City Spotlight: Book Publishing in Boston

Trade Presence
Little Brown and Company, which was founded in Boston in 1837, moved its editorial offices to New York around 1989, but still maintains a presence in Boston. "Little Brown has an office up here, but it's not the 'sexy publishing,'" says Rodzvilla. As for Pearson, Cengage and Wiley Blackwell, she says, "while they are not the Big Six, they are making a lot of money and offering a lot of opportunities."

Harvard Business Review Press is often thought of as an academic publisher but it is primarily a trade publisher, says publisher Sarah McConville. The house has a relationship with Harvard University Business School but is not affiliated with it. McConville says that although the press has an office in Cambridge, it also has offices in London and India and is looking to open another location in Asia. "We certainly do have wonderful relationships with booksellers here in Boston and similarly with libraries," she says. "I would say for our publishing program we do think of it globally."

Da Capo Press publisher John Radziewicz had comments in a similar vein.

"Da Capo is part of the Perseus Books Group, so we are part of a larger independent publishing company that has offices in many cities. We fit into the Boston landscape in a certain way, but also the New York landscape, the Berkeley landscape and the Philadelphia landscape because we have editors in all those places. … I consider myself part of the publishing scene, not the Boston scene. Now more than ever in a time of instantaneous communication, where you are [located doesn't have] as much relevance," he says.

The trade publisher, which was founded in 1964, became part of Perseus in 1999 and publishes a range of books in classics, literature, humanities and wellness. It happens to be the "premiere publisher" of books on veganism in the United States, says Radziewicz.