Fairview Press

Fairview Press (formerly Deaconess Press) is the publishing arm of Fairview Health Services, a regional healthcare provider affiliated with the University of Minnesota. Fairview Press publishes books and other forms of patient education materials on topics such as aging and eldercare, grief and bereavement, and health and wellness. Fairview Press is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

History

1989 to 1995

Publishing commenced under the name of Deaconess Press, with an initial editorial focus on behavioral therapy—including chemical dependency treatment, recovery, and prevention literature.

1995 to 1997

Name changed to Fairview Press. In 1996, Fairview Press signed a distribution agreement with the National Book Network, and expanded its editorial focus to trade book acquisition. Titles from this period emcompassed a broad range of non-fiction books dedicated to parenting and family issues. Fairview Press authors appeared in various mass media outlets, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The company published a number of popular general-interest hardcover books during this time, including "Good Morning, Captain" (autobiography of Bob Keeshan, TV’s original Captain Kangaroo) and a book series by TV’s original Slim Goodbody. Trade paperback parenting titles from this period included Jeanette Gadeberg’s "Raising Strong Daughters" and "Brave New Girls", as well as "Selling Out America’s Children" by David Walsh (psychologist), founder of National Institute on Media and the Family.

1997 to 2000

Economic contraction within the retail book industry resulted in high returns in consignment inventory, forcing the publisher to downsize and to once again change the focus of its publishing program in order to better align itself with the healthcare mission of its parent company. Acquisitions focused primarily on books dealing with aging, health and wellness, and grief & bereavement—which the publisher sold through retail channels as well as to hospitals, state and federal agencies, and NGOs. Key titles from this period include Elizabeth Levang’s "When Men Grieve", Janis Silverman’s "Help Me Say Goodbye", and "The Underground Guide to Teenage Sexuality" by health scientist Michael J. Basso.

2000 to Present

Fairview Press continues to acquire and publish some unsolicited trade book manuscripts, as well as material written by staff, professional affiliates, and other local authors. Recent titles include a series of art therapy books for children, anthologies of aging-related interviews by former National Public Radio staff member Connie Goldman, and four books on complementary and alternative medicine published in cooperation with the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota. The inspirational volumes in their "Positive Quotation" series have spent more than 84 combined weeks on Nielsen BookScan's bestseller lists for Reference works/Self-help books. Fairview Press has won several National Mature Media Awards, state book awards, and "American Journal of Nursing" Book-of-the-Year Awards. The company maintains a print on demand database of several hundred patient education pamphlets, brochures, and booklets, which are used by the publisher’s parent company and which Fairview Press customizes for other healthcare systems.

References

"America Confronts Grief" by Robert Dahlin, "Publishers Weekly", 12/17/2001.

"A Tale of Twin Cities" by Claire Kirch, "Publishers Weekly", 06/06/2005.

"Online or on Pages?" by Natalie Danford, "Publishers Weekly", 09/24/2007.

External links

* http://www.fairviewpress.org