Mission
We aim to facilitate a select list of accomplished writers who are challenging the traditional boundaries of sporting and expedition publishing. Instead of continually churning out volumes of comfortable and habitual writing, we’re looking to occasionally publish something exceptional.
Demographic
Our target readership tends to blaze its own way with little reverence for establishment and convention. Most of them don’t own tweed shooting jackets or cane rods, and they don’t mind squeezing dinner out of a bag or sleeping in their trucks if that’s where the action is. They’re well-educated, and accomplished at their game, but they’re also easily bored and they’re not impressed by expert opinion and authoritative rhetoric. Some of these readers lead professional lives with vacation time carefully set aside for their sacred rod and gun vices. Others live for the moment and work shift jobs that are scheduled around insect hatches, tide tables, and avian migrations.
What’s Your Story?
Take a long look at your bookshelf. If you had to pack up and move tomorrow, which books would you take with you, and which ones would you kick to the curb? We’re looking for the keeper; the book that you’ll read more than once and pass down to your kids. It can be an absolute truth or an outright fabrication, but it can’t be an amalgam of both.
- Fly Fishing
All fish species (with a following) will be considered. We’re not interested in how-to or where-to-go fly fishing books. We believe those have all been written. We also believe that if you do find an undiscovered piece of water or an innovative technique, you should keep them for yourself. In simple terms: we’re looking for inspired writing that stands on its own without maps, technical blather, or product endorsement. - Wing Shooting
“Me and my dog” stories can be a tough sell. That’s because dogs are a lot like children; most people won’t like yours nearly as much you do. You can give it a try, but it’ll have to be a real bell-ringer. The same goes for dog training, shotgun technique, and duck calling instruction manuals. There’s an audience for those books, but not here. Tell us a great story. Don’t tell us how; tell us why. Fact or fiction, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s well-written and sparks the reader’s desire to go out and buy blaze orange or freeze himself in a duck marsh. - Gear Fishing and Big Game Hunting
Not likely, but maybe. If you think you can write an intriguing tale about deer hunting, deep-sea trolling, or bass fishing, then give it a go. With the exception of African hunting, these sports are not known for their inspiring literary qualities, but they do set themselves up nicely for a well-played spoof or expose. - Travel & Expedition
Write an epic adventure novel. Or, go have an epic adventure and then write it down. There’s an established market for stirring tales of outdoor tragedy, triumph, suffering, survival, comedy, and chaos (think: Krakauer, Shackelton, Cahill, and Theroux). No boundaries, here. Surprise us. - Essay Collections
We’ll spare you the hem and haw routine and get right to it. Essay collections are rarely successful unless you already have a huge, established readership that hangs on your every word. Having a last name like Gierach or McGuane, also helps. Now, that doesn’t mean that we won’t take a look at a unique and engaging collection, but we are not interested in piecemeal journeys of discovery and loosely defined montages of how fly fishing, shooting, climbing, or paddling changed your life.
Mechanics
Write about what you know without sounding like an expert. If you’ve never been ice fishing, then stay away from frozen lakes. If you sleep in a camper and hunt pheasants and sharptails for two months every fall, then write that book (but don’t be boorish with your expertise).
Write in your own voice. If you’re looking up every tenth word in a thesaurus, then you may be kidding yourself. If your mom or spouse or friends don’t recognize your written voice, then you’re probably trying to be someone you’re not.
If you can pull the reader into a scene with 100 words, then please don’t use 500. Keep in mind that our instant gratification society is turning readers into skimmers. These days people are seeking information in small bursts. They’re scanning news blurbs online, they’re flipping magazine pages at Barnes and Noble, and they’re watching the crawlers at the bottom of their television screens.
Picture a guy in a backcountry tent or a thatched palapa in the tropics. He’s been on the water all day and he’s tired, or maybe the batteries in his headlamp are fading. Either way, you’ve got about ten minutes to engage him in your story before his lights go out. Be succinct; get to the point. Tell a great story, but do it with brevity. Write a book that can be read cover to cover on a flight between Chicago and Anchorage.
Format
Hardbound books are still our first priority and every potential project will be evaluated for its content. If your book stands alone as a written narrative, then that’s the way we’ll package it. If it needs photographic or artistic support, we can explore that option as well. If you have an idea for a big audience coffee-table book, we have a soft spot for great photography and large layouts.
We now have the in-house capability to construct digital files for every model/brand of e-reading device. Sign up for our newsletter if you’d like to receive word of new ebook releases and conversions of our backlist titles.
If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort of thing that’s read by persons who move their lips when they’re reading to themselves. - Don Marquis
The mark of a really great writer is that he gives expression to what the masses of mankind think or feel without knowing it. The mediocre writer simply writes what everyone would have said. - G.C. Lichtenberg
Writing comes more easily if you have something to say. - Sholem Asch
I try to leave out the parts that people skip. - Elmore Leonard
The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have it. - Ernest Hemingway
(Pornography) is hard to define, but I know it when I see it. - Justice Potter Stewart