of tremendous courage in the face of immeasurable disaster. The two books have in fact three authors: Darrell’s son, Darrell Jr., whose debut is posthumous, wrote about his time in Iraq with a fierce clarity that reminds us of just how pitiless war is - and how tragic its consequences.

We’re also bringing out three of our gem-like brief biographies in paperback—the beginning of a strong backlist that should see us well into the future, however turbulent it may be.  

James Atlas,
President and Publisher