Wisconsin Book Publishing Services for Authors Who Want It Done Right

From Milwaukee's poetry scene to Madison's free festival, Wisconsin writers have real places to grow.

• Wisconsin Center for the Book. The state's Library of Congress affiliate, a nonprofit tied to Woodland Pattern Book Center, sponsors public book events and runs the commission that picks a new Wisconsin Poet Laureate every two years.
• Wisconsin Writers Association. Founded in 1948, it holds workshops and events around the state, a fall conference, and the Jade Ring contest for fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Members can also post a writer profile on its site.
• Woodland Pattern Book Center. This poet- and artist-run Milwaukee nonprofit presents over 400 events a year, runs adult writing groups and workshops, and keeps about 25,000 poetry and small-press titles. It is moving from Riverwest to a new home in Bay View; check its site for the current address.
• Wisconsin Book Festival. Presented by Madison Public Library and its foundation, it offers free author events all year plus a four-day Fall Celebration, and partners with independent booksellers. Since its start in 2001, it has brought more than 3,500 authors to Madison.

A note on grants: the Wisconsin Arts Board funds nonprofit organizations through its main programs, so individual writers can't apply to them directly; its Folk Arts Apprenticeships are for traditional artists, storytellers among them. Poets can look at Woodland Pattern's Milwaukee Emerging Poet Fellowships; check the deadline on its site.

Where we fit in: these groups sharpen the writing. When the manuscript is ready, we handle the edit, the cover, the interior and the publishing setup, and you keep the accounts.

Book publishers in Wisconsin follow the same three models as everywhere else. A traditional press pays and chooses carefully. A hybrid publisher splits the expense with the author. A self-publishing service is hired for the work, and the book remains yours.

The University of Wisconsin Press in Madison publishes up to seven works of fiction a year. It reads a synopsis and the first 50 pages from July 1 to September 1 and from January 15 to March 15, and wants literary fiction or books set in Wisconsin or the Midwest, not romance, fantasy or young adult. The Wisconsin Historical Society Press takes proposals through an online form for history aimed at general readers.

Whatever route you take, settle three points before paying anyone: the ISBN and store accounts in your name, royalties paid directly to you, and an itemized written price. With us, the ISBN, the accounts and the royalties stay yours.

The Jade Ring contest began in 1949. Kraft Foods founder James L. Kraft, a writer and jewelry maker himself, designed jade rings for the winners, and more than 1,000 writers entered stories, poems and plays the following year. Wisconsin also gave the world A Sand County Almanac: the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo keeps Leopold's Land Ethic alive.