Publishing
Small Publishers Book Big Rewards. Nonmainstream presses generated $14 billion in 2005 — more than half of all book sales — by targeting niche readers. By Stacy Perman, Business Week. …small presses are championing new voices, focusing on niche markets or subjects and genres that have either been ignored by the big houses or simply deemed unprofitable — such as poetry and foreign authors. They are creating whole businesses by reissuing out-of-print classics and maintaining the tradition of printing literary fiction.
Archipelago publishes 8 to 10 titles a year. As a non-profit, the house relies on donations from foundations and individuals. “I knew we couldn’t make it if we relied only on sales,” Schoolman says. That way the house can stick to its mission and plow any profits back into publishing. And that allows Schoolman to bring unknowns such as Croatian writer Miljenko Jergov