| • COMPANY
INFORMATION
Mainspring Press specializes in high-quality, peer-reviewed books for researchers, librarians, archivists, and advanced collectors of historic sound recordings. The company was launched as a part-time venture in 1999, initially to provide free online articles for record researchers and collectors. It became a full-time book publishing operation in early 2002.
Mainspring Press LLC is a privately held Delaware company, with an editorial office in Colorado. The company is operated exclusively by and for researchers, archivists, and collectors of historic sound recordings. We hold exclusive world rights to such respected titles as Paramount's Rise and Fall, Jazz
and Ragtime Records (1897-1942), and The Victor Discography Series. Our growing author list includes John R. Bolig, Raymond Wile, Kurt Nauck, Brian Rust, and other internationally recognized experts in early recorded sound.
Our free web journal for record collectors and researchers celebrates its ninth year online in April 2008. With new, carefully documented content posted regularly, Mainspring's online journal now averages more than 28,000 visitors monthly from around the world.
Mainspring Press is proud to be a member of the Publishers' Association of the West and The Association for Recorded Sound Collections.
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• CONTACTS
E-MAIL:
Please follow instructions on our e-mail
link page to ensure that your message is received and read.
MAIL:
Mainspring Press
c/o Allan Sutton
9230 S. Buttonhill Court
Littleton, CO 80130 (USA)
PHONE — BEFORE CALLING, PLEASE NOTE:
• We cannot advise on the value or sale of old records.
• Phone orders are not accepted, but see ORDERING (below) for many other convenient options.
General Inquiries: 303-683-3626
(M-F, 10AM - 4PM
Mountain Time)
BACK
• ORDERING
To
order any Mainspring publication, use our convenient secure online shopping cart with Visa, Mastercard, or PayPal. 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 institition).
Information
for distributors, retailers, and institutions using purchase orders
will be found on our purchase order page.
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• 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 request a review copy, please write or e-mail us with the following information: Publication title, ISSN or ISBN number, publisher's name and phone number or e-mail address, verifiable circulation or sales statistics, and date of the issue in which the review is to appear.
We generally do not supply review copies to websites, radio stations, or other non-print media.
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• INFORMATION
FOR AUTHORS
Please note: Our production schedule is fully booked through 2008. We are currently considering proposals for publication in 2009 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, personal memoirs, children's or school books, or works compiled mainly from secondary sources. Proposals or manuscripts that meet our criteria will undergo
careful peer, editorial, and marketing reviews.
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 market 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 should incorporate a substantial amount of properly
cited data from primary source materials (e.g., interviews, original diaries or personal papers, period newspaper
and trade-publication articles, legal documents, patent and trademark filings, company
archives and recording files, first-hand inspection of original
recordings, etc.). 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, but we require standard word-processing files (.doc, .rtf, or .txt format) for final manuscript submissions. Discographies are accepted only as spreadsheet, database, or tab-delimited text files created in Excel, Access, FileMaker, or other standard programs. Camera-ready pages and ordinary word-processor files cannot be accepted for discographies.
We
are also soliciting short, high-quality articles for 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.
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