McSweeney's

McSweeney's
Status Active
Founded 1998
Founder Dave Eggers
Country of origin USA
Headquarters location San Francisco
Distribution Publishers Group West
Publication types Books, Magazines
Official website www.mcsweeneys.net

McSweeney's is an American publishing house founded by editor Dave Eggers.

Apart from its book list, McSweeney's is responsible for four regular publications: the quarterly literary journal, Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the daily-updated literature and humor site McSweeney's Internet Tendency, the monthly magazine The Believer, and the new quarterly DVD magazine, Wholphin. The publishing house also runs two additional imprints, Believer Books and the Collins Library. Version 2.0 of the McSweeney's iOS app was released in 2011.

On the name of the organization, Eggers says that as a child his family received letters addressed from someone named Timothy McSweeney, who claimed to be a relative of his mother's, and his name took on an aura of mystery for him. Eggers claims that the real McSweeney is in care for mental illness, and his letters stemmed from confusion over Eggers' grandfather, who delivered him at birth, and the McSweeney family who adopted him sharing the same name.[1][2]

McSweeney's has helped launch the careers of young writers, such as Philipp Meyer and Rebecca Curtis; it has also published the works of well-established authors such as Michael Chabon, Stephen King, David Foster Wallace, George Saunders, Michael Ian Black, and Joyce Carol Oates. The band One Ring Zero gained notoriety by becoming the house band for the New York McSweeney's store. As a result of this relationship, they gained the trust of many prominent McSweeney writers and solicited their lyric-writing assistance in the ORZ album, "As Smart As We Are". McSweeney's was also the subject of the They Might Be Giants song "The Ballad of Timothy McSweeney."

Contents

Book titles

Books published under McSweeney's Rectangular's imprint include:

Non-McSweeney's collections

These titles are typically compilations of McSweeney's works either from print or online sources. The publisher of the works is listed at the end.

826 Valencia Publications

These titles are releases of/by 826 Valencia. They are not the focus of this page, but these title have been published by McSweeney's/826.

In December 2006 Advanced Marketing Services, since 2002 the parent company of McSweeney's distributor Publishers Group West (PGW), declared bankruptcy. At the time of the filing, PGW owed McSweeney's about $600,000. [3] McSweeney's eventually accepted an offer from Perseus Books Group to take over distribution; the deal reduced McSweeney's losses to $130,000.[4] In June 2007, McSweeney's held a successful sale and eBay auction which helped make up the difference.[5]

References

  1. ^ Flak Magazine interview, March 2000
  2. ^ The Real Timothy McSweeney, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, February 2010
  3. ^ A financial thriller in the publishing world from the San Francisco Chronicle
  4. ^ Indie Publishers Act All Indie, from New York magazine
  5. ^ McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Book Distribution, Bankruptcy, and McSweeney's

External links