McFarland & Company

McFarland & Company
Status	Active
Founded	1979
Founder	Robert Franklin
Country of origin	United States
Headquarters location	Jefferson, North Carolina
Distribution	Self-distributed (Americas); Eurospan Group (Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa);
Key people	Robert Franklin; Rhonda Herman;
Publication types	academic and adult nonfiction, monographs, reference material, scholarly journals
Nonfiction topics	pop culture, sports, military history, transportation, chess, medieval studies, literary criticism, librarianship
No. of employees	About 50
Official website	mcfarlandbooks.com

McFarland & Company, Inc., is an American independent book publisher based in Jefferson, North Carolina, that specializes in academic and reference works, as well as general-interest adult nonfiction. Its president is Rhonda Herman. Its former president and current editor-in-chief is Robert Franklin, who founded the company in 1979.^[2]^[3] McFarland employs a staff of about 50, and as of 2019^[update] had published 7,800 titles.^[3]^[4] McFarland's initial print runs average 600 copies per book.^[5]

Subject matter

McFarland & Company focuses mainly on selling to libraries. It also utilizes direct mailing to connect with enthusiasts in niche categories.^[6] The company is known for its sports literature, especially baseball history, as well as books about chess, military history, and film.^[7]^[8] In 2007, the Mountain Times wrote that McFarland publishes about 275 scholarly monographs and reference book titles a year;^[4]^[9] Robert Lee Brewer reported in 2015 that the number is about 350.^[10]

Publications

Notable book series

The following book series are among those published by McFarland & Company:

"Contributions to Zombie Studies" (edited by Kyle William Bishop)^[11]
"Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy" (edited by C. W. Sullivan III and Donald Palumbo)^[12]

Scholarly journals

The following academic journals are published by McFarland & Company:

Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game – focuses on "baseball's early history, from its protoball roots to 1920"^[13]
Black Ball: A Journal of the Negro Leagues – focuses on "all subjects related to black baseball, including the Negro major and minor leagues, and pre–Negro league play"^[13]
Clues: A Journal of Detection – focuses on "all aspects of mystery and detective material in print, television and movies"^[13]
Journal of Information Ethics – focuses on information ethics and information science^[10]
Journal of Territorial and Maritime Studies – focuses on "global territorial and maritime issues"^[14]^[13]
North Korean Review – focuses on an understanding of North Korea's "complexities and the threat it presents to global stability"^[13]

References

^ "For International Customers". McFarlandBooks.com. Archived from the original on January 23, 2018.
^ Roark, Fawn (September 30, 2004). "McFarland President To Speak At Entrepreneurial Conference". Mountain Times. Archived from the original on September 3, 2012.
^ ^a ^b "Company History". McFarlandBooks.com. McFarland & Company. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013.
^ ^a ^b "McFarland & Company Announces Promotion". Mountain Times. March 31, 2005. Archived from the original on December 15, 2013.
^ Slide, Anthony (2010). "A Publishing Phenomenon that Begins and Ends with Scarecrow Press". Film History. 22 (3): 300–301. doi:10.2979/fil.2010.22.3.298. JSTOR 10.2979/fil.2010.22.3.298. S2CID 192112592. The initial print run for a book in the Filmmakers series, and, for that matter, most if not all Scarecrow titles, was six hundred copies. A similar print run has been the norm at McFarland and Greenwood Press.
^ Slide, Anthony (2010). "A Publishing Phenomenon that Begins and Ends with Scarecrow Press". Film History. 22 (3): 304. doi:10.2979/fil.2010.22.3.298. JSTOR 10.2979/fil.2010.22.3.298. S2CID 192112592. McFarland [...] books were primarily aimed at the library market. It was a mail order publisher with no interest in bookstore sales, but unlike its major competitor, virtually from the start all of its books were typeset.
^ Martinez, Amy (March 1, 2012). "Amazon.com Trying to Wring Deep Discounts from Publishers". Seattle Times. Archived from the original on December 8, 2013.
^ Slide, Anthony (2010). "A Publishing Phenomenon that Begins and Ends with Scarecrow Press". Film History. 22 (3): 305. doi:10.2979/fil.2010.22.3.298. JSTOR 10.2979/fil.2010.22.3.298. S2CID 192112592. Most film scholars, students and buffs would assume that McFarland's main thrust has been towards film book Publishing [but] it is the largest publisher of military memoirs and baseball-oriented titles. It is also rich in books on women's, African-American, and gender studies, on U.S. history, and is proud of its automotive line. It also boasts of being the most prestigious publisher of historical and reference books on chess.
^ "VP Celebrates 25 Years at McFarland". Mountain Times. December 13, 2007. Archived from the original on December 15, 2013.
^ ^a ^b Brewer, Robert Lee (August 5, 2014). 2015 Writer's Market: The Most Trusted Guide to Getting Published. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 978-1-59963-860-7.
^ Guynes-Vishniac, Sean (2018). "The Zombie and Its Metaphors". American Quarterly. 70 (4): 903–912. doi:10.1353/aq.2018.0072.
^ Schlobin, Roger C. (2011). "Review of A Short History of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn and Edward James". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 22 (2): 292–298. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Journals". McFarlandBooks.com. McFarland & Company. Archived from the original on April 20, 2015.
^ "JTMS Journal of Territorial and Maritime Studies". JTMS Journal of Territorial and Maritime Studies. Archived from the original on January 23, 2018.