About the Press
The Virtuoso Press was established in 2012 as an independent publisher of historical scholarship and memoir. In 2015 we entered a partnership with the University of California Health Humanities Press as the designer and distributor for that imprint’s academic and non-fiction book series. We have published over 30 books in fields including history of medicine, anthropology, poetry, literary criticism, creative writing, and memoir.
In 2023 Virtuoso Press launched a new series in historical fiction. This expands our mission to support the publication of quality works of literature and to help authors distribute their creative work through print and digital formats.
We focus on community building rather than commercialization, and we maintain our publishing business because we love to support the creative vision of authors and build a kindred community of writers who desire an opportunity to share their work. As our motto says, we aim to share your ideas, and we would love to have you join our community of authors.
Interested in publishing fiction with us or in our book design services? Please contact our managing director, Adam Sedgwick, for more information.
Publishing Services
All of our non-fiction books are reviewed by an editorial board to determine whether the theme is within scope and for quality review. (Non-fiction books that fall within the remit of UC Health Humanities Press are forwarded to the General Editor of that Series and are subject to academic peer-review.)
For works of fiction and creative writing, including poetry, short stories, and art books, we provide in-house editorial review, copy-editing, book design, and all technical aspects of cataloging and retail listing. As a small independent publisher, we do not warehouse books or handle sales in-house, but rely on larger distribution companies for print-on-demand and access to digital formats such as Kindle. We make every effort to keep retail prices of books as competitive as possible, and this means reducing our profit to nothing. We do charge a nominal production fee of $500 to cover material costs of proof copies and to print publicity copies of books, as well as to cover the fees of maintaining our website and processing catalog information (ISBNs, Library of Congress data). The bulk of the labor cost of production, from graphic design, to copy-editing, to managing the business, is funded through fundraising, grants, and philanthropy.
How It Works
We welcome inquiries from prospective authors who provide a description of their book to see if it fits within the scope of our list. Information should include the genre, the estimated overall word count, the estimated time to complete the full manuscript, and any related information about your intentions to promote the work through book clubs, social media, or your author website. Any information about your experience with publishing, previous pieces you have written and/or published, or motivations for writing your book are welcome.
We do not offer publishing contracts based on proposals, but when we receive full manuscripts, the editorial board will promptly review the work and reply whether it is within our scope to publish. If so, certain recommendations for revision may be made as we embark on the path to production.
Virtuoso Press is not related to any of the “big five” publishing corporations that control most of the retail and academic subscription markets. This means we have limited ability to market or promote books through the media or paid advertisements. This is why growing our community and focusing on distributing quality creative works in certain areas through our own networks is so important to us —together we create success.
Design Services
We also provide non-publishing, book design services for organizations or authors who manage their own distribution. We prepare files ready for print through companies such as Lulu, Kindle Direct, and Apple Books. Please inquire HERE for more information.
The cost of book design services starts at $2,500 and is scaled according to the length of the manuscript, number and quality of images or illustrations, and how many distribution formats (print and electronic) are desired.