22A SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1996
KU EDITION
LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
KU publishing has been turning out quality products for 50 years
University Press honors past, looks to future
- University Press of Kansas celebrates 50 years of publishing changes.
BY JL WATSON
JOURNAL-WORLD WRITER
The University Press of Kansas is in the midst of celebrating its 50th anniversary of publishing, but the party has been low-key; no cakes, or balloons or big hands
Just more of what the Press has been doing: publishing books.
"With our 50th anniversary, a number of things have happened to emphasize the fact that we're doing a better job of reaching our mission," University Press director Fred Woodward said. "And that is to extend the reach and representation of the six state institutions."
The University Press is publishing 55 books this year, more than it has in the past. It also has merged with the information highway.
"For the first time, our books are now advertised on the World Wide Web," Woodward said. "We have an electronic presence. And we're distributing electronic publishing products on CD-ROM."
The additional publishing and advertising has paid off, Woodward said.
"Our books are attracting more and more major reviews from Los Angeles to London," he said. "It's really exciting. We jump up and down when that happens."
National and international reviews lead to better sales records, and for fiscal year 1996 the University Press had gross sales exceeding $2 million.
The University Press specializes in military and presidential studies, but also publishes books on other topics.
"We specialize because we're not the oldest or largest university press," Woodward said. "We've developed a reputation for publishing well in those areas. But we do look at other things. If you wrote a book and it was really well-written, we still might want to keep our hooks in your book."
3 senior faculty leaving Mt. Oread
"North Carolina presented to me ... a very attractive financial incentive," said Andrews, the Joyce and Elizabeth Hall professor of American literature and director of the Hall Center for the Humanities.
He said UNC—his alma mater —recruited him for an endowed professorship and made a substantial salary offer. KU countered that bid, but it wasn't enough to keep him in Lawrence.
Mike Briggs, editor-in-chief at University Press of Kansas, stands by some of the recently published books.
The University Press has launched its newest series, "Landmark Law Cases and American Society," which discusses legal and social history in the United States.
Huston accepted the Priscilla Pond Flawn professorship in child development. Wright will have a joint appointment in the department of human ecology and the school of communication studies.
In part, each was moved to improve salaries and research support.
"We have to find a way to convince the people of Kansas that top-rate faculty who are successful in the classroom and in the laboratory need their support," he said.
It will be a relief to work in a department capable of supporting more than a dozen graduate students. Huston said.
Hemenway said raids on KU's faculty jeopardized the quality of education here.
That attracts high-caliber students and make it easier to launch research projects, she added.
"I can't tell you how often I laid awake at night worrying about whether we would get grants to keep student support," Huston said.
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"We do it only after lots and lots of research," she said. "We want to make sure there's nothing else like it out there."
The Press rarely launches a new series, assistant director and marketing manager Susan Schott said.
Wright said KU's counter offer wasn't enough to sway them. State politicians simply don't properly fund KU, he said.
"People ... expect something for nothing," Wright said. "Sooner or later there's a reckoning."
One of the Press' last series,
"American Political Thought," is still running strong two years after the books in the series hit the shelves. None of the books in the law series is published yet, which is the usual procedure when a new series takes shape.
"Publishers have such long-term planning horizons," Woodward said. "We think in terms of books and series. We're signing contracts for books in the next millennium already."
RICHARD GWIN/JOURNAL-WORLD PHOTO
Woodward and his staff isn't quite ready to look 50 years into the future at what the centennial anniversary might hold, but they are thinking beyond the turn of the century.
"We want our publishing list to grow to 65 to 70 books a year in the next four years," he said. "And we'll keep improving the quality of our list. We're publishing books that are attractive and appeal to a wider readership both because of quality and subject."