Old mansion turned bookstore and publishing press in Reno
Jacob Kostuchowski reports on what it is like to run a local publishing press, with Christine Kelly and Danilo Thomas from Sundance and Baobab Press.
Have you ever seen the old mansion down on Sierra and California Street? Have you ever wondered what was inside that old building? Well, this historical spot is the home of Sundance Books and Music along with its sister company Baobab Press.
Sundance has been a Reno staple since 1985. Selling books, music, and little knickknacks Sundance has earned its spot in Reno, but the spot holds more than just a books store. It is also the home for Baobab Press, a local book publishing house.
Christine Kelly, the owner of Sundance and Baobab, started the press back in 1997 with the goal of being able to give authors the chance to share their work. “Baobab is really kind of the love child of the bookstore,” she said. “Really I mean, the idea and sort of the joy of dealing with books and working with book people and working with authors really was sort of the instigation of us starting our own press.”
Each publishing press has a different process in how they go through the publishing process, but Baobab likes it to be open to anyone around the world. So, to achieve that they use a service called Submittable that allows any author to send Baobab their manuscripts. The main thing that Baobab is looking for in the submissions is invention and risk.
Danilo Thomas, the managing editor at Baobab, spoke on their process of getting a book published. “We go about the editing process, which is reading and offering our opinions and then the author’s take what they will from that and sculpt their works around that. That usually takes about two or three months.” He continued, “And then from that point on, we have done a lot of the things that you don’t typically see in universities talking about editors and publishing and things like that, is that the majority of it is then building your marketing portfolios. That’s all you know, getting people to blurb and say this is the best book that was ever written and then you know, getting it out in front of people using your distribution and getting it actually printed.”
And while Baobab will read every submission authors send their way, they do have a bit more of a bias on books that come from the Mountain West or are at least Mountain West adjacent. And with that said the actual books get distributed through a company called Publishers Group West, which is a company that works with independent publishers to give said publishers the possibility to scale their operations.
Kelly said, “Printing and binding, we try to keep it on the continent. On occasion, we’ve had to go overseas but predominantly, we try to keep it in the States or on the continent. And as far as distribution goes, We’re nationally distributed and internationally distributed. So that happens out of the Midwest where the primary warehouses are, and then it just feeds all the various networks.”
Just like most publishing presses and the literary market in general, Baobab operates at a small margin. “We are a small margin business, the book businesses a small margin business, the publishing businesses as a small margin business. It’s a division of volume. And so you know, how we look at things and what we expect. I think we have a realistic expectation of what we’re doing. And what we can accomplish,” Kelly said.
With all that said, Christine Kelly is not just running a publishing press, she is also running a bookstore. She finds herself to be lucky though because the group of employees that she has really helps things come into place. And everyone has helped the business grow and evolve into something special. Sundance and Baobab, have the balance that keeps them ever present in Reno’s community
“A business is a Rubik’s cube. And it’s ever changing and twisting and, you know, and so there’s kind of an interesting dynamic and challenge to that. And then if that is sort of the structure that’s allowing you to participate in the art form, whether it be music, or visual arts, or the written word. It’s just a really amazing combination of things that gives autonomy and gives challenges and I think makes a contribution not only to the individual lives but makes a contribution to the community,” Kelly said.
