Coffee House Press

Coffee House Press (CHP) originally started in 1972 as a small letterpress company, founded by Allan Kornblum. It was inspired by the small publishers movement of the 60s and 70s, and was officially made into a publisher in 1984. Now Coffee House Press is an internationally renowned nonprofit publisher.

Mission

Coffee House Press is more interested in publishing works that are creative and unconventional than works that are mainstream and make a lot of money. They are devoted to expanding the definition of literature and who it belongs to. Their ultimate goal is to be the nation's leading independent literary publisher and to spread their literature to new audiences.

Structure

Ownership

CHP is a nonprofit organization led by a board of directors, in which there is a president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary. The company itself is led by a staff of nine: Linda A. Ewing as Executive Director, Robyn Earhart as Production Editor, Cara Geze as Development Associate, Laura Graveline as Director of Publicity, Mark Haber as Director of Marketing, Ulrika Moats as Director of Operations, Michael Shuldt as Finance Manager, and Ken Chen and Youmna Chlala both as Spatial Species Editors. The head of operations, executive director Linda Ewing, has a long history in managing nonprofits with several different companies before working for Coffee House Press. Most if not all of the staff studied some form of English or education in college and had experience in writing or publishing before joining CHP.

Financials

Being a nonprofit organization, the press receives most of its funding from donations, private foundations, corporate giving programs, and government programs. They gain about $1 million in revenue each year, half of which they spend on staff salaries. Their last tax form from 2023 indicates that the publisher made a negative profit that year, but it appears that this was not a major setback as they most likely had money left over from previous years and/or receive enough donations to keep their mission alive.

Publishing Program

Catalog

Coffee House Press prints all of the common types of literature: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and even translation. CHP is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, so they also have a separate section of their website dedicated to authors from Minnesota. The works they print tend to have a central theme of questioning the status quo in literature and addressing topics the public tends to avoid or ignore, like mental health, sexuality, and the downsides of capitalism.

The overall impression of Coffee House Press' catalog consists of sophisticated, elevated literature. The cover designs tend to be abstract, yet pleasing, giving audiences the sense that the works themselves are outside the norm but still palatable. The press' website and brand follow this trend, sporting neutral colors for the brand logo and a clean, minimalistic, modern design for the website itself.

Logistics

Right now, Coffee House Press exclusively publishes in print, but some titles can be accessed on e-book via Overdrive, an online library service. PDF copies of their books can also be provided to teachers upon request. Coffee House Press's graphic design, book production, and typesetting services have all most recently been done by Bookmobile and Offset. Books from CHP generally cost around $18.00 on average, but can range from $8.95 – $60.00 for an individual book. They also offer seasonal subscriptions — where, if purchased, one would receive every book printed within that season — for $155.00 per season.

Community

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