To honor the memory of Mark Saunders, Director of the University of Virginia Press, who passed away recently, the Association of University Presses asked member presses to feature blog posts about those in university press publishing who have made a difference through their passion, curiosity, and generosity. We're finishing off the week with some comments from Angela Baggetta, the freelance publicist who works with us to promote our annual University Press Week. Her thoughtful and creative ideas have helped give our cause broader exposure. Here she explains what she's learned from the university press community.
In 2017 I had just set out on my own as a freelance publicist, and in an email exchange with a friend at Princeton University Press, he offered to connect me to the team coordinating University Press Week. They were seeking a publicist, and I was intrigued, even though my exposure to university presses at that point had been somewhat limited. I had worked with a handful of the larger UPs from time to time, but that was about it.
I walked into Book Expo and met a woman who needs no introduction to the UP community—Colleen Lanick, then of MIT Press, now of Harvard University Press, and a contagiously enthusiastic champion of university presses and the work they do. She and Frederic Nachbauer of Fordham University Press began my UP education that day. Even after working together now on three UP Weeks (2019 takes place the week of November 3—mark your calendars!), I’m always learning from and delighted by the colleagues I meet through this process.
A publicist who spends most of their career in trade publishing—or really, anyone in any job role in publishing—may never learn about the world of university presses. Aside from a few of the bigger names, UPs may be thought of as publishing dense, academic books on incredibly niche subjects, which few readers will ever care about. Well, let’s be honest: there will always be some books that fit this description…and some of them are even published by trade houses (!). But the strength of university presses is that they have clear missions that steer the work they do.
UPs are committed to publishing books that further knowledge in certain areas—or about certain geographic regions—in a way that directs the work of their editorial, marketing, sales, and publicity teams in definite and distinct ways. By holding central the goal of publishing the most accurate, peer-reviewed works, reflecting the latest thinking in the field, university presses perform an important service not only to academia, but also to the general public, who may learn of these ideas through the news media or other means as they move into the mainstream.
I will also confess I wasn’t aware of the work UPs do to publish literary works. In my very narrow worldview, non-fiction was their sole reason for being. But by publishing fiction and poetry—both in translation and by English-language writers—university presses not only give voice to lesser-known authors, but also help those who do not write in English find a following among English-language readers. Even some recent Nobel Prize winners have only been available in English through their university press editions.
Earlier in this post I mentioned the people I’ve met in the UP community, who are simply some of the smartest, most energetic, and thoughtful people I’ve had the pleasure of working with in publishing. In addition to Lanick and Nachbaur, I want to mention Brenna Mclaughlin and Annette Windhorn at AUPresses, who are marvelous colleagues. At the house level, I’ve worked most recently on book launches with the excellent teams at Yale, Harvard, and Oxford. And then there are the authors I’ve met through working on their UP books. Far from academic types who prefer to sit in ivory towers and think deep thoughts, these authors see their books as a way of moving the national conversation forward, and they are eager to engage with readers and media of all types.
A few months ago, I met with a book editor at a major newspaper to pitch him my projects for the coming months. “Wow, you work on a lot of university press books,” he said. And then continued, “there’s nothing quite like a good university press book, that’s smart and well-written.” I couldn’t agree more, and I look forward to continuing my education with you all.
