New Rivers Press is a literary learning press at Minnesota State University Moorhead. A publisher of literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, they’re also a teaching press. Students who are interested in a publishing career get a hands-on education and valuable experience. And of course, New Rivers Press keeps all their book printing in Minnesota, at Bookmobile!
We’re proud to have been printing for New Rivers Press since 2004—that’s about 150 titles and counting. We print bound galleys and the final book runs, shipping books to the press and to their distributor, Small Press Distribution. Featured above is Visiting Bob: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Bob Dylan, a new title. New Rivers went all out on the production: it’s a 10″ x 8″ landscape trim size, 428 pages on 60-lb. cream, cardinal red end sheets, and perfect bound with a matte cover.
Every spring, the students at New River Press take a field trip to Minneapolis. They visit Milkweed Editions, The Loft Literary Center, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts at the Open Book Center —and Bookmobile! Between me, our CEO Don Leeper, and our director of design and digital publisher services Rachel Holscher, they get an overview of all of Bookmobile’s services: design and typesetting, eBook conversion, offset print management, short-run printing, eBook distribution, and print distribution through Itasca Books.
But the best part of the Bookmobile tour is the printshop. The students get to see preflight, printing, binding, and trimming in action.
Checking out one of our paper roll feeders, sheet cutters, and Oce VarioPrint 6320s.
Seeing the inside of our Horizon four-pocket perfect binder.
Book Printing in Minnesota
The majority of Bookmobile’s over 1,500 clients are outside of the state of Minnesota, but we also have a strong local base—because the Twin Cities has such a strong publishing scene, including presses (and clients of ours) like Coffee House Press, Graywolf Press, Lerner Publishing Group, Milkweed Editions, Minnesota Historical Society Press, Nodin Press, Rain Taxi, and the University of Minnesota Press.