On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we’re talking about publishing books with my guest Deborah Balmuth.
Deborah retired from Storey Publishing on September 30 after 31 years with the company. She began as an editor, became editorial director in 2003, and publisher in 2013. She especially enjoyed expanding Storey’s library of craft and herbal titles, working with authors including Helen Hiebert, Saffiyah Talley, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Kari Chapin, Thomas Knauer, Megumi Inyoue, Rosemary Gladstar, and Shannon Downey, to name a few. In her retirement, she’s looking forward to becoming a consumer of Storey books, with days filled with crafting, cooking, and making.
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We begin this conversation with Deborah talking about her early career working for small publishers in the Boston area, then moving out to Western Massachusetts where she was thrilled to discover that a publisher, Storey, was located. She began working at Storey when the couple who founded it were still the owners. Storey was sold to Workman Publishing in 2000 so, for the majority of the time Deborah was at the company, it was owned by Workman.
Mystical Stitches by Christi Johnson is one of the books Deborah talks about regarding creating a book that’s also a beautiful object.
Deborah talks about Storey’s philosophy of publishing fewer books each year, but continuing to keep books in print and committing to selling the back catalog for many, many years to come. She shares stories of going back to several authors a decade after their book was published to have them revise the book and rerelease it, something that’s certainly rare in the craft book world.
Deborah also shares her first experiences noticing that there was an increasing interest in herbs and traveling to a conference where she approached people to ask if they might like to write a book about herbs. This story illustrates and overall approach Deborah has had to keeping an ear to what is bubbling up in the culture and getting out early with a how-to book on that topic.
Farm Anatomy by Julia Rothman is a book Deborah references when it comes to the new interest in book illustration.
Deborah has now retired. Before leaving, she was asked by Storey employees to share how her process of acquiring books worked. After some reflection, Deborah shared with them (and with us) how she thinks about books, crafts, and publishing in today’s media landscape.
In April 2015, Deborah was also a guest on this podcast. Be sure to go back and listen to that episode as well because you’ll hear how craft publishing has changed over the last decade.
And, of course, I ask Deborah to recommend great stuff she’s enjoying right now. Deborah recommends:
- Let’s Move the Needle: An Activism Handbook for Artists, Crafters, Creatives, and Makers by Shannon Downey
- The Islesburgh Toorie hat pattern, part of this year’s Shetland Wool Week
- White Line Woodblock Printing with Lisa Houck at Snow Farm Craft
We hope you enjoy this conversation with Deborah.