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From Poisoned Pen Press:
 Artifacts
by Mary Anna Evans
Blood for Blood
by S. K. Rizzolo
The Rose in the Wheel
by S. K. Rizzolo
The Girl in the Nile
by Michael Pearce
Dangerous Undertaking
by Mark de Castrique
A Picture of Guilt
by Libby Fischer Hellmann
Artifacts
by Mary Anna Evans
No Happy Ending
by Paco Ignacio Taibo II
Dangerous Undertaking
by Mark de Castrique
Pale Shadow
by Robert E. Skinner
Spiked
by Arsenault Mark
The Camel of Destruction
by Michael Pearce
The Spoils of Egypt
by Michael Pearce
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Poisoned Pen Press
Robert Rosenwald and Barbara Peters
Sometime in 1996 Robert Rosenwald and his wife, Barbara Peters, started bemoaning the shrinking midlist. They own and operate a nationally-known bookstore in Scottsdale, The Poisoned Pen. As mystery lovers and sellers they noticed that consolidations in the publishing industry were causing a significant loss of the kinds of books their independent mystery bookstore relied on. The loss wasn't simply a dearth of new titles.
It included the way good work was going out of print, no longer supported by major publishing houses. So, they decided to start a publishing company.
Almost immediately they were approached by authors and agents who asked if they would consider original manuscripts. They published four books in 1997, seven books in 1998, eleven in 1999 and for the last two years have been publishing thirty-six per year. Their company now averages two original mysteries and one reprint per month. In addition, they produce one or two non-fiction mystery-related reference works per year.
Among the authors whose early works they have reprinted are Val McDermid, Susan Moody, Bill Tapply, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Robert Barnard, Robert Rosenberg, Nora Kelly, P.C. Doherty, Paco Taibo, Edward Marston, and Les Standiford. Poisoned Pen Press has about 150 different titles in print right now. And, quite unusual for a small press, after three years of serious consideration the company is beginning to make its books available in large print editions. They plan on having large print editions available at the same time as the initial hardcover.
Perhaps the biggest distinction between large and small publishers is approach. Smaller presses tend to specialize, make more publishing decisions based on what they believe is "merit" and have more modest expectations of profitability. Poisoned Pen Press, for instance, will produce as few as 1,000 copies in an initial printing where major houses often feel 15-25,000 is a reasonable goal. Robert and Barbara steadfastly maintain that they will support an author even if their expectation is to break even on a title after a full two years.
In fact they know some of the books they publish may never break even. A few years ago, for example, the publishing house offered a mystery in verse by H.R.F. Keating. They expected to sell about one hundred copies, clearly not enough to warrant the effort as a business project. But as is the case with some small press experiments, Keating's book was a pleasant commercial surprise and actually turned a small profit.
But librarians should know that a small press's different agenda doesn't remove the economic realities of business. They are profit-oriented. They have to be. But they don't aim for as quick a profit nor as large one as big publishing houses.
Plus, they are always looking for the unusual. Robert Rosenwald says he "encourages librarians to come to us to suggest authors and books that they would like to see back in print." Email robert@poisonedpenpress.com or write them at Poisoned Pen Press, The Poisoned Pen, a Mystery Bookstore, 4014 N Goldwater Blvd.,
Suite 101, Scottsdale, AZ 85251.
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