At a time when book publishing seems to teeter on the brink of obsolescence, Bywater Books’ founders are forging ahead with a business model based on their love of literature and quality reading. Marianne K. Martin (left), founding partner of the Michigan-based lesbian publishing company, is also a best-selling lesbian romance author with several Lambda Literary Award nominations on her resume. Kelly Smith (right), publisher and editor-in-chief, previously founded the lesbian press Bella Books. Val McDermid (not pictured), a silent partner at Bywater, is an award-winning novelist and journalist based in England. Martin attributes the success of their lesbian fiction, romance and mystery novels to Bywater’s meticulous publishing standards: “We edit and typeset our books ourselves and the quality of the writing and of the physical book are among the best in our industry.” Smith adds, “We see other lesbian authors and publishers as part of our extended family and we try and help them whenever we can. In many ways we are old-school in the high-tech age, but we are making it work.”
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