Publisher Predicts Recession’s End

Allan Kornblum, publisher at the non-profit Coffee House Books, thinks that the publishing recession will begin to improve in 2011. The press depends on donations for 40 percent of its income–giving the publisher a ground-level perspective on the recession.

As part of Conversational Reading’s excellent “How To Publish in a Recession” series, Kornblum talked about the press’ recent success with two hits: The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang, and (National Book Award Poetry finalist) Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith.

While 2008 was a good year for the press, the publisher had this prediction: “We are anticipating an immediate 10% – 20% drop in individual donations in 2009, and a subsequent, comparable drop in grants in 2010 and 2011. We believe the economy will start coming back in 2011, and grants and donations will start to improve in 2012.”

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