When Milli Brown first dipped her toe in the deep waters of publishing back in 1990, she sought to capture the lives of both influential and everyday people through her debut imprint Personal Profiles. She would spend hours recording the stories of folks all over the country before enlisting a team of specialized freelancers to help produce a timeless memoir to share with family and friends. This early iteration of Brown Books Publishing Group was void of the distribution network we have in full force today, one that enlists a team of over forty sales reps serving four regions across the country to reach for national placement.
Despite the growth that Milli made over the last 30 years, that author-first mindset rooted in capturing authentic stories has always remained at the center of decision making. Even though we now publish titles across a wide span of genres, have two different children’s imprints, a Christian imprint, and are on the cusp of launching a nonprofit imprint, Milli’s commitment to those early personal profiles is strong, and as such, we are always on the lookout to capture personal stories that serve niche markets.
As Milli continued to produce books under personal profiles, an interesting trend emerged: Many of these books captured the innovative lives of impactful business leaders and told the stories of how they got to where they were and what led to their success. Those personal profiles were often also company profiles, leading Milli to evolve the Personal Profiles imprint into the Small Press, an imprint that invited businesses into the fold to share their success stories, and even some failures—because as any entrepreneur knows, big success comes only when you’re willing to risk big.
Over the years, we’ve built up a backlist of C-suite profiles and business leader memoirs for authors who are not seeking to enter the wider market but instead want to cater to their immediate circles. The only different between a Small Press title and a Brown Books title is that it does not engage in national distribution. Nevertheless, these titles undergo the same rigor and high production quality as titles under the BBPG imprint.
You may be asking yourself, “Well, why would an author not want distribution?” A great question! The fact is that every author’s goals are different, and understanding an author’s goals is your first and most important task. Between acquisitions and project management we work with the author to determine why they want to bring their book into the world and who they want to read it.
Oftentimes, authors just want to leave a legacy behind for their children to pass down the stories that shaped their lives; other times, companies want to create a one-stop shop to highlight their company history to give to potential business partners or to catalog in their company library.
For example, three recent Small Press titles we produced all had vastly different goals: Ricky Simic, former VP of Oil States Industries, served as the point person on Oil States: A Company History, a book that mapped the history and timeline of the groundbreaking Oklahoma-based oil company. Author Jim McKinnis wanted his book, Texas Courthouse Renaissance, to serve as a compendium of his research and photographs of all the courthouses in Texas and desired to gift the book to his clients. And then there’s author Jeanne Gnuse, who wanted her memoir, The Red Mustang, to tell the story of her life and her love for her late husband Tom Gnuse, with whom she co-founded their company HTG Investment Advisors.
Whatever the end goal is, we work with the author to cater to their needs and create beautiful books that inspire future generations to rise to the challenge of running a business. We are always on the lookout for new titles suited for the Small Press, and we are at the ready to help produce beautiful books for a smaller network or for that specific vision an author has for their story.
Titles featured in this article:
Formidable Attire: The Creative World of Fyberdyne Laboratories by Edward Ricard Endress, Jr.
Arithmetic, Sugar, and Turnouts: A The Story of My Life as I Recall it at 90 by Ralph Ellis
The Gift of Ingenuity: The Thrill of Invention, Donald Paul Smith (1919-1992) by Gwen Barclay Smith Irwin
Oil States: A Company History compiled by Ricky Simic and Mike Hogan
The Texas Courthouse Renaissance: A Celebration of the Silver Anniversary of the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program and Those Who Made it Happen by Jim McKinnis
The Red Mustang: The Incredible Ride of Jeanne and Tom by Jeanne Pflaum Gnuse
