Death of a Publisher

My book publisher is dead.

Okay, not dead yet, but the University Press of New England and ForeEdge – the publishers of Seven Million – will officially shut down at the end of this year.

When I heard this, I had no clue what this meant for the future of Seven Million, and the copies of it that UPNE still has for sale. (Though it pains me to admit this, two of the four newspapers at which I’ve worked are now shuttered, as soon will be the publisher of my first book. This continues a trend since I left college and the editor at a stellar weekly newspaper told me after a job interview that he would likely hire me. When I did not hear from him for several weeks, I called, only to learn he’d been fired shortly after that interview.  Make of all this what you will.)

Now, I could urge all of you who haven’t bought Seven Million now to do so, letting you know that the stock could be expiring. And, while I will do the former – go buy the book already – I can’t say the latter. That would be a lie.

Seven Million will continue to exist after UPNE goes away, perhaps purchased by another publisher or perhaps with rights returned to me. Here is part of the email to me and other UPNE-associated authors from the company director: ‘If you are a UPNE, ForeEdge, or Dartmouth College Press author, your book will become part of the backlist catalog that we are seeking to place with a new publisher/distributor beginning in January 2019. We will make an announcement once we have that in place.”

This Boston Globe article gives some of the UPNE history and news about its demise: bit.ly/2FyzC9f

So, I will continue to promote the book now as I have for the past year. Feel free to contact me if you’d like me to talk about Seven Million. The best way is through my email – thebrinksheist@gmail.com