A Pressing Situation for Books

Paper is everywhere. Manila folders burst out of shelves in the publicity hallway, overflowing with press releases and reviews for past titles. Books fill the offices of the small three-story building. Clothbound volumes decades old press up against colorful editions published this year. Jacket covers hang on the walls in lieu of pictures.These people love books. Welcome to the Harvard University Press.

Founded in 1913, the Harvard University Press is one of the nation’s most renowned university presses. Its collection of scholarly books, as well as the Loeb Classical Library and I Tatti Renaissance Library, have earned the Press a coveted place among academic publishers.

“Yesterday, we had a visit from people at the King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. They wanted to know our secret,” Editor-in-Chief Michael G. Fisher ’73 says.

As the publishing industry struggles to adapt to changing readership, Press employees hope that the “secret” to their success—as they see it, conscientious editing—will sustain them in the future.

This editorial process has made the Press’s name. “[It] embodies one of the great editorial traditions of scholarly publishing in this country or anywhere else,” says Peter J. Dougherty, Director of the Princeton University Press.


FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The Press publishes about 200 manuscripts a year. Standards are high. Representatives of the press often scour academic conventions for the newest and freshest ideas. The nine acquisition editors follow scholars whose work might one day prove promising. Each is an expert in his or her field.

“We’re lapsed academics,” says Elizabeth Knoll, an acquisition editor for Behavior Sciences, Education and Law.

Just like getting into Harvard itself, getting one’s work into the Press is a struggle. “I had had a professional dream of publishing with them for years. I had to convince them that they should publish me,” Dr. Mark S. Micale says. Micale, a History professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ultimately succeeded. The Press published his most recent book on medical history, “Hysterical Men,” last fall.

Obtaining the rights to publish a book is only the beginning of an extended process. Authors keep in constant contact with their editors, as they send in chapters and discuss ideas.

“They helped me present my material so that it would maximize its interest and reach beyond just other academic specialists,” Micale explains.

Manuscript editors then go through the draft to improve the quality of the prose. Before it can be printed, the manuscript must also be reviewed anonymously by two other experts in the field. Then the book, vetted and designed, can finally be sent out to the outside companies that compose and print the final product. Over the course of the process, Knoll says, “We shape, curate, and disseminate information.”


NEW FACE OF BOOKS

While this review process has made the Press’ name, staff members are always looking for new ways to make their books more relevant to the modern reader. For example, catchy design can make a scholarly work more accessible. Recently, the Press reissued the John Harvard Library, a series of American writings originally printed in the 1970s. Stormy blue-grey portraits of individual authors appear on the covers of each edition. The portraits, by contemporary artist Robert Carter, add energy to the old writings.

“It gives a new feeling to these figures that people have just seen in dusty gilded frames and old galleries,” Carter says about his work.

Fisher agrees. “Have you ever seen an issue of ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ that looked so readable?” he asks.

And following trends that are emerging in the rest of the industry, the Press has moved to the Internet to encourage potential readers to return to books. The Press now has a blog and a Facebook.com page. Traffic is still minimal: the blog averages about 200 hits a day. Harvard University Press’ Twitter.com has over 1200 followers; Yale’s has over 1600.

Blog posts and tweets announce information pertaining to everything from restaurant shout-outs to news stories—be they about publishing or another, totally unrelated subject. “It’s a good way to get the news out quickly and informally,” Senior Publicist Andrew Battle says. He’s wearing a green shirt stamped with the seal of the Loeb Classical Library, except that the seated Athena holds a beer. The back reads, “Homer, 82.” “It’s the shirt for the Press softball team,” Battle explains.

The Press is looking toward the future—they have to be. Sales are down across the publishing industry. “There was once the post-Gutenberg generation. Now we are dealing with the post-Google generation,” says Sharmilla Sen ’92, an acquisition editor for the Humanities.

Still, the editors are confident that the services they provide to academia and readers at large will not become obsolete. “We perform a scholarly function—it’s eminently transportable to other media,” Knoll says. They hope that while information-gathering is changing, the book will remain relevant.

“In 20 years, there’s still going to be paper in this office,” says Knoll.