The Critical Press

The Critical Press is a publisher of books on film and culture. Their primary focus is on short and medium-length books.

The Critical Press is a publisher of books on film and culture. Their primary focus is on short and medium-length books: topics and arguments that can’t comfortably fit in a long article, but which can delve into a subject thoroughly and explore it accessibly in around 100 to 150 pages. Their books tackle all different aspects of film culture, form director and genre studies, to explorations of individual films, to biographies, and even topics like an oral history of video stores as told by prominent filmmakers. All of their books are available in print and ebook formats, both on their website and from major retailers and wholesalers like Amazon and Ingram. In their first year, they have assembled a strong list of upcoming titles, and have already released three books which showcase the range of writing they will be publishing. They have spent over $70,000 of their own funds to build their list and develop their production and marketing infrastructure. However, the real challenge in the next year will be to effectively sell the many great titles they will be releasing, and funds raised will primarily be used toward hiring an experienced sales manager, developing an effective advertising strategy, and building up their boookseller contacts and resources. They believe that this particular niche - short, smart (but not overly academic) books about film - has a strong, mature audience, and given the right tools and support the Press could be a long-lived, sustainable enterprise that can eventually yield healthy annual returns and even grow its lists to cover similar, related areas of culture (music, literature, etc.).