Copper Harbor may seem like an unlikely place for a publishing company to start up, but for the three founders and partners of the fledgling
Mudminnow Press, it's the only place to be.
It all came about a few years ago when friends Lesley DuTemple, Laura Smyth and Lloyd Wescoat, were discussing a rejected book proposal that DuTemple, an author, had helped write.
"She uttered those fatal words, the words guaranteed to suck you right into a black hole: We should publish it ourselves! The other two of us looked at each other… and the wheels began to turn. In less than ten minutes the three of us had decided that we should form a publishing company because… we could," write DuTemple and Smyth about the genesis of the company.
It turned out, Mudminnow never published that book that started it all, but in its two-year existence so far, the small publisher has put out three books and has quite a few more underway. The first was
Stars in the Water, a children's story collection based on Native American tales.
After that came a pair of mining-focused books:
Mine Collar Mystery was written by a fourth-grade class at Calumet Elementary School and is a children's time-travel mystery, while
Prehistoric Copper Mining in the Lake Superior Region is a collection of essays and illustrations about early copper mining in the area.
If it seems like Mudminnow has a local and regional focus for its book choices, that’s on purpose, says DuTemple.
"Our locale definitely affects Mudminnow--it is Mudminnow. Living and working in such a remote area affects how we conduct business; even the best laid plans get derailed by a blizzard or power outage, both of which are normal life around here, what we publish--the north woods is in our blood and we gravitate towards books that reflect our locale--and who we are in general," she says. "A sense of place is very important to us and contributes to the synergy we have as a partnership."
As for what's coming up for the small press, it's full steam ahead for the foreseeable future.
"We currently have a children's Christmas book in production, titled
One Starry Night. The text is done, and a wonderful local artist, Barb Flanagin, is doing the illustrations," says DuTemple. It is scheduled to be released in April 2013, which will be good timing for fall and winter catalogs, so readers can expect to find it on shelves for Christmas 2013.
The partners also have an e-book,
Getting It Off the Ground, available on the Mudminnow Press website. It outlines the process they went through when they decided to start a small publisher, and advises those considering starting their own press. It's certainly something the partners don't regret.
"The three of us really like what we do, and we work well together," says DuTemple. "… I guess we see the future as allowing us to anticipate the needs of our readers, and tantalize them with new offerings. We don't want to exceed our sense of fun and delight in what we're publishing, but we would like to be recognized as a source of refreshing, quality books of regional interest."
Kim Eggleston is a freelance writer and editor based in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A Northern Michigan University graduate and Marquette native, she also is the managing editor of Marquette Monthly.
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