PRESS FOR SUCCESS: SHOULD YOUR HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLISH BOOKS? PART I

By Stephen Paschen, Director, Summit County Historical Society

Local History Notebook, March / April 1994

"Publish or Perish" - a phrase that sends chills down the backs of college and university teachers aspiring to full tenure. Does it apply to historical societies? Normally those of us who run such organizations would not use such an extreme notion to measure the success of our historical society's operations. We are primarily driven by our mission statement. But publications can contribute to the financial health of an organization as well to the fulfillment of its mission statement.

Only 1,000 copies of the book, Shootin' the Chutes: Amusement Parks Remembered, were produced, but because of the magic of desktop publishing, the cost per book was much lower than it would have been had it been written, designed, formatted, and typeset by an independent publisher. The ultimate success of the project was not dependent on sales of the book, since all the books were paid for as part of the grant. Happily, there was additional income because the book was popular, selling very well in our own gift shop and local bookstores.

How to Get Started

Publications Committee

Careful consideration of developing a publications program is an important step in charting the course of your organization, so do not fail to examine the pros and cons before you begin. Establishing a committee to study publications can save you from many missteps further down the road. Ideally, the committee should include in its membership people with experience in writing, printing and binding, marketing, grant writing, and desktop publishing.

The first task of the committee should be to determine whether publications relate to your mission. If it does not fit your mission, do not do it! Once the committee decides to recommend a publications program it should draft a specific mission for the program such as, "It is the purpose of the Summit County Historical Society Press to publish historical writings relating to the events and people of Summit County while upholding academic standards of accuracy and documentation." (This is the mission statement for the Summit County Historical Society Press.)

Staff and volunteer time commitments, space and equipment needs, potential sources of funding, expenses, and other factors that apply should be reviewed prior to taking on any projects. Our professional staff spends about eight percent of its time working on publications, and typically each staff member is in charge of two or three projects. However, staff members can act as an author on only one book at any given time. Other assignments involve editing, design and formatting, and project management.

The next charge of the committee is to determine what types of projects to take on as well as the scope of topics considered. Should you publish a history of the Northwest Territory? Should a diary kept by one child in one family over one winter in the early nineteenth century be published? The committee is likely to be approached with many different topics over time, so you need to set down criteria to help the committee make decisions about what topics are appropriate for your press. Generally, the SCHS Press committee considers corporate, institutional, community and family histories as well as other topics that fit our mission. The press does not accept any topic that does not fit within the mission statement parameters. The committee reviews projects--some of which are in the form of proposals, outlines, or in manuscript form--and recommends to the Board of Trustees which projects to approve.

We publish local historical topics that publishing houses and university presses find unmarketable or too narrow in scope. Our books generally are produced in small quantities not attractive to other publishers, ranging from as few as two hundred to as many as several thousand copies. One key to a successful publications program is to define your niche.

Finally, the committee should begin to develop a list of reputable companies to print and bind the books. It is imperative that the books be of the best quality possible and that your working relationship with these vendors be very good. Once vendors understand what you are trying to do, they will be more willing to adjust to your specific needs and problems.

Computers $$$$$$$!

Probably the most intimidating factor in entering the world of publishing is the high cost of computer equipment and software. You must have the right equipment to produce desktop publications. Although Macintosh led the field for several years, IBM and IBM compatibles have pretty much caught up. If you do not already have this equipment, your committee should fully explore which systems are best for you. We use Macintosh for all our computer functions, word processing, bookkeeping and accounting, and desktop publishing (including our Society newsletter and museum exhibit labels). Our publications are generated on Macintosh (Plus, Classic, and Classic II) using Quark Express software, and camera-ready pages are printed on a Macintosh Laserwriter 11. There are many hardware and software possibilities available these days. This is why you need a computer-savvy person on your committee.

Potential Projects and Funding

As previously mentioned, our first book project utilizing desktop publishing was funded by a local foundation. The project was attractive to the foundation for two reasons. First, the grant funded purchase of computer equipment, a lasting contribution to the overall operation of our organization. Second, a tangible, popular, and lasting product was produced--an illustrated history of local amusement parks. After this successful project, our ad-hoc committee recommended that we expand our publications activities but only if the books were fully paid for at their completion and only in quantities for which we could provide storage and good inventory control. Also, the committee suggested that we fund additional computer hardware and software with proceeds from book sales. This scenario proved to be very successful.

SCHS Projects: 1989-1993

Over the next four years, thirteen more projects were approved by the SCHS Press Committee, including four corporate histories, two institutional histories, a community history, an exhibit catalog, a collections guide, a resource guide to all nineteen Summit County historical societies, a Civil War-era compilation of correspondence, a legal history, and a booklet produced for another historic house museum. Interestingly, none of these publications projects were the result of any sort of marketing of the Society's press. Ten books were the result of the right people seeing copies of other Society books or people being referred to us by satisfied former clients (the organizations, individuals, and companies for which the Press published books).

Only three of the projects mentioned above were the result of the Society filing a grant proposal to a local funding institution. The others were all initiated and funded by the community, corporation, institution, individual, or professional association making contact with the Society. In all cases, the books were paid for by the time they were completed. The publications committee accepted two different scenarios for SCHS Press projects.

The most common scenario (and the most desirable from our point of view) is for the SCHS Press to be contacted before any work on a written history has been conducted. The Society staff discusses the project with the interested client and prepares a proposal for review by our publications committee. Once the committee agrees (and the Board approves the project), the proposal is submitted to the client (sometimes we are actually in competition with private presses or freelance writers). Research and writing may be conducted by SCHS staff or by an outside author approved by the client. The contents of these written proposals will be described in Part II of the "Notebook," which will appear in the upcoming May/June issue of The Local Historian. Eight of our thirteen projects were obtained in this way.

Less desirable, but certainly still quite workable, is the scenario in which a manuscript has already been prepared for a client by a freelance writer or a professor of history. In these cases the SCHS Press committee reviews the manuscript before preparing a proposal for the client (sometimes the client is the writer). Usually, the proposal includes editing of the manuscript before publication, as well as design, formatting, indexing, and printing and binding. Five of the aforementioned thirteen books were already in manuscript form before the Press was awarded the project.

The Local History Notebook is edited and published by the Ohio Historical Society's Local History Office in order to bring useful information to people worldwide in the local history field. The selection of subject and authors is based on the OAHSM Editorial Board's and the Local History Office's determination of issues which are timely in nature and lasting in scope. The reference inserts are copyrighted 1994 by the Ohio Historical Society. Reprints are available; please specify volume and number. For further information, contact:

Go to Part II