This page is part of a project for the English 212 seminar on Editing and Publishing at the University of Vermont.

    For my presentation, I chose to visit the  Countryman Press in Woodstock, Vermont.  It is a smaller publishing house that puts out about 25 books per year with a pre-production staff of six dedicated employees. They have a precisely defined niche which includes outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and fishing as well as a bit of New England history and culture.  They are primarily a regional publisher interested in publishing books about this area in particular.  Most of their revenue comes from their various series books such as these Explorer's guides:

However, they do publish other books as well.  When I met with the managing editor, Anne Kraybill, in March, she and I discussed a few of the books from the Countryman imprint which were published in hardcover and had generated good sales thus far.  One is a historical book called King Phillip's War and the other is a book on the history and manufacture of cider called Cider Hard and Sweet.

The Countryman Press has two imprints. The Countryman imprint (shown above) under which the aforementioned books are published, and another imprint called Backcountry Books.  The Backcountry imprint is used for all of their outdoor, adventure-type books, such as the hiking and fishing guide books.  This imprint is probably what attractedWW Norton to Countryman.  WW Norton purchased the company in 1996 and is now responsible for all of the company's sales and distribution.  This unique relationship actually works out quite well for both sides.  Norton receives its share of the revenue and Countryman is able to remain relatively independent with its office in Vermont and its own pre-production staff. (Originally the company had its own warehouse in Woodstock from which the books were distributed.)  Countryman also gets the benefits of a larger company, most importantly the connections via which the books are marketed and sold.

Conclusions:
    The experience of visiting Countryman was an invaluable one.  I was particularly glad that it was such a small operation so that there is lots of opportunity for overlapping between departments.  This is one of the great advantages that you do not get with a larger company.  The staff in Woodstock seemed excited about the projects they were working on, and as I spoke with them individually, it was clear they all had strong stake in the reputation Countryman Press maintains.  Again, I thank  everyone at Countryman for all of the help and time out from their busy schedules they so graciously offered.

I guess that's everything. . .