Publisher Making Her Own History

Irene Gresick got bitten by the journalism bug when she was just 10. That’s when Gresick, who grew up in Hillsboro and Corvallis, Ore., had an article she’d written on a 4-H project published in the Hillsboro Argus.

Four decades and several writing, editing and marketing jobs later, Gresick now is operating her own thriving home-based book publishing business, Premiere Editions International Inc., in Corvallis.

Within the next five years, she hopes to move the business out of her home and hire a full-time editor and publicist and part-time designers and copy editors.

A dozen manuscripts packed into unopened envelopes are stacked on a desk in Gresick’s office waiting for review.

“To date, I’ve never had to look for an author,” said Gresick, who has published six books since she and a colleague started the business in California in 1993.

Premiere Editions specializes in nonfiction books of historical interest.

More than 10,000 copies of Premiere’s first book, “Swords, Ships & Sugars,” have been sold since it debuted four years ago. It’s now in its fourth printing.

The book chronicles the history of the Caribbean island of Nevis from 1400 to 1900. It was written by Vincent K. Hubbard, president of the Nevis Historical Society.

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Gresick learned of the manuscript for “Swords” while on a trip to visit her brother in the Caribbean.

Shortly after arriving home from her trip, she received an unsolicited copy of the manuscript on a computer disk in the mail.

She liked the book and was impressed by the author’s desire to donate a portion of the proceeds from the book to the island’s historical society.

“When I interview an author who has come in with a manuscript, I always ask why they want the book published,” Gresick said. “If it’s only about money, I pass. Money is important, but if it’s only about money, then it’s doomed to fail.”

That’s partly because the author is expected to be a willing and active participant in promoting the book. The writer’s job doesn’t end once the book is in print.

“Authors work with me to find the path to success,” Gresick said. “As a small press, I can’t afford to have the author only writing.”

Premiere’s books are available to booksellers nationwide because they are distributed by Tennessee-based Ingram Book Co., the world’s largest book distributor.

A book by Oregon author Marianne Buchwalter, “Memories of a Berlin Childhood,” struck a chord with some of its readers.

“Memories” is Buchwalter’s account of life in Germany and the religious persecution of the Jews in the days leading up to Kristallnacht, the night in 1938 when synagogues were burned and the windows of Jewish-owned stores were smashed out.

“People will write to us and say, ‘I left with nothing, and I’ve tried to describe what it was like before I left to my children and haven’t been able to. Then I found your book,’ ” Gresick said.

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Gresick is now working on the prologue for a book by her first Corvallis author, Evelyn Whitfield.

“Three Year Picnic” was written on a manual typewriter decades ago, when Whitfield returned to Oregon after spending three years in a World War II prison camp in the Philippines.

“I think this is going to be the most important book we’ve ever published,” said Gresick, who is poring over scrapbooks filled with photos, letters and articles kept by Whitfield’s siblings during the war.

Gresick, who is a graduate of Corvallis High School, has a bachelor’s degree in humanities from Oregon State University.

She has studied graduate-level marketing at the University of Oregon and publishing at Stanford University.

Her professional background includes working as an editor for an airline magazine, founding and running an international magazine on microwave cooking and serving as community liaison for a company that published books on cities and regions.

For more information on Premiere Editions International Inc., call Gresick at (541) 752-4239, e-mail her at publishpremiere-editions.com or visit this address on the World Wide Web: http//:www.premiere-editions.com.