A Partnership is born
“It’s no mystery why we’re good!”
Forty Press is an independent publisher with strong ties to the major markets. We know where the bodies are buried. And we know how to keep your work from going six feet under.
Its founders may be vain, but this is no “vanity press”. Forty Press judiciously selects and carefully vets all of its offerings based on quality, marketability, and the long term potential of the author. We don’t publish unless, or until, those three criteria are met.
At Forty Press, we do not just put our name on a cover: we put our shoulders behind every work. Each of the founders bring years of experience in publishing and related markets. Each work receives careful and comprehensive support during each phase of the process, guaranteeing a level of professionalism that few authors can achieve on their own. An author may be able to place their books into stores, but a Forty Press author places those same books into customers’ hands.
More likely what resonates with you is the fact that Forty Press grew from the experience of one of its founders taking his work from conception to customer. From the first scratches of an outline on yellow legal pads to signing published copies at bookstores across the Midwest, Forty Press has been there. It knows how hard an author labors and will match it every time. Today, anyone can go it alone. Too often, however, that’s how their work is left: alone. Success requires more. The manuscript is just the beginning of the process. Let Forty Press take it the rest of the way.
Joe Riley, Publisher
e-mail: jriley@fortypress.com
With over 20 years in the book publishing industry, his broad experience includes distribution (digital and physical books), sales, marketing, foreign and domestic rights and international distribution. He has sold and marketed content to the trade bookstore market and non-traditional markets including churches, schools, libraries, gift stores, religious book stores and specialty stores including Target, Costco, Home Depot, and Michaels. He has held the position of Trade and International Sales Manager for Hazelden Publishing, Sales and Marketing Director for Liturgical Press and is currently the Sales and Marketing Director for Fortress Press a division of Augsburg Fortress Publishers located in Minneapolis, MN. He lives in Anoka, MN with his family.
Nick Dimassis, Editorial Director
e-mail: ndimassis@fortypress.com
Director of a metropolitan county library system, he has filled nearly every library role in his career–in both public and academic libraries. As a librarian, he knows what readers want. As book selector, he knows what libraries buy and, perhaps more importantly, how to get a work noticed by those purchasing for their collections. With over 120,000 libraries in the U.S., this is no small market for authors. He lives in Isanti, MN, with his family.
Kelly Keady, CMO and legal counsel
e-mail: ekkeady@fortypress.com
Author of the critically acclaimed thriller Peter Farrell series (The Cross of St. Maro, The Fall of St. Sebastian, and The Secret of St. Jerome), he knows the author’s perspective from start to finish. His short story “Slater Maxwell” appears in Once Upon A Crime’s Writes of Spring Anthology. As an attorney licensed in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, he serves as counselor to Forty Press on legal matters and contracts. He received his undergraduate degree and his J.D. degree from St. Louis University where he graduated cum laude with degrees in Political Science and French having spent a year studying abroad at the Universite d’Orlean in France. He lives in Minneapolis, MN, with his wife and three children.