Industry veterans Kristen Gilligan and Len Vlahos have formed Left Field Publishing, which launches with two titles on November 3 and aims to combine the best elements of traditional publishing with the best elements of independent publishing. Left Field will publish a range of fiction, nonfiction, YA, and kids books with both literary merit and commercial appeal by "genre-defying voices" that the pair are passionate about. They want "every Left Field book to feel like a discovery for the reader." The house also is putting an emphasis on collaboration--with its authors as well as other partners in the publishing process. Left Field shares essential out-of-pocket costs--production, editorial, marketing and publicity--evenly with authors, doesn't charge for its own services, and once sales begin, will pay back expenses to both parties, after which authors receive a very generous royalty. Left Field Publishing will be distributed by IPG and aims to publish 3-5 titles a year. Its lead fall 2026 is a debut novel by Shelf Awareness's own John Mutter. (See more about that below.)
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| Left Field Publishing exhibited at MPIBA FallCon this week. From right: Len Vlahos, Kristen Gilligan, and consultant Cameron Berry. | |
Not surprisingly, considering Gilligan's and Vlahos's indie bookstore backgrounds, Left Field intends "to put bookstores and their communities front and center" through grassroots programs with store that include free stock, staff reads, social media promotion, and collaborative visibility.
Among its other initiatives, Left Field is creating a Readers Collective, a volunteer community of passionate readers, early supporters, and literary advocates--"a kind of backstage pass to the publisher's story"; a writing group that will convene regularly virtually or locally; and a literary salon in Denver that will include live discussions, author guests, literary-themed drinks, and a chance to connect with like-minded readers and writers (which may also have a virtual component).
Left Field's name refers to Gilligan and Vlahos's regular reference to anything unexpected, as well as to their home's location just beyond the left field fence of the neighboring school's baseball field.
Gilligan, who is Left Field's CEO, spent most of her career at the American Booksellers Association, where, among many roles, she was director of meetings and events and co-created the Winter Institute. She is also the former co-owner of the Tattered Cover Bookstores in Denver, Colo., where she focused on creating opportunities to get kids to read. She brought more than 100 authors each year to public and private schools in Colorado, started two Teen Advisory Boards and a teen writing group, created the Colorado Teen Book Con, hosted many Educator Nights, created the statewide Colorado Big Summer Read, and the Colorado Book & Arts Festival. She also was a judge for the National Book Award for Young Readers.
Vlahos was also a longtime ABA executive, including chief operating officer, where he oversaw the development of Indie Commerce and was a co-creator of Winter Institute. He is also former executive director of the Book Industry Study Group and former co-owner, with Gilligan, of the Tattered Cover. He currently works for ReedPop, a division of Reed Exhibitions, overseeing literary programming at some of the largest pop culture events in the U.S., including New York Comic Con and BookCon. He is also the author of six traditionally published novels for young adults, including The Scar Boys (Lerner), a finalist for the American Library Association's William C Morris Award for Best Debut Teen Fiction; Life in a Fishbowl (Bloomsbury), which was published in 10 languages and 18 countries; and Hard Wired (Bloomsbury).
One of Left Field's two debut titles is Vlahos's The Story of Oog: Or, A New Thinker's Guide to the Forest, a fable for ages 14-104. Left Field describes it as "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets Gulliver's Travels... with cavemen. When Oog's new-found powers of thought fail him, and he accidentally causes his village's fire to go out, Oog will have to learn to navigate the complex world of thinking as he goes in search of fire to save his people. Part philosophical satire, part bedtime story for adults and teens, Oog's journey--a tale of pragmatism over dogma that is incredibly relevant in today's world–will make you laugh and warm your heart."
Vlahos and his agent had tried to find a home for The Story of Oog, but while many editors liked the book, it didn't fit it neatly into a category, an experience that led to the founding of Left Field.
In the same vein, Left Field's other debut book, The Dealmaker's Will: The Story of One Deal--And the 7 Rules That Made It Happen by Denver real estate developer Walker Thrash also didn't fit into neat categories. It's a business book in the form of a novel, described by Left Field as "a book on the art of negotiation told in the form of a novel. It's Michael Lewis meets John Grisham. A perfect example of our multi-genre philosophy: fiction and non-fiction!... Will Powell's real estate dreams have stalled, leaving him desperate and vulnerable. Enter Julian Darrow: brilliant, wealthy, and dangerously persuasive. Drawn into Julian's world of ruthless deals, shadowy ethics, and rules, Will finds success within reach--but at what cost?"
In the spring, Left Field will publish one title, The Crimson Traveler by Matt Strollo, "a gritty, literary supernatural horror thriller. True Blood meets The Wire with hints of The Witcher. A heroin-addicted ex-Marine in modern-day Philadelphia and a lineage of cursed werewolf royalty spanning decades are drawn together by a supernatural plague--and the forgotten war their bloodlines were born to finish. A collision of gothic horror, drug-fueled realism, and intergenerational myth, The Crimson Traveler is both a violent thrill ride and a raw meditation on family, loyalty, and the monsters inside us." Strollo has a degree in screenwriting and is an English teacher.
The lead title for fall 2026 is Fortune and Glass, a debut novel by Shelf Awareness editor-in-chief John Mutter. Set mostly in Berlin, it's inspired by the real-life story of Fritz Kolbe, a German Foreign Ministry official who became one of the U.S.'s most valuable spies during the war. "As Berlin descends into tyranny, a principled civil servant secretly passes Nazi intelligence to the Allies, even as the woman he loves--a brilliant Jewish Berliner--fights to survive the regime determined to erase her family and her world." It's a story about how to continue to live morally under brutal circumstances and how to fight back against a totalitarian regime.