Annual Report 2015-2016
In 2015–2016, University Press of Colorado produced fifty-three new print titles and editions in the fields of anthropology, composition, folklore, history, and natural history, maintaining our higher publication level of 2014–2015. Five of these Colorado and Utah State titles won seven total awards this year, with both University of Colorado Boulder professor Laurie E. Gries receiving two awards for Still Life with Rhetoric and the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University's The Verging Cities by Natalie Scenters-Zapico winning a pair as well.
In addition, we also published or distributed a number of other important publications from member faculty and departments, including The Business (Winner of the 2015 Colorado Prize for Poetry, Colorado State University), Denver Landmarks and Historic Districts, Second Edition (Thomas J. Noel, University of Colorado Denver), Discover Colorado, Second Edition (Matt Downey, emeritus, University of Northern Colorado), Herdon Davis (Thomas J. Noel, University of Colorado Denver, and Craig Leavitt, Auraria Library), House of Sugar, House of Stone (Mountain West Poetry Series, distributed for Colorado State University), A Lamp Brighter than Foxfire (Mountain West Poetry Series, distributed for Colorado State University), Narrating Jane (Volume 21, The Leonard J. Arrington Lecture Series, Utah State University), Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica (Sarah Kurnick, postdoctoral fellow, University of Colorado Boulder), Serentiy and Severity, and Western Weird (the last two distributed for Western Press Books at Western State Colorado University).
We also participated in a study of the costs of publishing monographs that was conducted by ITHAKA S+R and with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and support from the Association of American University Presses. We are pleased to report to our authors, members, and supporters that we had the lowest overall average cost of the twenty presses who submitted titles for consideration to the statisticians involved in this project. I have always maintained that we provided very good value for the money invested in us, and now we have the proof to support such assertions.
Finally, near the end of fiscal year 2015–2016, I was elected by my peers to serve as the 2016–2017 president of the Association of American University Presses. This is not only an honor for me personally, but a reflection of everything that our staff, trustees, member institutions, faculty, and authors have built together here at University Press of Colorado, including Utah State University Press, over the past sixteen years. I would not have the opportunity to take on this role if it were not for the staunch support and hard work all of you have invested in our program, and I will do my best to represent you on the national stage over the next year. Thank you for everything you do to ensure our success.
—Darrin Pratt, Director
2015–2016 Board of Trustees
Catherine Cameron
University of Colorado Boulder
Bradford Cole
Utah State University
Catherine DiCesare
Colorado State University
James Drake
Metropolitan State University
Joyce Kinkead
Utah State University
Michael Lightner
University of Colorado System
Suzanne MacCaulay
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Pete McCormick
Fort Lewis College
Heather Orr
Western State Colorado University
Jared Orsi
Colorado State University
Michael Palmquist
Colorado State University
Ken Sagendorf
Regis University
Jeannie Thomas
Utah State University
Jay Trask
University of Northern Colorado
Mary Van Buren
Colorado State University
Benjamin Waddell
Adams State University
Kariann Akemi Yokota
University of Colorado Denver
More...
Current Assets | |
Cash and Cash Equivalents | $35,772 |
Accounts Receivable (Net) | $322,592 |
Inventory at Cost | $393,644 |
Prepaid Expenses | $22,083 |
Total | $774,091 |
Other Assets | $25,000 |
Total Assets | $799,091 |
Current Liabilities | |
Accounts Payable | $52,304 |
Accrued Vacation and Sick Pay | $48,728 |
Royalties and Commissions | $125,790 |
Unearned Income | $131,140 |
Line of Credit | $35,000 |
Total Current Liabilities | $392,962 |
Net Assets—Unrestricted | $406,129 |
Total Liabilities and Net Assets | $799,091 |
Revenues | |
Net Book Sales | $1,103,544 |
Other Publishing Income | $17,325 |
Member Dues | $250,199 |
Donation, Interest, and Other Income | $61,137 |
Total Revenues | $1,432,205 |
Cost of Sales | |
Cost of Books Sold | $224,534 |
Title Subsidies | $(68,979) |
Inventory Write-Off | $34,729 |
Royalties and Commissions | $132,098 |
Total Cost of Sales | $322,382 |
Gross Margin | $1,109,823 |
Expenses | |
Editorial Expense | $384,446 |
Production Expense | $109,207 |
Marketing Expense | $169,347 |
Fulfillment Expense | $178,017 |
General and Administrative Expense | $286,194 |
Total Expenses | $1,127,211 |
Total Increase (Decrease) in Net Assets | ($17,388) |
Grants and Donations
The University Press of Colorado is a 501(c)3 nonprofit membership organization that relies on the ongoing support of its members, as well as funds from other institutions, granting agencies, and individuals, to fulfill our mandate as a scholarly publisher. We thank the following institutions and individuals for their generous contributions to our publishing program this year.
- Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, $3,000 in support of Epiphany in the Wilderness: Hunting, Nature, and Performance in the Nineteenth-Century American West by Karen R. Jones
- Denver Museum of Nature and Science, $10,000 in support of Stories in Stone: The Enchanted Gem Carvings of Vasily Konovalenko by Stephen E. Nash, photographs by Richard M. Wicker, with contributions by James W. Hagadorn and Tatiana Muntian
- East Carolina University, $1,500 in support of Reclaiming Accountability: Improving Writing Programs through Accreditation and Large-Scale Assessments edited by Wendy Sharer, Tracy Ann Morse, Michelle F. Eble, and William P. Banks
- Iain Nicholson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary, Audbuon Nebraska, Ron and Judy Parks, and the Wagon Tongue Creek Farm, $6,000 in support of A Chorus of Cranes: The Cranes of North America and the World by Paul A. Johnsgard, photographs by Thomas D. Mangelsen
- Knowledge Unlatched, $11,160 in support of Making the White Man's West: Whiteness and the Creation of the American West by Jason E. Pierce
- Knowledge Unlatched, $11,160 in support of Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica edited by Sarah Kurnick and Joanne Baron
- Pennsylvania State University, $1,000 in support of Human Adaptation in Ancient Mesoamerica: Empirical Approaches to Mesoamerican Archaeology edited by Nancy Gonlin and Kirk D. French
- The Trull Foundation, $4,000 in support of A Chorus of Cranes: The Cranes of North America and the World by Paul A. Johnsgard, photographs by Thomas D. Mangelsen
- University College of London, Qatar, $2,000 in support of Heritage Keywords: Rhetoric and Redescription in Cultural Heritage edited by Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels and Trinidad Rico
- University of California, Los Angeles, $3,000 in support of Taken from the Paradise Isle: The Hoshida Family Story edited by Heidi Kim
- University of California, Los Angeles, $3,000 in support of Relocating Authority: Japanese Americans Writing to Redress Mass Incarceration by Mira Shimabukuro
- University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, $15,937 in support of Hayden's Landscapes Revisited: The Drawings of the Great Colorado Survey by Thomas Huber
- University of Lethbridge, $1,541 in support of Indigenous Bodies, Maya Minds: Religion and Modernity in a Transnational K'iche' Community by C. James MacKenzie
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln, $2,000 in support of Repurposing Composition: Feminist Interventions for a Neoliberal Age by Shari J. Stenberg
- University of New Mexico, $4,000 in support of Exploring Cause and Explanation: Historical Ecology, Demography, and Movement in the American Southwest edited by Cynthia L. Herhahn and Ann F. Ramenofsky
- D. B. Wunnicke, $12,000 in support of Herndon Davis: Painting Colorado History, 1901–1962 by Craig Leavitt and Thomas J. Noel
Contributions toward the General Operating Fund:
Director's Circle 2015–2016 ($500+ annually)
John F. Freeman |
Joyce Kinkead |
Darrin Pratt |
2015–2016 Donors
Aaron Abeyta | Lane R. Hirabayashi |
George Bilgere | Joyce Kinkead |
Bob Broad | Holley Moyes |
Richmond Clow | Heather Orr |
Sue Doe | Enrique Rodriguez-Alegria |
John Douglass | Patricia Urban |
Alexander Drummond | Edward Schortman |
E Paul Durrenberger | John A Straayer |
Larry Evers | Patricia Urban |
Jacques Galinier | Kathryn R Venzor |
Pauline Greenhill | Laurie D Webster |
Marilyn Haberstroh |
2015–2016 Corporate Sponsors
Member Institutions
Ongoing support for the publishing program at the University Press of Colorado is provided by the following sustaining members:
- Adams State University
- Colorado State University (Fort Collins/Pueblo)
- Fort Lewis College
- Metropolitan State University of Denver
- Regis University
- University of Colorado (Boulder/Colorado Springs/Denver)
- University of Northern Colorado
- Utah State University
- Western State Colorado University
University Press of Colorado in the Fourth Grade Classroom
Four years ago, University Press of Colorado had the opportunity to purchase Discover Colorado: Its People, Places, and Times, Second Edition by Matthew Downey (emeritus, University of Northern Colorado) from Pruett Publishing in Boulder. The decision appeared to be a no-brainer. Discover Colorado, a fourth grade social studies textbook, has been continuously in print since 1976 (formerly as Colorado: Crossroads of the West), and this textbook is widely used in classrooms across the state. The only real consideration was that this perennial presence in the elementary curriculum had new competition in the marketplace, and we also needed to produce a revision to catch up with current state standards.
Little did we know the incredible challenge revising this pre-existing product would present, particularly for a publisher used to working with relatively straightforward scholarly monographs without too many complex editorial, design, and production requirements. We had done a handful of textbooks aimed at college classrooms, and a number of fairly complex archaeology monographs, so how hard could it be?
Before revising the text, working with the author we solicited input from social studies coordinators and teachers around the state. This made our normal scholarly peer review process seem quite simple by comparison. We also found and hired a co-author, Jenny Pettit, who had experience both teaching in the K-12 classroom environment as well as writing and producing curriculum materials for the K-12 market. Downey and Pettit then had the task of incorporating copious feedback, adjusting the text to current standards, and producing an entirely new teacher's guide oriented toward the classroom in 2016, a learning space that already looks a lot different than it did in 2008, when the last edition was released.
Of course, revising the text was only one piece of the challenge. We also had to hire a consultant to develop the art program for us, securing hundreds of images from diverse sources within and outside of the state. Designing a book palatable to fourth grade readers—rather than university professors—was a whole new challenge for our talented production department ("that's still too many words on that page"), and they produced multiple iterations before coming up with a final product that worked. Then there was the teacher's guide noted above, which we converted from print form to a web publication for ease of teacher access as well as incorporation of materials that could be downloaded into Learning Mangament Systems. We had to learn how to be a web publisher and developer of K-12 curricular products all in one fell swoop.
At the end of the day, though, the final product is well worth the effort, as indicated by the feedback we have been receiving from teachers who have reviewed, and in some cases are classroom testing, the new edition. I do think, though, that we will probably leave the rest of the K-12 market to those publishers out there who specialize in books like this one. I can say from our experience here at University Press of Colorado that our students in our state and around the country are very lucky for the smart and resourceful souls who brave this market on a regular basis. We have a new, insider appreciation for the great work that they do.
2016 CCCC Advancement of Knowledge Award
& 2016 CCCC Research Impact Award
Laurie E. Gries
2016 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award
& NACCS-Tejas Foco Best Poetry Book of 2015
Natalie Scenters-Zapico
2016 CCCC Lavender Rhetorics Award
for Excellence in Queer Scholarship’s
Book Award
Jacqueline Rhodes and Jonathan Alexander
2015 CWPA Best Book Award
Writing across Contexts: Transfer, Composition, and Sites of Writing
Kathleen Blake Yancey, Liane Robertson, and Kara Taczak
2015 Utah Book Award for Poetry
Rebecca Lindenberg