The day has finally arrived! As of August 1, 2018 all 2Leaf Press backlist and forthcoming titles will be available for sale through The University of Chicago Press (UCP). 2Leaf Press is the first U.S. black/brown woman-led publisher to be marketed and distributed by UCP. This certainly wasn’t intentional, but it sure is an added plus that’s worth mentioning as a major milestone while we continue to build and expand 2Leaf Press.
You’re probably wondering what the fuss is all about. When the press was founded in 2012, we were basically a Createspace shop, publishing books (primarily poetry) using their print-on-demand service. In time we began to outgrow their services, and while we did have books available through Ingram, the money spent there didn’t earn enough income to cover our costs. What we needed was a full service, well-established and respected book distributor willing to help 2Leaf Press reach its full potential with improved production values and marketing to increase book sales. We found this and more in The University of Chicago Press. Here is a breakdown of the services that 2Leaf Press is now able to deliver to its customers:
- 2Leaf Press print books and ebooks will be available for sale on a wide variety of online outlets. Booksellers, wholesalers, libraries, and institutions can now order 2Leaf Press books from UCP here.
- All of our books will be stored on BiblioVault and published by UCP’s Chicago Digital Distribution Center (CDDC), providing us with higher quality print-on-demand and short-run printing.
- Instructors, professors and teachers can request examination copies of our books with UCP here.
- Media and the press may request review copies through UCP here.
- All of 2Leaf Press books will be listed on UCP’s website here.
- Beginning in Spring 2019, 2Leaf Press’ forthcoming books will be listed in UCP’s catalogs.
On this last note, the first 2Leaf Press titles to appear in UCP’s Spring 2019 catalog will include: Dream of the Water Children: Memory and Mourning in the Black Pacific by Fredrick D. Kakinami Cloyd; the poetry collections, Ransom Street by Claire Millikin and Wounds Fragments Derelict by Carlos Gabriel Kelly; Strength of Soul by Naomi Raquel Enright; Trailblazers, Black Women Who Helped Make America Great, American Firsts/American Icons by Gabrielle David, and Designs of Blackness, Mappings in the Literature and Culture of African Americans by A. Robert Lee.
As part of this transition, 2Leaf Press will be selling both print and ebooks on its website through UCP by Fall 2018.
There’s a lot going on here . . . but it’s all good.
Since 2012, 2Leaf Press has struggled yet remained steadfast in its commitment to produce innovative and timely work. As we began to expand into the arts/humanities and social sciences, it was clear that we needed help. What’s great about being associated with UCP is that it has established a long tradition of taking chances with smaller presses, which will allow us to steer the press into a new direction. As a newly-minted client publisher of UCP, in the case of 2Leaf Press I’d like to think of ourselves as a little gold nugget surrounded by heavyweights such as The University of Chicago Press, University of Iowa Press, Ohio University Press, and American Meteorological Society that’s nestled among more like-minded small presses like Pluto Press, Front Forty Press, and PenUltimate Press. Together, these presses are part of a diverse list of over one-hundred client publishers of UCP. I love our new home!
Upon completion of our transition, I look forward to 2Leaf Press getting into a nice groove that will allow me to focus more on promoting our writers, and procuring and developing innovative works in literature, non-fiction and scholarship, while UCP manages the more vigorous aspects of the business like distribution, marketing and print production.
The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style (which, by the way is the Bible for 2Leaf Press), numerous academic journals, and advanced monographs in the academic fields. Since its founding in 1891, UCP has, from the beginning, operated with the University’s mandate to educate, advocate and innovate—a charge that it continues to this day—which sits squarely with 2Leaf Press’ mission.
Hooray to the folks at The University of Chicago Press’s CDC, CDDC and BiblioVault for all of their efforts in helping to make this happen.
Cheers and thanks to our authors, readers and supporters for their ongoing inspiration and support. Celebrate!
—Gabrielle David, Publisher
