An Independent Publisher for the 21st Century

The Rowman & Littlefield Alternative

FOUNDED IN 1949, Rowman & Littlefield is an independent press committed to an editorial mission increasingly sacrificed in a publishing era marked by corporate takeovers and university budget constraints. With the freedom to determine our own financial goals, we devote our resources to cultivating superb scholarship and innovative teaching in the academic disciplines we serve. Our renowned publishing tradition demonstrates that the calibre of authors, bookmaking, distribution, and creative interaction with scholars brings success. And we plan to carry this independent tradition far into the next century.

An Editorially Driven Company

As more presses cede publishing decisions to finance, marketing and other departments removed from the academy, we are determined that these decisions will remain with editors. We know from experience that good publishing results from a close alliance between author and editor.

We are convinced that authors, teachers, and book-buyers will welcome an independent press devoted to publishing scholarly books in the best tradition of university presses; innovative, thought-provoking texts for college courses; and crossover trade books intended to convey scholarly trends to an educated readership. Our approach emphasizes substance and quality of thought over ephemeral trends. We offer a forum for responsible voices representing the diversity of opinion on college campuses, and take special pride in several series designed to provide students with the pros and cons of hotly contested issues.

A generation ago, academic publishers relied on a well-funded library market to support new academic books, even highly specialized ones. Now that books compete with journals and electronic products for shrinking library budgets, publishers must search for new customers wherever they are. To reach the market-place of the 21st century, Rowman & Littlefield has launched aggressive and innovative efforts including:

Direct Mail

Long recognized as the most effective way to sell academic books, direct mail forms the basis of our marketing program. Every season we mail catalogs of new and recent books in each field, flyers that cluster hand-selected titles to targeted mailing lists, and flyers devoted to individual books for use in the classroom. In addition, each new title receives its own promotional flyer mailed to approximately 1,000 of the most likely buyers.

Click here to request the most recent R&L catalog.

Web Site

We respect the fact that the scholarly community built the Internet to be used as a tool for disseminating information and communicating with colleagues. Our Web site is designed to be such a resource. The site contains catalogs, tables of contents and soon will contain sample chapters of new books, teaching aids, and textbook updates and graphics as well as information about upcoming conferences and other special activities. Users may also order books and request examination copies.

Space Advertising

We advertise regularly in The New York Review of Books, leading journals of opinion, and the major professional journals in our fields.

General Bookstore Sales

Our sister company, National Book Network, is the nation's second largest distributor of independent trade presses. National Book Network (NBN) generates over 40 million dollars per year in sales to book chains and independent bookstores, giving our books a strong link to trade distribution unmatched by most other independent academic presses. Our broadest interest titles appear in the seasonal NBN catalog. In addition, a team of nationally recognized commissioned sales representatives presents the entire Rowman & Littlefield list to the leading wholesalers, superstores, and independent and college bookstores.

College Marketing and Text Development

Carefully targeted direct mail to key college course mailing lists is only the beginning of our efforts to promote our classroom books. Exam copies, telemarketing, follow-up mailings, Internet updates, and other traditional as well as new approaches to the college market ensure that professors know about our books, examine them in a timely way, and then receive the best customer service available when placing bookstore orders.

Market research for new and revised editions of core texts as well as innovative publishing of textbook supplements on timely and topical subjects make us the publisher of choice for authors, professors, and students alike.

International Sales

NBNi's UK info:
NBN International
10 Estover Road
Plymouth
Devon
PL6 7PY
UK

Customer Services

Tel: +44 (0) 1752 202301
Fax: +44 (0) 1752 202331
E-mail: cservs@nbninternational.com

Bookmaking

How many times has an author signed a publishing agreement and submitted a final text only to have it languish in an editorial logjam? Rowman & Littlefield produces books according to high production and manufacturing standards on production schedules that are the envy of the industry. Most of our books are transformed from final manuscript to bound books within six to nine months. Our outstanding staff of design and production professionals oversees a stable of talented freelance designers, copyeditors, and proofreaders committed to providing every manuscript the editorial attention it deserves and seeing that each new book is readable and handsomely produced. All books are printed to American Library Association standards.