| • COMPANY
INFORMATION
Mainspring
Press, LLC, specializes in high-quality, peer-reviewed books and
electronic publications for researchers, librarians, archivists,
and advanced collectors of historic sound recordings. The company
was launched in 1999, initially to provide online resources for
record researchers and collectors. It became a full-time book-publishing
operation in early 2002. Mainspring Press Digital was launched
in early 2008 to produce CD-ROMs and digital databases.
We
are a privately held company based in Wilmington, Delaware, with
an editorial office in Littleton, Colorado. The company is owned and operated
exclusively by and for researchers, archivists, and collectors
of historic sound recordings. We hold exclusive world rights to
such respected work as the Victor
Discography Series, the Edison
Discography Series, and Jazz &
Ragtime Records. Our growing author
list includes John R. Bolig, Raymond Wile, Kurt Nauck, Brian
Rust, and other internationally recognized experts in early recorded
sound. Mainspring Press works closely with an international community
of advanced researchers and collectors, and is proud to be a member
of The Association for Recorded Sound
Collections.
Our free online journal for record
collectors and researchers celebrates its tenth year online
in April 2009. With new and carefully documented content posted
regularly, the Mainspring website is one of the most-visited sites
for record collectors, averaging more than 20,000 visitors monthly
from around the world.
BACK
• CONTACTS
PLEASE
NOTE BEFORE CONTACTING US: We
do not appraise or purchase old records, or make dealer referrals.
E-MAIL:
Follow the instructions on our e-mail link
page to ensure that your message is received and read.
MAIL:
Mainspring Press
PO Box 631277
Littleton, CO 80163-1277 (USA)
PHONE:
•
General Inquiries: 303-683-3626 (M-F, 10AM
- 4PM Mountain Time)
• Phone orders are not accepted; see Ordering
for other convenient options.
BACK
• ORDERING
To
order any Mainspring publication, use our convenient secure
online shopping cart with Visa, Mastercard, or PayPal (click
here to view our security statement). You may also order
by mail with Visa Mastercard, PayPal, personal check or money
order (U.S. orders only), or international money order or bank
draft (in US$ payable at a U.S. bank, and subject to final clearance
by the issuing institution).
Information
for distributors, retailers, and institutions using purchase orders
will be found on our purchase order page.
BACK
• REVIEW
COPIES
Because
of high demand for review copies, we must limit distribution to
print publications with verifiable circulation or sales data and
an appropriate audience. To prevent unauthorized resale
of review copies we may, at our discretion, supply unbound copies
to reviewers. To request a review copy, please write or e-mail
us with the following information: Publication title; ISSN or
ISBN number; publisher's name and contact information; audited
or other verifiable circulation or sales statistics; date of the
issue in which the review is scheduled to appear; and the publisher's agreement
to supply us with a complimentary copy of the publication(s) in
which the review(s) appear.
We generally do not supply review copies to websites, radio stations,
or other non-print media.
BACK
• INFORMATION
FOR AUTHORS
We
are currently considering manuscripts and proposals for publication
in 2010 and beyond.
Mainspring Press welcomes serious book-length proposals (150-600+
pages) from researchers with demonstrated writing skills and expertise
in pre-1940 sound recordings, recording business and technology,
and music. Our interests include annotated discographies, industrial
or corporate histories (historic record companies and labels,
early recording technology, etc.), and bio-discographies. We do
not publish fiction, children's or school books, or works derived
mainly from secondary sources. Proposals or manuscripts that meet
our initial criteria will undergo careful peer, editorial, and
marketing reviews to determine suitability for our list.
Mainspring
pays above-average royalties and provides a level of personal
attention to development, fact-checking, editing, and production
that larger publishers cannot. We are able to target our titles
to collectors and researchers far more effectively than large
generalist houses.
To
be considered for publication, a proposed work must be based on
the author’s original research and incorporate a substantial
amount of properly cited data from primary source materials (for example, original diaries or personal papers, interviews, historic newspaper and trade-publication articles, court and legal documents,
patent and trademark filings, company archives and recording files,
and first-hand inspection of original recordings and catalogs). Manuscripts
must be targeted to a well-educated adult audience.
We
prefer to review substantially complete manuscripts but also welcome
serious proposals, which should include (1) a cover letter stating
the title and scope of your project; (2) a proposed table of contents;
(3) a complete preface or introduction to the work; (4) at least
20 pages of sample text; and (5) an estimated completion date.
Please include your resume or curriculum vitae and a
stamped, addressed envelope for return of your materials.
Print-outs are acceptable for proposals and samples. However, if your work is accepted, we will require text files to be in a standard word-processing format (.doc, .rtf, or .txt), and discographies to be in spreadsheet, database, or consistent tab-delimited text formats using Excel, Access, FileMaker, MS-Word, or other standard software.
We
also welcome short, high-quality articles for use on our free
online journal. Authors are not paid
for web articles, but are fully credited, retain all rights to
their work, and are free to revise, withdraw, or publish their
articles elsewhere at any time.
For
consideration or more information, please contact by mail or e-mail
at the addresses shown above.
BACK
• CUSTOMER
DEMOGRAPHICS
The
following data are taken from our last customer poll, conducted
in early 2007. Responses
were anoymous, with no personally identifiable information requested
or supplied.
PRIMARY
COLLECTING INTEREST:
Classical / Operatic = 31% | Jazz
/ Blues = 31% | Vintage Popular = 19% | Labels
= 10% | Country Music = 4% | All
others = 5%
AGE:
18–30 = 19% | 31–40
= 27% | 41–55 = 35% | Over
55 = 19%
EDUCATION:
HS diploma = 10% | HS
+ some college = 16% | Bachelors degree
= 39% | Advanced degree = 35%
OCCUPATION:
Other Technical / Professional = 35% | Legal
/ Financial = 8% | Education = 8% | Sales
/ Marketing = 7% | Publishing / Media
= 7% | Arts / Entertainment = 7% | Medical
/ Healthcare = 6% | Software / Technology
= 6% | Retired = 5% | All
others = 11%
PRIMARY
RESIDENCE :
United
States = 68%
California = 11% | Texas = 10% | Oregon
/ Washington = 9% | New York = 9% | Washington
DC / Maryland / Virginia = 9% | Minnesota
/ Wisconsin = 8% | New England states = 8% |
Florida = 6% | All others = 30%
Elsewhere
= 32%
United Kingdom = 22% | Germany = 21% |
Australia / New Zealand = 17% | Scandinavian
nations = 17% | Japan = 12% |
Canada = 4% | All others = 7%
|
