History is 2%

The July 20 issue of Publishers Weekly has a whole series of surveys and data considering the state of the publishing industry.

Much of it is not all that relevant to a small publisher of regional history, but some of it does apply to the South Dakota State Historical Society Press. In particular is the news that as a genre of books, history (in all its forms) makes up 2% of the total volume of books sold. Now this doesn’t sound like all that much, but when you consider how many books are purchased each year, 2% actually represents a lot of books. History is the 8th most popular genre, following behind such obvious genres as mystery, juvenile, romance, and science fiction, but ahead of cooking and business. In fact, if you include the 7th most popular genre, that of biography (much of which could be argued to be history anyway), then you get 5% and now we’re really talking a good chunk of the market.

What does all this mean? Well, basically, it confirms that there are lots of people out there that might be interested in reading books from the SDSHS Press, and that we need to keep publishing high-quality history books for those people.

So, with that in mind, here is an update on all our forthcoming books and where they are in the production stage.
A Marvelous Hundred Square Miles: Black Hills Tourism, 1880-1941, almost ready to go to the printer.
Dammed Indians Revisited: The Continuing History of the Pick-Sloan Plan and the Missouri River Sioux, in latter stages of editing.
Small-town Boy, Small-town Girl: Growing up in South Dakota, 1920-1950, in final editorial stages, ready for final design and layout.
Principle over Party: The Farmers’ Alliance and Populism in South Dakota, 1880-1900, in early editorial stages.

Seth Bullock book trailer

Check out the latest book trailer for Seth Bullock: Black Hills Lawman.

This one is aimed specifically at the media outlets, because it mentions the full press release, but it can be viewed by anyone!

Waiting for Coyote’s Call

Have you read any of Jerry Wilson’s musings on his Waiting for Coyote’s Call blog?

If not, you should really think about checking him out, but in the meantime, just as a teaser, here is latest post on this blog instead.

Norma and I have spent the last week in San Antonio, where the average afternoon temperature has hit at least 100 degrees in the shade. Obviously our timing is bad; the time for a South Dakotan to head south is January, not July. Yes, we strolled down the San Antonio River Walk one night, and last night we enjoyed Tejano, the periodic Latino festival of music, food and drink in Market Square. But mostly we are here to work, not to play.

Our son Walter and his wife Lizzy have bought their first home. The 90-year-old house is on the fringe of the historic King William neighborhood, near the River Walk south of downtown. When the elderly owner died, her daughters couldn’t agree to sell the house, so it stood empty for eight years. Fortunately the roof was good, so there was no water damage inside. But pretty much everything needed rehabilitation, from the ground up.

When we arrived, the foundation was repaired, and Walt and his hired handyman, Silver, had gutted the interior and restored drywall to the 11-foot ceilings. Over the next few days, Walt, Silver and I sheet rocked the walls, and soon they’ll be ready for paint.

There were floor boards to replace and holes to fill, and floors will soon be ready for sanding and finishing. Electrical wiring has been replaced, and major plumbing repair lies ahead. Cabinets arrived today, which we will install after the kitchen is painted. And that’s just the interior; when we are shivering in South Dakota next winter, Walt will scrape and paint the exterior in comfortable San Antonio weather.

Why would anybody undertake such a project? We ask ourselves that question every day. But the answers are evident. First, the price of a restored house in this historic neighborhood—even a two-bedroom house such as this one—would be prohibitive for a young couple like Walt and Lizzy. Restoring the house to its original grandeur is a good investment that will pay off in the long run. But more important, the house will be a lovely place to live, grand on a small scale, with its large, high ceilinged rooms, columned wrap around porch and mansard roof. And perhaps most important, restoring an old house instead of tearing it down and throwing up a cheap modern replacement with inferior materials is an act of sustainability—not unlike our own work back home to restore damaged soil and native prairie.

Our 10-hour days in sweltering heat aren’t exactly fun, but they are satisfying, seeing at the end of each day a few more steps toward restoration. It’s also rewarding to see that our son has learned the values of maintenance and repair, of conservation and sustainability.

–Jerry

Marshall Damgaard to sign books in Sioux Falls

If you are out and about tomorrow (Saturday 18) in Sioux Falls, SD, you might wish to stop in at Barnes and Noble from 2pm onwards to grab a signed copy of The South Dakota State Capitol: The First Century published by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press.

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Bookmarks

When the SDSHS Press started publishing our South Dakota Biography Series with Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life in 2007, we decided to have some bookmarks made up that we would include with all orders of the books.

Well, we’ve found that these books have been so popular that we’ve also just about run out of bookmarks as well. So, with that in mind, we’ve been fully in “design-mode” the past few days, working on a new look to this little freebie.

We started with 3 basic designs:

First 3 designs for front of bookmark

Some external market research and some in-office discussion quickly eliminated the green one. The initial thoughts were that the brown one was the better, because the white one might be a little bit juvenile for the nature of the series.

However, after “living” with the designs for a few days, the color-scheme of the white one started to appeal more. This led to the following set of designs:

The blue and white designs

However, after all this, we’re still thinking, so any comments would be most welcome!

Should publishers lower their production values?

With costs rising, publishers are all looking for ways to ensure that they survive through economic tough times, so that they can continue to provide great reading for all.

A recent article in Independent, the magazine of the Independent Book Publishers Association, suggested that publishers choose a lower quality of paper so as to help cut costs. While this no doubt makes financial sense, it would appear to be asking for trouble. Lowering production values creates a product (in this case books) that is less desirable. So although the publisher might save on production costs, they run the risk of losing future sales from people who no longer appreciate the quality of that publisher’s books.

With all this in mind, the South Dakota State Historical Society Press aims to continue to produce books of the highest quality in all facets. We believe that our books have a combination of good writing, good editing, and good production, and we intend to keep that going!

SDSHS Press upholding use of notes

A recent Publishers Weekly article bemoaned the current trend of publishers omitting more and more notes from serious works of nonfiction. It is pleasing to read the author’s comments that notes are an important aspect of a reader’s interaction with a book, because the South Dakota State Historical Society Press also firmly believes that to be the case.

The SDSHS Press spends a great deal of time ensuring that our books are noted correctly, that our authors use good sources and that we cite those sources, and we strive to make the notes both readable and usable.

After all, there is little more frustrating for someone reading a book who finds something interesting and wants to learn more, than to discover that the book contains no reference to the original source.

SDSHS Press books featured in Argus Leader summertime reading list

Read the Sioux Falls Argus Leader article featuring suggested summertime reading.

We even made the top of the pile!

An update on what’s happening at the SDSHS Press

It is turning into a busy summer here at the South Dakota State Historical Society Press.

Editing continues on the remaining 4 books of the year. We’re getting close with A Marvelous Hundred Square Miles, which is all about early tourism in the Black Hills, and things are moving along nicely with the Dammed Indians Revisited, the updated version of Mike Lawson’s classic book about the Pick-Sloan Plan to dam the Missouri River.

Small-town Boy, Small-town Girl is also in full swing, and this is going to be a great book featuring two people’s fascinating memories of growing up in South Dakota in the first half of the twentieth century. Finally, Principle over Party is also on track for its release date of February 2010.

We’ve received our F&Gs (folded and gathered pages) of The Raccoon and the Bee Tree. This means we can send them out as review copies to the major children’s book review places. It might seem early, seeing as the book won’t be available for purchase until the beginning of October, but it is important to have advance copies to reviewers well in advance so that they can preview them for the bookstore buyers across the country.

Speaking of October, The Raccoon and the Bee Tree will have its official public launch at the South Dakota Festival of Books in Deadwood, October 2. Susan Turnbull, the illustrator, will be on hand at the booth for a special signing, and there will be a great giveaway at the same time. Should be a lot of fun, so if you are in Deadwood that weekend stop by and see the book, meet the author, and walk away with a little gift as well!

Our new catalogue came out last month. You can request a copy by emailing us us or you can download a copy from the SDSHS Press website instead.

Finally, we’ve had some major work done to our dedicated Prairie Tale website, including new book pages and lots of videos to help kids learn about the animals featured in the books.