More than 40 years after its start, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press is thriving. A division of the University’s Center for Louisiana Studies, it publishes about 10 titles a year. It isn’t the biggest or oldest university press, but it’s one of the few that is self-sustaining – and has been, from the start.
“We’ve never relied on taxpayers to pay for the books we produce. The University pays employees’ salaries, but the actual production of the books is paid for with money we’ve earned selling other books,” said Dr. Michael Martin, a UL Lafayette alumnus who became director of the Center For Louisiana Studies and UL Press in 2011.
Martin, whose professional interests include Louisiana history and public history, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from UL Lafayette. He completed his doctorate in history at the University of Arkansas in 2003, the same year he returned to his alma mater as a faculty member. He is the Cheryl Courrégé Burguières/Board of Regents Professor in History.
As director of the Center for Louisiana Studies, he oversees its three divisions: UL Press; the archives of Cajun and Creole folklore; and Programming and Special Projects. “Together, these divisions help preserve and promote Louisiana’s history and cultures,” Martin told La Louisiane in a recent interview.
The Press specializes in books related to Louisiana; it was one of the first to publish contemporary works in Cajun French.
Its latest books cover Acadian history, Spanish immigration, Cajun and Creole militia in the Civil War and 19th-century race relations. There are books on art and photography, including a coffee table book by painter and zydeco musician Dennis Paul Williams and an inside look at the life and art of George Rodrigue. Megan’s Guitar is a collection of poetry by Darrell Bourque, professor emeritus at UL Lafayette and a former Louisiana poet laureate. Game Changers is a wide-ranging look at outstanding athletes, athletic events and sports teams throughout Louisiana’s history.
Since 2007, UL Press titles have won 10 book awards, including three Book of the Year Awards from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities for Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm; Bienville’s Dilemma by Richard Campanella; and Congo Square: African Roots in New Orleans by Freddi Williams Evans.
The Press has published almost 300 titles since 1973; about 150 of those are still in print. It has published a handful of e-books, which are available at
amazon.com. There are also plans to offer a limited number of titles in a print-on-demand format.
The publishing operation has two full-time employees. Melissa Teutsch is sales and marketing director. James Wilson, who is associate director of UL Press, handles acquisitions, design and production. Martin divides his attention between UL Press and other Center for Louisiana Studies activities.
Martin’s predecessors, Dr. Carl Brasseaux, and the late Glenn Conrad, laid the foundation for UL Press in the 1970s with the USL History Series, which includes 15 titles. They aren’t eye-catching. The no-frills, softbound books were printed on plain paper at the University’s Printing Services.
In 1973, Conrad asked then-University President Dr. Ray P. Authement for seed money to expand the fledging enterprise into a university press. Authement, who is well known for his fiscal restraint, granted the request: he authorized an expenditure of $200, which is the equivalent of about $1,000 today.
“Carl and Glenn made smart choices. They were able to reinvest profits to print more and more books,” Martin said.
While many university presses across the country are now in financial peril, UL Press is enjoying a period of stability and relative prosperity, he said.
“Even outside of university presses, we’ve seen the decline of independent booksellers and even big-box booksellers. Over the last few years, we’ve become much more selective in the books we publish, partly because other presses are scaling back, or in some cases, have been shut down. So, we are getting more submissions, and we reject more manuscripts.
“So, even though the number of books we publish each year has remained about the same, the quality of books we publish has improved.”
Its Louisiana focus has been a factor in the Press’ success, said Martin, who has been combing through early records of the enterprise.
“Nothing I’ve ever seen from those early days said, ‘We are specifically focused on Louisiana,’ but because of the organic nature of the early press — most of its books were produced by people who were either here in the Center for Louisiana Studies or on campus — Louisiana became the common theme. And that’s resulted in our having a niche in the market.”
Wilson has been working with the Center for Louisiana Studies since 2004.Asked whether there is some secret to the organization’s success, he summed it up this way:
“A lot of it comes down to instincts,” he said. “And we’ve had really good instincts.”