Artisan focuses on publishing visual-heavy nonfiction books. The visuals themselves vary between photography, illustration, or graphic design, but the idea is that these books communicate ideas and lessons because of their strong visual components. Most of the books, including Artisan’s first bestseller The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller, include all three components. They are best known for their cookbooks, which continue to be bestsellers by famous chefs and food critics. But they also publish books about a wide variety of other topics including design, clothing, storytelling, current interest and kids’ crafts. Reviewing their catalog here will give you a good picture of the wide range of books they publish. I encourage you to browse through at least three pages before deciding to submit, their range is that broad and surprising.
They are an imprint of Workman Publishing, and unlike many of the other imprints they were founded in 1994 by the company itself. They try to respond to all proposals within three months. They stress that the more information you can give them about your project, the better. Unlike the other imprints of Workman, they only accept submissions via post. Please do not email them submissions, they will not be read. Submissions made by post should be printed copies, never original work. They are based out of New York City. I do believe they offer advances, although nothing is explicitly stated on the website about that.
To read their full submission guidelines, go here.
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