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• Company
Information
Mainspring
Press 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.
Mainspring Press Historical, our latest imprint,
is scheduled to launch in the latter half of 2010 and will specialize
in high-quality publications on American history and popular culture
for a more general audience.
Mainspring
Press LLC is a privately held company based in Wilmington, Delaware,
with an editorial office in Denver, Colorado. 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 21,000 visitors monthly from around
the world.
BACK
• Contacts
E-MAIL:
Go to and follow the instructions on our e-mail
link page
MAIL:
Mainspring Press, LLC
PO Box 631277
Littleton, CO 80163-1277 (USA)
PHONE:
•
General Inquiries: 303-683-3626 (M-F, 10AM
- 4PM Mountain Time)
Please note: Phone orders are not accepted; see Ordering
for other convenient options.
BACK
• Ordering
Options
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
Copy Policy
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 marked or unbound copies
to reviewers. To request a review copy, please write or e-mail
us with the following information: Your publication's title; its
ISSN or ISBN number; its 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 Prospective Authors
We
are currently considering manuscripts and proposals for publication
in 2010 and beyond. We welcome book-length (150-600 page)
proposals or sample manuscripts. Although we prefer to work with
published authors, we are happy to consider new authors with demonstrated
research and writing skills. Mainspring pays competitive royalties
and provides a level of personal attention to development, fact-checking,
editing, and production that larger publishers cannot.
Submissions to Mainspring Press (Historical sound recordings
and related topics) — Mainspring Press specializes
solely in discographies and other reference books dealing with pre-1950
sound recordings and the recording industry of that period. Our
interests include annotated discographies, industrial or corporate
histories (historic record companies and labels, early recording
technology, etc.), and bio-discographies. Proposals or manuscripts
that meet our initial criteria will undergo careful peer, editorial,
and marketing reviews to determine suitability for our list.
Submissions
to Mainspring Press Historical (General American history and popular
culture) — Our new imprint, scheduled to launch in
mid-to-late 2010, will focus on American history and popular culture
up to the present day, targeting a well-educated general readership.
Books will be high-quality illustrated paperbacks. As with our Mainspring
Press imprint, original research and impeccable source documentation
are essential. Please note that we will not be publishing fiction,
poetry, K-12, or children's books.
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 credible primary source materials.
We do not accept works that have been simply cobbled together from
previously published works, or that rely on blogs, Wikipedia, etc.,
as sources.
We
prefer to review substantially complete manuscripts but also welcome
detailed 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 representative 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. Manuscripts
and proposals are treated as strictly confidential and are never
duplicated or distributed outside of the company.
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 no longer accept typewritten or other "camera-ready"
hard copy for final publication, but will be glad to assist you
in locating reputable vendors who can convert your copy to standard-format
files. Please note, however, that we do not pay those conversion
costs.
For
consideration or more information, please contact us 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 anonymous; no financial or personally identifiable information
was requested or supplied.
AGE
RANGE:
18–30 = 19%
31–40 = 27%
41–55 = 35%
Over 55 = 19%
EDUCATIONAL
LEVEL:
High-school diploma = 10%
High-school diploma + some college = 16%
Bachelors degree or bachelors degree + additional study = 39%
Advanced degree = 35%
PRIMARY
OCCUPATION:
Miscellaneous 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%
Other = 11%
PRIMARY RESIDENCE:
UNITED
STATES = 68%
California = 11%
Texas = 10%
Oregon / Washington state = 9%
New York = 9%
Washington DC / Maryland / Delaware / Virginia =
9%
Minnesota / Wisconsin = 8%
New England states = 8%
Florida = 6%
Illinois = 5%
Other = 25%
ELSEWHERE
= 32%
United Kingdom = 22%
Germany
= 21%
Australia / New Zealand = 17%
Scandinavian nations = 17%
Japan = 12%
Canada = 4%
Other = 7%
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