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COMPANY PROFILES
Each company has a distinct identity and product line. Some houses are very commercial; others are very literary. Some are small and independently owned; others have hundreds of employees and are part of huge corporations. Some are driven by profit, while others are not-for-profit and operate primarily to contribute to our culture. Some specialize in fiction, while others are experts in an academic discipline. Some target adults; others cater to children.
To find the best fit, you may want to match your personal goals and talents with the goals and talents of the publishing house. (See also: Types of Publishing)
Information provided in the Company Profiles section comes from company Web sites and from BookExpo America.
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| Company Name: |
MELVILLE HOUSE PUBLISHING |
| Company Location(s): |
Hoboken, NJ |
| Books per Year: |
30-35 |
| Description: |
Located in Brooklyn, Melville House is a small independent publisher that was awarded the winner of the Miriam Bass Award in Creativity in Independent Publishing by the Association of American Publishers in 2007, and in 2009 was named Best Small Press by the Village Voice.
The company publishes 30-35 books a year in a widely varied list that eschews the kind of "niche" development more typical of independent publishing. The nonfiction list includes books of current events reportage and polemical and activist politics by writers such as Paul Berman, Mark Danner, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Raj Patel, Kenan Malik and Renata Adler. These writers and others have earned for Melville House a reputation for scooping newspapers, let alone bigger publishers: the company published the first book on the trading of nuclear technology by Pakistan (Who Killed Daniel Pearl? by Bernard-Henri Lévy); the first book on the torture and rendition program (Torture Taxi, by Trevor Paglen and A.C. Thompson); the first book on the "Niger-gate" scandal, by the primary source on the subject (Collusion, by Carlo Bonini), and the first book to call for the impeachment of the president (Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush, by the Center for Constitutional Rights).
In addition, Melville House has also established a reputation for publishing significant works of literary fiction and poetry, many in translation, by writers such as Nobel Prize for Literature-winner Imre Kertesz, Stephen Dixon, Benoit Duteurtre, and Mahmoud Dowlatbadi.
The company is also known for its discovery of some exciting young writers such as Lee Rourke and cult favorite Tao Lin.
Melville House has also published cook books (The Basics), a series of quirky bestselling language books (Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog, by Kitty Florey), philosophy (including the last book by Jacques Derrida, Learning to Live Finally), and an award-winning classics line (The Art of the Novella series, winner of the AIGA design award).
Recent hit books include the internationally acclaimed Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada, a 1947 novel about life in Berlin under the Nazis that had never before been published in English, and went on to be a massive bestseller around the world; I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed By Me by Trevor Paglen, an art book that looks at the Pentagon's intelligence budget by analyzing secret military insignia; Stuffed & Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System by Raj Patel, a study of the world food crisis that predicted shortages and food riots, and was published the week food riots broke out in Haiti and elsewhere; and The Pathseeker by Imre Kertesz, a sequel to his novel about his childhood in Nazi concentration camps, Fatelessness.
Established in 2001, Melville House is headquartered in in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn, in a space that combines its offices with a bookstore/art gallery/event space. |
| Type(s) of Publisher: |
Independent Publishers, Trade Publishing: Adult |
| Company Website: |
www.mhpbooks.com |
| Email: |
info@mhpbooks.com |
| Phone: |
718-722-9204 |
| Internships: |
Intern
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