Water Street Press is an independent publishing company—and we use that description in the classic sense: we are a highly selective publisher that is not owned by a parent company or a conglomerate.​

 

We’re happy to say that, in some ways, we’re a stereotypical indie. We aren’t, for example, risk averse—we love dangerous, provocative books and we’re willing to take a chance that there are readers out there who will love them too.

 

In other ways, our mission is pretty darn traditional—to select and curate original narratives, and to nurture the extraordinary writers who produce them. To maintain the highest editorial standards. To complement beautiful words with elegant, streamlined design. 

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But it’s when you take the fundamental ingredients of conventional publishing—good books by fine writers for enthusiastic readers—and throw technology into the mix that magic can happen. Technology—the emergence of e-books and readers’ growing preference for e-reading—changes everything.

 

The advantages of e-books are myriad. A whole library can fit in your purse or your pocket. A friend recommends a book and, with just a few clicks, it can be in your hands so you can read it too. And talk about green—buy an e-book and save the trees!

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We do understand that some people still prefer printed books. Readers can look for our print editions at all major online retailers. Bookstores can locate our books in the Ingram catalog.​

 

Finally—importantly—digital modes of communication allow you, the reader, to engage with your favorite books and their authors in ways that weren’t possible even five years ago. With online tools like social networking, blogs, video and chat, we are able to do more than simply let you know when we’ve released a new title; we’re able to connect readers with writers and fuel the exchange of ideas and opinions that can take reading to a whole new, interactive level. By embracing this wonderful age of technology and information, the miracles of digital distribution and lively reader-writer conversations, we can actually get back to doing some quite venerable things: providing entertainment, provoking ideas, sparking debate and fostering human interaction—one book, one reader at a time.