BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – “The biggest passion is having the author come in at the end of the day with their finished book and be like ‘thank you, this was my dream come true,”
Rachel Fisher, the Onion River Press Print and Production Director said.
A new chapter in the Vermont publishing world began in 2017, when Burlington’s Onion River Press and Montpelier’s Rootstock Publishing were founded.
“If you think of authors as the root of the creativity, we take their rootstock and publish it out into the world and make it grow and make it bigger,” Samantha Kolber, Rootstock Publishing Owner and Publisher said.
They’re just two of a small number of publishers that call the Green Mountain State home.
Both operate under a mostly hybrid model of publishing – which toes the line between traditional and self-publishing.
Writers front most of the costs themselves, with the publishers walking them through the entire publishing process.
“It is a collaboration. Instead of an author having to go off on their own, and try to amass all of the resources you really need to publish a book, like finding an editor, finding a designer, understanding how all the different platforms work, choosing who your printer’s going to be, a hybrid publisher does that all for you,” Rachel Carter, Onion River Press Editorial Director said.
They say that traditional publishing is getting harder, but that hybrid publishers can help fill the void, especially in getting underrepresented groups published.
“There are so many authors out there that have amazing stories to tell, but if you don’t know the right person to get into the agency or the publishing house, it’s not gonna go anywhere,” Carter said.
While both publishers work mostly with Vermont authors, they have published work from writers across the country.
Since 2017, Rootstock has published over 60 books, while Onion River Press has published over 100.
These books are carried online, in bookstores nationally, and right here in Vermont at stores like Phoenix and Bear Pond Books.
“In five years, we’re definitely going to keep growing. I think we’ll have double the amount of books per year. I’d like to hire people more full time, instead of part-time, so I’m hoping that we’ll maybe get to 50 books a year.,” Kolber said.
But they’re not looking to compete with the large publishing companies.
“I think Vermont itself is on the smaller-scale with lots of passion in all of its endeavors, so I think we take the publishing element of that and put our passion into that as well,” Fisher said.