Book Publisher for classic blacksmithing books

Al Krysan is the owner of the publishing, manufacturing and distributing book company called Finney Company. He has substantially grown the business by acquiring smaller publishing companies such as Astragal Press and SkipJack Press.

If you ever wanted to write a blacksmithing book, this is the podcast to listen to, we talk about the process of publishing with Finney Company and everything they do for you such as:

helping with illustrations
editing, printing and binding the book
marketing the book and distributing it
the revenue share/pricing
Al talks about a couple of great ideas for collaborative books for associations

What We Talked About

The history of Finney Company from 1946 and in 1996 Al started with the company as a marketing person
The story between Finney Company, Randy McDaniel, Astragal Press and SkipJack Press
The professional level books for art educational opportunities
The markets they sell to:
- Hobar Publications sells to vocation/education institutions and high schools
- Chester Books that sell to art educators, museums, and galleries
- Astragal Press that sells to tool collectors and early trade
- Great Outdoors Catalog that sells to the Florida Natural history and tourism markets
- SkipJack Press that sells to the blacksmithing and metal markets
The publishing process with Finney Company vs self-publishing
One of the most interesting book projects they have worked on was about the shipping of iron ore through the great lakes to the steel mills of Pennsylvania
Joint group publications that would encourage awareness of their group, such as Norm Larson’s Iron Menagerie book. The Guild of Metalsmiths group agreed that the royalties from the book would fund the guild’s scholarship fund, to date they have brought in over $25,000 for the scholarship fund!
Al’s blacksmithing experience back in high school
Now available, Skipjack Press has acquired the blacksmithing product line of videos/dvds from Love of Art Productions and Teaching Tapes.
The story of working with Randy McDaniel and publishing his latest book “Hydraulic Forging Press for the Blacksmith”