Main Street Business

When you go through the traffic light in Amenia, NY, you may notice a church lacking any religious hint with a very small sign by the entrance that spells out “Grey House Publishing.” This month’s Main Street interview with Leslie Mackenzie, co-founder and owner with her late husband Richard “Dick” Gottlieb, explains what this mysterious enterprise has been doing for over 40 years. 

Is Grey House a business? How did you start it?

My husband, Dick Gottlieb, and I founded Grey House Publishing in 1981 in New York City as an independent publisher of reference books and now online information resources. Our first title was a business-to-business book, The Directory of Mail Order Catalogs, which was an immediate success with high demand from all of the suppliers to that industry from paper to printing. Obviously that title faded away when the Internet became the go-to resource for shopping from home. A few years later, a librarian said that people really need information on the Americans for Disabilities Act, and we came up with the Complete Directory for People with Disabilities. Our educational publishing business grew in all directions from there.

Dick’s background is in library publishing at Macmillan, and mine is in educational publishing at Scholastic. We left our jobs and started the company together, initially operating out of a couple of cubicles next to a freight elevator on Park Avenue and 22nd Street in New York. We started our family and our business at the same time and moved to Sharon, CT, to have space and lower operating costs. Grey House Publishing’s headquarters were originally in the northwest corner of Connecticut above what is now the NBT building in Sharon and then in a larger space in Lakeville at Pocketknife Square. In the 1990s we moved into the old New Yorker Restaurant in Millerton, NY, and then in 2011 we made our final move to the former Methodist church on Rt. 22 in Amenia, NY, which we now own. No more moving for us.

What does Grey House publish?

Grey House provides information resources to libraries, schools, and institutions under three primary imprints: Grey House, Salem Press, and H.W. Wilson. We publish up to 70 new titles every year, includinga mix of curriculum support resources for literature, science, history, careers, and health, as well as statistical and business reference books. These books help readers research a topic and develop a deeper understanding of the subject. 

Right now, we have approximately 1,700 active titles under our three imprints, which are warehoused and shipped from a facility in Pennsylvania. Our books are printed in North America with printers in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, California, and Canada. All titles published by the company’s Grey House and Salem Press imprints come with free online access for an unlimited number of users when libraries, schools, and colleges purchase the print edition. 

What is the mission of Grey House?

Regardless of the topic, our mission has always been to provide accurate, accessible information that is helpful to people. We believe that reliable information needs to get into the hands of students and researchers, now more than ever, and libraries are an important piece of that puzzle. Our goal is to provide vetted content and make it available to the public. In this day of misinformation, dis-information, algorithms, and fake news, we think that access to vetted information that can be trusted is more important than ever before. While the technology may change, we feel that reference publishers like ourselves still have a duty to help people find answers to their questions, understand the concepts involved, and know where to go next. Solid, vetted information that’s easy to understand will never go out of style.

Who are your customers?

 Grey House Publishing’s primary market is US public, college, and university libraries and departments as well as high school libraries. Our electronic access to this content is on the Grey House/Salem Press online platform: online.salempress.com/home, which has 12,000 registered institutions linked to it. This allows students and registered users to access Grey House content at the library or remotely from home or office. 

What are some examples of recent publications?

During COVID in 2020 Grey House launched its “Health & Wellness” series with the Dementia Handbook & Resource Guide, which was named a Library Journal Best Reference Book upon its release. Since then that series has grown to over a dozen titles. They are all written for consumer reference to help counter health misinformation that is rampant online. Recently we’ve added the Chronic Pain Handbook & Resource Guide and the Adolescent Mental Health Handbook & Resource Guide. 

Given the hyper-partisan nature of US politics today, it’s easy to forget that Americans have always been divided over issues such as privacy and security, immigration, and civil rights. Our Grey House series called “Opinions Throughout History,” edited by Micah L. Issitt, traces how opinions on controversial topics have changed over time with more than 20 titles including The Supreme Court, which has always been controversial, and most recently Refugees & Asylum Seekers. These history reference books make the topics accessible to public library users and provide historical perspective with detailed analysis of primary sources such as political cartoons and op-ed articles. 

Our Salem Press imprint, in addition to dealing with history, science, and careers topics, publishes literary criticism of classic and contemporary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Each volume presents readers with criticism and analysis of an author, work, or literary theme. Students come away with an enriched sense of the many ways these works and authors can be appreciated. Crime and Punishment and Notable Writers of LGBTQ+ Literature were just published this year.

Are titles available in other languages?

Google translator works well with our e-books so it’s not necessary.

Will artificial intelligence affect your business?

Actually, we just published New Developments in Artificial Intelligence under the respected H.W. Wilson imprint, “The Reference Shelf,” which is a subscription-based series published six times a year covering contemporary topics. At this point AI is not reliable enough for us to utilize.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your business?

Positive feedback from librarians who trust our content is very satisfying. We have long-term personal and professional relationships with our customers who often give us ideas about topics they would like us to address. 

Do you read all these books? Who writes them?

It seems like a new one comes out every week. I’m proud of the fabulous content of every volume. Publishing Opinions Throughout History has been really exciting. While I help direct the content there’s just not enough time to read every book.

We have a stable of freelance editors, mostly academics, all across the country specializing in certain subject areas who write our reference books. It takes about a year from assignment to completion. Right now, we’re working on our books for 2025 and 2026. In-house project managers guide the development of every book with the outside editors, contributors, copy editors and proofreaders. We have just under 40 full-time employees in various locations.

How do you market your products?

Our market is primarily institutional. We reach it through traditional channels – direct mail, phone, e-mail, the Internet, our online and printed catalogs, and trade shows.

What’s next for Grey House? Did COVID affect your business?

We are focusing on our website and e-book platform. There’s always some issue that needs to be explored, some information need that we can address. That’s always been what’s next for us. Ideas for new books come from what students are studying at the AP Level, from librarians, as well as from our editors and writers. 

During COVID, schools were suddenly in such a bewildering time that we had to make extra customer support available. We helped our school librarians set up one-click access to our content from home for their remote students who had to go from in-person to at-home learning in a matter of days. Those were difficult times for everyone. •