KEY POINTS:
What the hell is a boutique publisher? This question was put to me by Christine Cole-Catley of boutique publisher Cape Catley. My reply was "you are".
It would seem that boutique book publishing in New Zealand is dominated by women, with Cole-Catley leading the way in terms of longevity, having been in the industry for almost 35 years.
She normally brings out three or four titles a year although this year will see her set a record with nine titles coming off the presses.
Behind the Tattooed Face by Heretaunga Pat Baker catapulted her into publishing initially - she'd been working as a freelance editor at Reeds in Wellington when Baker's manuscript came in and they turned it down.
Thinking it was too important a work to end up as a manuscript in a bottom drawer somewhere, she set herself up as Cape Catley, published it. All these years later the title is still in print, in its sixth edition and the film rights have recently been sold.
Other important titles from Cape Catley include Margaret Hayward's Diary of the Kirk Years in 1982 and the reissue in 1980 of We Will Not Cease by Archibald Baxter, also now in its sixth edition.
Cole-Catley once told Millicent Baxter she would do her very best to keep this title in print; 28 years later it's still on the list.
Ann Mallinson of Mallinson Rendel started out in 1980 and now has about eight titles coming out each year. This Wellington-based boutique publisher is best-known for Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy (1983), which is still going strong with a million copies sold worldwide, and has generated a number of sequels.
Other notable titles from the specialist children's book publisher include See Ya, Simon by David Hill, Annie and Moon by Miriam Smith, illustrated by Lesley Moyes, and After the War by Bob Kerr.
Mallinson believes boutique publishers, by the nature of their size, can give individual attention to authors that the larger companies are not always able to.
Also Wellington-based but very much a new kid on the block is Julia Marshall and her Gecko Press.
Starting in 2005, Marshall is unique in that she sources children's books from overseas that aren't available here and publishes them locally under her own imprint. Occasionally this will include work by New Zealanders as was the case recently with Snake & Lizard by Joy Cowley and illustrated by Gavin Bishop, which cleaned up at the NZ Post Children's Book Awards.
Longacre Press and publisher Barbara Larson are the southernmost boutique publisher on our list but one suspects it will be stretching things to define them as boutique for much longer as they are now up to about 20 titles a year. They look for a distinctly southern voice with one of their standout titles being Dare Truth or Promise by Paula Boock, which won the NZ Post Book of the Year Award in 1997, and has been subsequently published in the United States.
Also notable are On the Loose by Josh Kronfeld and Lynley Hood's 2001 title which caused such a stir at the time, A City Possessed: The Christchurch Civic Creche Case.
David Ling is a one-man publishing house who brings out about 10 titles a year, working from an office in his home on Auckland's North Shore.
After a career with various multi-national publishing houses, he started his own in 1993 with One of Ben's by Maurice Shadbolt, with other titles including Kirsa: A Mother's Story by Robyn Jensen and Mask of Sanity by James McNeish.
On the opposite side of Waitemata Harbour is Remuera-based Annabel Langbein, who started publishing almost by accident in 1987, when she put together a collection of her magazine articles in book form and subsequently sold 10,000 copies out of her garage.
These days Langbein enjoys considerable export success with her cookbooks as a result of energetic marketing around the world.
She is an active participant each year at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Since she is both author and publisher, her output is normally one or two titles a year.
"The process feels a bit like a birth really, so much hard work and sometimes you think you'll never get there and then it is out and off to its own life, hopefully making lots of people happy."
Roger Steele set up Steele Roberts in 1996 with Dedications by J.C. Sturm being the first title. Unusually, Steele Roberts publishes a lot of poetry, but Steele says they "survive through optimism, frugality and philanthropy to publish Aotearoa NZ treasures including many first-time and once-only authors".
There are many other boutique publishers dotted around the country as well, illustrating the robust health of the industry and the important role these individuals play in what we read.
