Updated Dec 11, 2019: They had an issue over a year ago where the re-directed an author trying to publish traditionally to their self publishing imprint. Thankfully that self publishing imprint has now shut down and they seem to be legitimate again.

Arcadia Publishing is an unusual kind of publishing company. In fact, the first thing that flashed through my mind when looking at their web page for potential authors was “scam.” However, that is not the case. In fact, I realized within a few minutes that I had read several books by Arcadia Publishing already. They are a legitimate, unique company focused on a niche market. They have already been around for 20 years.

Arcadia only publishes books about America, and they publish photo books, local history books, books about crime, books about sports, and lots of local history books about specific locations. On their website you can search their back list by state, theme, or title. Their books are sold in museums, gift stores, and local bookstores, among other places. They have a focused promotion team that works on getting their books into the right hands.

The best way to get a feeling for what they publish is to visit their website and browse their bookstore. It can also be helpful to look at the names of the series they publish. Titles in each series are written by different authors, and the title of the series can be very broad so that it actually manages to cover a variety of books. The series they publish include: Images of America, Images of Aviation, Postcard History, Images of Modern America, Campus History, Legendary Locals, and Then and Now. Most of their books are rather short, around 100 pages in length.

All the authors I have spoken to or read about that work with Arcadia Publishing seem to be happy with the company. Many have even published multiple titles with them. Because Arcadia has a promotion strategy, the author has more opportunities to focus on writing.

Arcadia is a traditional publishing company, meaning that they will professionally edit your manuscript, promote the work once it is published, and pay you in royalties. Unfortunately the details of what they require from an author making a proposal is not on their website. You have to call or email them for further details. However from what I have heard they want to hear proposals before work is completed, so contact them first, unless you already have a completed local history manuscript.

To learn more, please visit their website here.