Allan Kornblum—along with a handful of other upstart publishers in the 1970s—created a new model for American publishing, what came to be called “the small press movement.” Kornblum began publishing letterpress editions of poetry books in Iowa City in the '70s under the Toothpaste Press imprint, which in 1984, after relocating to arts-friendly Minneapolis, was rechristened Coffee House Press. Now, 25 years later, Coffee House is an institution, one of a handful of elite small presses that have created a place in the book market for “writers of merit that don't have quite the audience to generate the numbers that publishing in its current state seems to require of the bigger houses,” as Kornblum explains. While Coffee House's longevity is itself a major achievement, what's perhaps most interesting about Kornblum is his vision for the press's future.
Kornblum's plans have involved some serious fund-raising. Coffee House recently received one-time funding from the McKnight Foundation, Target, the Bush Foundation and others to support the press's move to a new headquarters and the development of a strategic plan for the future of the press. Additionally, the press was accepted into the 10-year Regional Arts Development Program sponsored by the Bush Foundation. In his application for this program, Kornblum outlined a plan to get the nonprofit press debt free by 2019 as well as a leadership transition that will see Kornblum step down from the day-to-day operations.
“We're not the first to see the press through a second generation of leadership,” says Kornblum, “but I believe we are the first in which that second generation was very deliberately nurtured and the succession was very carefully planned. One of the imperatives of a good manager is that you're supposed to be looking for your successor. I was delighted to find one in the person of Chris Fishbach.” The plan is for Fishbach, who has been at the press since 1995 and currently has the title of senior editor, to gradually take over Kornblum's editorial and managerial responsibilities over the next couple of years, with the final changeover slated for July 2011. Kornblum won't be leaving the press entirely, so he will also spend the next couple of years redefining his role.
In the meantime, Kornblum has lots to do. “There are a number of issues,” he says. “One of them is, how are books going to be sold in the future.” He's been doing a lot of thinking about the history of the publishing business and how it might predict the future: “I think a lot about two paradigms—the horse and buggy versus the automobile and theater versus film. Obviously, the horse and buggy was put out of business, but theater didn't die. It shrank a bit, and vaudeville dropped out. What is publishing's vaudeville?” he wonders. “And after it drops out, will there be enough critical mass to sustain indie bookstores and even the chains?”
Kornblum is also taking steps toward publishing his list in electronic format, something small presses have been slow in doing. “We've been talking to Perseus [parent company of distributor Consortium] and looking at [its] contract and also looking at a contract from a smaller local distributor, and we're about to make a decision with regard to who we're going to go to for e-book distribution,” says Kornblum.
Like the trade presses, Coffee House relies heavily on its backlist, though the economics are a bit different. “The book industry is based on the notion of it being a high volume, moderate-to-low profit margin business. We have the small profit margin, but not the high volume, so we've had to find another way. Small presses didn't invent backlist sales, but we are able to keep books in print even if the inventory falls down to 100 copies. Those books keep selling, and it's very gratifying. You look at the monthly sales and see a book that you published 20 years ago, and you get a fond feeling for that book all over again, like an old friend.”
Kornblum still deeply believes in the small press ethos and in what his fellow founders of the small press movement have achieved in establishing viable businesses. But he also believes “the more ragtag, less formal efforts”—like Coffee House when it began—“continue to make their own vital contribution. Very few of us come to publishing from backgrounds in publishing. I didn't come to it naturally. It took me a while to learn how to do it right. In some ways, I'm still learning. One of the things that attracted me to the field is that there's always more to learn.”
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