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Business & Tech

Owner Of Local Printing And Publishing Company Says Business is Thriving

Writer and owner of the local small press High Hill Press, Luella Turner, said with the state of the publishing industry today, there's better opportunity for writers to be published at a small press, rather than at a big New York publishing house.

As a writer and owner of the local small printing press and publishing company, High Hill Press, Luella Turner knows what it takes make it in the publishing world. One of the things she aims for is to put out books that make the larger New York publishing houses take attention.

“We try to put out good books that someone in New York will read and say 'Why didn’t we publish that?'” Turner said. 

The business is in its fourth year in production is spending this year looking into reprints. The business is currently publishing their 43rd book and will be printing 850 copies of anthologies for the Missouri Writers Guild.

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The press takes both agented and non-agented authors alike and despite not advertising, High Hill Press usually averages between 75-100 queries a month. The company publishes a wide-range of genres, from fiction to non-fiction and poetry and sells a lot of books to the library system, independent book stores, Amazon, and books are also listed on the Kindle store.

When asked what it takes to be published through the small press, Turner said it takes two things, great writing and writers who take initiative to market their books through local book store signings and other forms of promotion.

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“We publish anything that’s good,” she said of her business. “... We don’t take on authors that aren’t going to market their own work.".

 Turner said she sees the publishing industry changing, but she feels the change will be a good thing for small presses, such as High Hill Press.

 “With what I am seeing right now in the industry there’s better opportunity for writers to be published at a small press, rather than at a big New York publishing house,” she said of the industry.

Turner got started in the publishing profession a few years ago when she and her husband Bryan decided to start it as a small retirement business.  

Prior to manning the publishing house, she was a business woman and an artist.  Turner owned an art gallery and small shop in St. Charles, but she retired from that venture in order to pursue her dream of writing in 1992. 

Turner said even though writing has always been something she wanted to pursue, she didn’t start immediately after retiring from her business. Instead, she spent a few years studying, taking classes, learning the craft and the business aspect of writing.

“I learned this is a business of connections and networking, I went to conferences and began meeting agents and editors,” she said.

Turner said it took her a long time before she found the agent she wanted to work with. Since she began writing, Turner has written 12 books and  500 short stories. Turner has been published in both fiction and non-fiction, but even though she runs High Hill Press, she doesn’t publish her own books.

To find out more about High Hill Press visit their website.

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