Stealth Press, a reprint publisher founded in 2000 that initially focused on direct Internet sales utilizing print-on-demand technology, has been put up for sale by the investors that founded it.
Michael Shoemaker, president and founder of Stealth Press and the managing principal of Wellspring FV, a venture capital firm that provided some initial funding for the press, told PW that Stealth Press is being sold because "the other investors don't want to go on any further." Shoemaker explained, "Our intent was always to build a company and then sell it."
He said Stealth was making money ("just not enough") publishing hardcover reprints of former bestselling but now out-of-print titles in the science fiction, horror, crime, war and fantasy categories. The house uses print-on-demand technology, 2002), sells its books direct through its Web site (www.stealthpress.com) and has now targeted libraries as its primary market. "We like our model. Traditional publishing is a hit business; they try to publish bestsellers but never really know until the book is published. We don't have that problem. We know the sales records of the books we publish, we know their reviews and we know that librarians want them."
Among the books offered by Stealth are titles by Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein.
Shoemaker said the company launched during the technology bubble and was never able to raise the full funding needed. "At first we couldn't get funding because funders said we were a book company, not an Internet company," he said. "After the dot-bomb crash, they saw our Web site and said we were an Internet company and not a book company."
