Bancroft Press

I was an intern at Bancroft Press

Hi, I just want to share what I know about Bancroft Press. About six months ago I was an intern at Bancroft Press.
First off, I know why the CEO asks authors to submit their whole mss. Bortz doesn't believe in rejecting a book on the first page, and whenever he gets the chance either he or one of his employees will read the whole book. As his intern, I told him after reading one chapter of a book that I wanted to reject it, but he asked me to keep reading to the end. Another good thing about this press is that they don't generally send out mass rejection letters, but personal messages with reasons.
Also, I saw there was some question about why the CEO has an editorial service on the side. All I can say is that he and I edited a book together. I have a high opinion of my editorial eye, but Bortz was positively anal about the project--he must have added or removed several dozen commas. Every author would be lucky to have this man edit his or her book.
I vouch for this company and CEO. This is a good publisher.
I'll come back and reply if you have any questions.

I'm finalizing my list of small presses that don't require agents (as I wait for query responses from agents) and this press looks acceptable to me. If anyone has any recent experience, I'd love to hear it.

https://bancroftpress.com/submissions/

mrsmig said:

I find it a bit odd that we're four months into 2019 and this press has no new titles listed for the year. Then again, it only appears to publish 4-5 books per year.

Click to expand...

I just checked Ingram's database and Bancroft has 5 books listed for later this year (starting in September), and one listed already for early 2020. FWIW.

Have been reading this thread with interest. Any updates since 2019?

They accept both fiction and non-fiction submissions.

From their site:

We publish trade fiction and non-fiction, and we publish what we like.

Click to expand...

(I kind of like that!)

Not so sure about this part:

Virtually every genre is represented by one of our fine authors; this is owed to their individual ability to tell a good story. From classic literature to political memoirs, from illustrated picture books to gripping suspense thrillers – the key is in the quality.

Click to expand...

How do they market their books if they have such a range?

I do like their book covers, for the most part - a few aren't great and some don't show up at all! (Image files not working?)

In existence since 1992/1995. Operated by Bruce Bortz. Page on him here: https://bancroftpress.com/about/bruce-bortz/

From that page, here's an interesting tidbit which gives some sales ideas and authors they've published (at least one name here is no longer someone to boast about):

Since 1992, Bancroft has published 18 new titles. At least four of them have sold more than 10,000 copies. Authors have included such big names as:

• Bill O’Reilly, who anchors the #1 news program on cable TV today, and whose September 2000 book (“The O’Reilly Factor”) became, almost instantly, a #1 New York Times bestseller for hardcover non-fiction;
• Acclaimed and best-selling novelist Stephen Hunter, whose movie reviews twice have brought him within an eyelash of the Pulitzer, and whose Bancroft book about the movies landed him one of the most influential movie reviewing posts in the country (The Washington Post);
• Pulitzer Prize-winner Alice Steinbach, whose first book – with us – propelled her to a two-book contract with Random House;
• Robert Kanigel, one of the very best writers in the U.S., a fact that was recognized in 1998, when he was voted the author of the year by the Association of Journalists and Authors;
• Mike Walker, the National Enquirer’s best-known journalist;
• Sandi Kahn Shelton, the humor columnist for Working Mother magazine.

Click to expand...

18 new titles since 1992 means a lot less than 4-5 books a year then. Is this an old page from years ago maybe? Probably. (I'll have to look into the individual title publication dates.) Or is "new" the keyword - i.e., do they also publish some backlist titles? I've counted a lot more on the site - at least 114 titles, as follows:

73 fiction titles (when sorting under "All). About 60 with visible book covers, 13 with no cover images showing. You can also sort by category, of which there are a lot: Children, Contemporary, Fiction, Financial Thriller, Historical Fiction, Humor, Jewish, LGBTQ+, Legal Thriller, Literature, Medical, Mystery, Political Fiction, Romance, Rural, Satire, Science Fiction, Suspense, Thriller, Young Adult.

41 non-fiction titles (sorting under "All") - 30 with visible covers, 11 without. Again, a wide variety of categories: Biography, Crime, Essays, Finance, History, Humor, Investing, Memoir, Movie Reviews, Museum, Non-Fiction, Parenting, Poetry, Politics, Psychology, Religion, Self-Help, Spiritual, Sports.

I want to keep looking into them (especially their sales figures/Amazon listings) but I'm somewhat interested in submitting (though the wide variety of categories and some of the covers, etc. do make me hesitate a little), especially when I read Victoria Strauss say on the first page of this thread that she knows an author who had an excellent experience with them - but that post was almost 20 years ago so who knows what they're like now. Hopefully some people here have more recent experiences to share!

Many of their fiction covers are enticing but some are dreadful.