The University Press of Kentucky is a statewide mandated nonprofit scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth. It serves all state institutions of higher learning, plus five private colleges and two historical societies.
The Press publishes academic books of high scholarly merit, as well as significant books about the history and culture of Kentucky, the Ohio Valley region, the Upper South, and Appalachia. This combination of mission and product has earned the Press a reputation for excellence in the field of scholarly publishing.
About UPK
University Press of Kentucky (UPK) is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, serving all state universities, seven private colleges, and two historical societies. Since its reorganization in 1969, UPK has meaningfully served readers, students, and scholars in the Commonwealth and Appalachia with publications of special regional interest. Its editorial program focuses on the humanities and the social sciences. Its publications in film and military studies have earned it a national reputation.
The statewide mandated nonprofit scholarly publisher has a dual mission—the publication of academic books of high scholarly merit in a variety of fields for a largely academic audience and the publication of significant books about the history and culture of Kentucky, the Ohio Valley region, the Upper South, and Appalachia. It is a member of the Association of University Presses, formerly known as the Association of American University Presses.
Its publishing program consists of about 50-60 titles annually, including about half scholarly and half trade books. Located in a house on the University of Kentucky campus, it employs 18 full-time staff and freelancers.
As a non-profit, UPK has strategies to ensure long-term success. It is a member of the Association for University Presses, has an open access initiative, and provides eBooks to libraries across the Commonwealth through the Kentucky Virtual Library.
Ashley Runyon '20, director of the press, got her start in publishing at UK and worked at other publications before she joined UPK in 2020. She has modernized the operation and digitized UPK’s books, making them instantly available to citizens across the state.
KYVL
The University Press of Kentucky is a statewide mandated nonprofit scholarly publisher. Its dual mission includes publishing books of high scholarly merit in a variety of fields for a largely academic audience and telling the story of Kentucky and its people.
The press is located on the University of Kentucky campus and staffed by eighteen full-timers and an armada of part-time staff. The most impressive part of the operation is that it has a thriving trade and university book market that yields about $3 (mostly from book sales) for every dollar it receives in state support.
The press is also the most efficient when it comes to acquiring and distributing the latest and greatest in research and scholarship materials. Among other notable achievements, the Press's Open Access Initiative (OAI) makes more than 1,300 UPK titles free and available to patrons of KYVL member institutions as well as the general public. The Press also has a clever marketing strategy in place to attract top talent to the state's oldest and largest public university. The new director of the Press is Ashley Runyon, a former marketing manager for Indiana University Press and Red Lightning Books who has an eye for finding the best in the state. The UPK is one of the few surviving state supported scholarly presses in the country and is looking to recoup its fiscal deficit by 2022 thanks to a statewide funding boost from the Thomas D. Clark Foundation and the aforementioned budget cuts.
Acquisitions
The University Press of Kentucky is a statewide mandated nonprofit scholarly publisher. It operates as an agency of the University of Kentucky and serves all state institutions of higher learning, plus five private colleges and two historical societies. The UPK imprint includes both scholarly and trade books in a variety of disciplines.
As a small press, acquisitions play an important role in the overall success of UPK. As such, the Press has an active and dedicated team of editors in this field.
Among the most important acquisitions editors at UPK are Margo Irvin, Dan LoPreto, and Joyce Harrison. In addition to acquiring scholarly projects, these editors also oversee some of the Press’s long-standing interdisciplinary series: Asian America and Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture.
Margo Irvin (she/her) acquires in history, focusing on modern European and world history as well as colonial and modern Latin American history. She welcomes proposals that take up questions in the fields of US history, immigration, and borderlands; the histories of empire, imperialism, and colonialism; nationalism and citizenship; migration and transnational connections; science, technology, computing, and information; the history of medicine and health; and gender and race.
Dan LoPreto, Acquisitions Editor, acquires in global studies and international relations. He is especially interested in books that offer interdisciplinary methods for understanding global politics and non-Eurocentric approaches to international studies. He is especially interested in projects that deal with critical topics such as political economy and globalization; empire and transimperial formations; domestic and transnational security issues; climate change and sustainability; and the intersections of foreign policy, climate, and sustainability with gender, race, and national identity.
Kathryn Marguy, Director of Publicity and Communications, has been in the university publishing industry for several years. She began her career in acquisitions at the University Press of Florida, and then ventured over to the marketing side of things. Her first-hand experience honing that seemingly elusive acquisitions/marketing relationship, and navigating the path toward growth and promotion in the university press world, gives her an edge in this role.
Editorial Board
The editorial board of the University Press of Kentucky is a collective of scholars from the state's 13 colleges and universities. They oversee UPK's imprint, which publishes between 50 and 60 titles annually -- about half scholarly and half trade books.
The Press is part of a consortium of all the state's universities, six private colleges and two historical societies that represents an efficient model of scholarship and publishing in a statewide network. As a university publisher, it serves the public good by educating students and general audiences about the state's history and culture, while fostering the publication of books that reflect the strengths and interests of its faculty members.
In addition to its academic program, UPK also publishes a variety of publications of special regional interest that appeal to readers throughout the state and beyond. These include the Kentucky Nature Series, a book collection with more than 70 volumes of nature writing; and two series devoted to Appalachia: Place Matters and Appalachian Futures.
A small portion of the state's overall funding for UPK was eliminated by budget cuts two years ago, but a strong shot in the arm from the legislature could recharge the Press. Ashley Runyon, who served as trade director at Indiana University Press and Red Lightning Books before returning to UPK in 2020, is a University of Kentucky graduate who has reenergized the press's operations.
The University Press of Kentucky is a member of the Association of University Presses, which includes more than 100 university-sponsored scholarly presses. AUPresses produces the annual Directory of University Presses and an online resource that provides information about university-sponsored presses, including editorial profiles and contact details for their publishers.
Marketing
A consortium press, UPK publishes books of high scholarly merit in a variety of fields as well as significant books about Kentucky and the Ohio Valley region. It represents the University of Kentucky, all of the state’s public universities, five private colleges and two historical societies. It is known for publishing titles that focus on the humanities and social sciences and also for its popular publications in film and military studies.
In her role as director, Runyon is responsible for day-to-day operations, including budget, human resources, strategic planning, program administration, the King Alumni House, board of directors and affinity partnerships. She is also the liaison for marketing and communications with the UK Alumni Association and oversees campus and alumni relations, as well as coordinating campus-wide outreach events.
Previously, UK had a siloed approach to communications across the campus and a lack of data for backing up its marketing strategy. It was also time-consuming and resource-intensive to manage campus-wide communication initiatives.
In an effort to automate and scale its enrollment communications, UK implemented a suite of tools from Salesforce to streamline its student recruitment process. Using Heroku, UK’s three dozen admissions lead sources are now brought into their CRM, and their marketing team can build quality filters, organize their data, and create easy-to-understand dashboards that provide campaign visibility and marketing intelligence. With the University’s main enrollment strategy centered around automated journeys, they have seen a substantial increase in positive engagement at scale.
Comments