Launched as a one-man operation in 1989 by a lawyer/artists' rights activist, Allworth Press has since grown into a formidable niche publisher offering not only a selection of practical guides to the business side of the arts but also a growing list of general interest nonfiction.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Manhattan-based publisher can point to new foreign rights representation, a new distribution agreement and a newly designed Web site with an emphasis on e-commerce. The press now has eight employees, publishes 30 books a year, has more than 100 titles on its backlist and generates more than $1 million a year in sales.
Allworth founder Tad Crawford entered publishing with a long history of providing legal services to artists and arts associations. The press's first book was a revised edition of Legal Guide for the Visual Artist written by Crawford himself and first published in 1977. Crawford wrote the book because "there were no good texts" for a course he was asked to teach on legal matters for artists. The book has since become Allworth's bestselling title, now in its fourth edition with more than 80,000 copies in print.
The house went on to publish 10 more business and legal guides for a variety of creative professions, including photography, the performing arts, self-publishing and design. Allworth couples its no-nonsense arts business guides with a notable series of critical essays on fine art and design aesthetics. New and upcoming titles include Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime by Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe and The Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption, a historical examination of the swastika in design by Steven Heller, art director at the New York Times.
"We've grown from niche publishing on the visual arts into titles on music, movies and writing," said Crawford, now a full-time publisher. "We've also added some general interest titles that we hope will reach a substantially larger audience." Those titles include Money Secrets of the Rich and Famous by Michael Reynard and Dead Ahead: The Web Dilemma & the New Rules of Business by Laurie Windham.
Crawford credits the Jean Naggar Agency's foreign rights representation and Allworth's new distributor, art and design publisher Watson-Guptill, with the press's current growth spurt. "We're getting books that lend themselves to foreign rights and getting more rights revenue," he said, adding, "Changing our distribution has led to a significant increase in revenues."
Allworth books can also be purchased at its Web site (www.allworth.com) at a discount. Crawford is working to license Allworth's content (both to distance-learning programs and subscription sites) and build relationships with other sites. Crawford told PW that after 10 years his mission remains the same: "to serve the creative community by generating content for them."
