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How to succeed in publishing with nary a best-seller.

How to succeed in publishing with nary a best-seller.

Authors :
Cohen, D.
Source :
Smithsonian. Jul87, Vol. 18 Issue 4, p83-90. 8p.
Publication Year :
1987

Abstract

This article describes Dover Publications Inc. which specializes in out-of-print titles, long-dead authors and game books. As founder and president Dover Publications Inc., Hayward Cirker catches inspiration for new titles by leafing through stacks of vintage Harper's and Puck magazines, dated scientific tracts and forgotten mystery thrillers. Each week Cirker and his editorial board rescue out-of-print books from obscurity and grant them a lasting presence in bookstores, giving slighted authors a second chance they deserved years, sometimes centuries, earlier. Dover has published neglected works by such notables as the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, architect Eliel Saarinen, artist Raphael Soyer and explorer Robert E. Peary, as well as a bevy of younger talents. They join a stable of Dover-published writers, immortals like Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Giuseppe Verdi, Charles Darwin, Käthe Kollwitz, Lewis Carroll, René Descartes, Frank Lloyd Wright and Johann Sebastian Bach. Even with that lineup, Dover in its 46 years of publishing has never once landed a book on the best-seller lists. But by returning hundreds of arcane titles to print, it has won the loyalty of many of the nation's astronomers, keyboard musicians, graphic designers, historians, binders, crocheters, mystery fans, theoretical physicists and paper doll collectors.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
00377333
Volume :
18
Issue :
4
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Smithsonian
Publication Type :
Periodical
Accession number :
8700003949