Arcadia Publishing, the hyper-local book publisher, has acquired Wildsam, publisher of the Wildsam Field Guides series.
As a result of the acquisition, Wildsam will expand its editorial team and increase the number of titles to be published in 2020. In addition to adding more titles, David Steinberger, CEO of Arcadia, said he expects to be able to sell more copies per book, noting that prior to the acquisition the guides were sold in only 500 accounts; Arcadia reaches 12,000 accounts.
Wildsam founder and editor-in-chief Taylor Bruce will continue to lead Wildsam after the transaction. “Arcadia’s hyper-local distribution power and deep connection to American stories are unrivaled,” Bruce said. “Arcadia is absolutely the ideal partner to take Wildsam to the next level as the elite travel publisher in America.”
Wildsam has a catalog of 14 field guides covering such cities as Austin, Nashville, and Detroit, with new titles on Portland, Hawaii, and Atlanta scheduled for the fall 2019, as well as a recently announced field guide about the Moon. The publisher's guides include writing from such journalists, poets, novelists, and historians as Emma Straub, Rick Bass, Hampton Sides, Julie Orringer, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Ann Friedman.
