Avalon Publishing Group will acquire the Seattle-based feminist Seal Press in a deal that will go into effect December 31. After nearly 25 years in operation and nearly a decade of distribution by Avalon's sister company Publishers Group West, Seal will close its Seattle office and join the rest of the Avalon Trade Group publishers in New York City.
Six employees will lose their jobs as a result of the acquisition. Seal publisher Faith Conlon will stay on as executive editor to work on acquisitions with associate publisher Ingrid Emerick and senior editor Leslie Miller, all from their home offices in Washington State.
Avalon president and COO Susan Reich said Seal will be "a particularly good addition to Avalon." Seal will continue to publish eight new titles a season for the near future. She noted that the Seal list complemented other Avalon imprints (Carroll & Graf, Thunder's Mouth Press, Marlowe & Company and Blue Moon Books).
The possibility that Avalon might acquire Seal has been discussed since the company first purchased a minority interest in the independent press in 1999, although both parties said the deal primarily came together within the last six months.
Conlon and Thunder's Mouth founder Neil Ortenberg, now Avalon New York's publisher, are longtime friends, and the deal also comes at a time when independent publishers feel especially challenged. "It is a difficult climate for independent, smaller publishers," explained Conlon. "We're happy to take advantage of the opportunity to work with a group of people we know."
Seal evolved from a largely literary, regional publisher to a national feminist press, with its first big success in 1982, Getting Free, a book about domestic violence. The press rounds out its list with self-help books and in 1991 added a travel series called Adventura.
