Book Publishers?

[mrhogg]

Hey all,

Are there any publishers who are known for puppet-themed books that they put out? I'm not necessarily thinking of puppet-script books, although that would be useful to know, as well. I'm thinking of puppet history, puppet art, and the like.

I did some searching through Amazon for Puppetry books, and have some publishers (like Crowood) who put out puppet-themed books, I'd love to know of any publishers who immediately spring to mind.

Thanks!

 

[spcglider]

Whenever I go to a used book store I always ask if they have any puppet books, books on puppetry, or books about puppets.

And what I've noticed is that books on puppetry, while a perennial thing, tend to come from here and there. I've not encountered a company that specializes in puppetry books yet. But then again, I'll lay good money down that someone out there will prove me wrong in the next three posts!

-Gordon

 

[mrhogg]

That seems to be what I've found, too. (I have an idea for a puppet-themed book, as is likely obvious, and am looking for who to send it to)

Seems like something that's going to be fairly popular, but not popular enough to get the right kind of focus, which is a shame.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Charlemagne Press is a small Canadian publisher that specializes in puppetry. They are based in Vancouver and are mostly an outlet for Lumad Coad (he owns the company), who is a very well-regarded puppeteer on the West Coast. Ray DaSilva used to publish puppetry books in the UK, but he is semi-retired now and only sells used and rare puppetry books published by others. I think there are a few other small publishers or imprints that specialize in puppetry in Europe, but I don't know names unfortunately.

Outside of the Muppet-related books there seems to be only one or two titles like Puppet Mania and Puppet Planet that comes out from mainstream publishers every couple of years. What I've been told usually happens with those books is that an editor or publisher decides to do a puppetry book and they seek out an established puppeteer to work on them (that's how Puppet Mania happened I think), but I doubt there's any hard and fast rules.

Most puppeteers and puppetry companies that publish books tend to self-publish because it's such a small niche and realistically the numbers of books that will be sold is pretty small, probably a couple thousand at most. Now that almost anyone can get a book listed on Amazon and promote it online self-publishing is probably a really good option for anyone who wants to do a book. Several of the better-selling puppetry books like Figure Making Can Be Fun and The Foam Book are self-published.

 

[staceyrebecca]

I was approached to do some projects for a book about felt published by Potter Craft. Just found out last week that my project was too "edgy" for the editors...I guess they couldn't handle stoic burritos as finger puppets. What ever would they do with my depressed bacon or screaming apple tree?