Located in a quaint, quirky building on a quaint, quirky cobblestone street near Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Quirk Books started in 2002 with what founder, president and publisher David Borgenicht called "an amazing launch."
With both "industry capital and true capital" from the monster hit Worst-Case Scenario Handbook, which Borgenicht had co-written and published with Chronicle Books, the company's first titles "sold in ridiculous quantities," he said. Instantly "we had growth and a track record as a startup publisher." The company was helped in large part by Chronicle, its distributor, which, Borgenicht said, got Quirk titles into a range of accounts.
The company's aim, which has remained constant, was on creating books that "sell as much outside bookstores as in bookstores" and are "not just resources but in many cases gift books," Borgenicht said. "They are crossovers, meant to be bought by readers and gift givers--gifts as much as resource." Quirk also aims, he said, to create books that "become buzzworthy, the object of desire and conversation, and priced to reach the largest audience possible."
Now Quirk Books has another monster hit, but the house is in a different, more solid position, Borgenicht said, one that came in response to a correction that followed the initial growth spurt. "The downside of having a really successful start was that we didn't go through the usual bootstrapping," Borgenicht continued. "We didn't have to ask the usual questions: Are we printing too much? Are we spending too much? Are we publishing too much?"
But that period eventually arrived, and Quirk Books spent "a lot of time refocusing and restructuring to position ourselves to succeed over the long run and not be a kind of flash-in-the-pan phenomenon," Borgenicht said. "We learned the lessons of going too fast and not controlling the business enough."
During the time of restructuring, Quirk "honed" its approach. "We don't want necessarily to publish more and more books," Borgenicht said. "We're trying to publish more of the better ones." As a result, the company cut back its list to about 25 a year from as many as 35. Similarly the staff, which started with five in 2002 and had as many as 21 at one point, now numbers 15.
This spring Quirk was ready when it published Pride and Prejudice and Zombies--the bestselling title in its history--which has led to "another period of incredible growth," Borgenicht said. This latest spurt of "growth and bestsellerdom" has given the company a foundation "to be a publisher that will be around for a long, long time," he stated.