The final installment of the UP Week Blog Tour asks “WHERE does your press Team UP?”
For this post, staff at Liverpool University Press and Clemson University Press teamed UP to offer insights into our international partnership.
How do Liverpool and Clemson work together to support scholars and publish world-class scholarship?
Liverpool University Press and Clemson University Press are proud to partner to help scholars share their work with the world. Since 2014, this transatlantic collaboration has combined Clemson’s editorial expertise with Liverpool’s production, marketing, and global distribution strengths.
Every Clemson title goes through rigorous peer review and editorial oversight, ensuring the highest academic standards, while Liverpool’s international reach helps authors connect with readers worldwide.
This partnership is about bringing scholarship to a global audience and supporting authors every step of the way. Together, we’re helping world-class research reach readers everywhere. Clemson University Press has rapidly expanded in recent years to become an award-winning academic publisher, adding approximately twenty-five books and journal issues per annum to its strong backlist of more than a hundred titles.
How did this strategic partnership come into being?
Liverpool University Press’s strategic partnership with Clemson University Press started in 2014, inspired by the successful collaboration between the UK’s Boydell & Brewer and the US’s University of Rochester to form the University of Rochester Press. Liverpool was interested in exploring a similar transatlantic model that could amplify the work of a growing university press. At the time, Clemson had a strong editorial vision, with a limited number of publications mostly focused on literary modernism. Liverpool, on the other hand, had recently experienced rapid growth and had the know-how to expand reach. Bringing the two together allowed us to combine editorial excellence with publishing scale, supporting the development of Clemson University Press into the press it is today.
How does each press benefit from this unique relationship?
Our partnership is a mutually beneficial one, with each press bringing complementary strengths to the table.
Clemson contributes exceptional editorial expertise, particularly in areas like literary modernism, cultural studies, and music. Working with Liverpool University Press allows their scholarship to reach a global audience, thanks to Liverpool’s production, marketing, sales, and distribution.
For Liverpool, the partnership has brought the opportunity to move into new areas, including Clemson’s outstanding modernism list. It also gives Liverpool fuller insight into the challenges and opportunities facing scholarly publishing in the US.
As former Clemson UP director John Morgenstern notes, “every stage of the book’s publication necessitates some level of collaboration between the partners” (Morgenstern and Whitaker, 2021, p. 38). This really captures how closely we work together, to combine editorial excellence with publishing expertise, creating a model where both presses thrive while supporting scholarship and helping it reach readers around the world.
Alison Mero, Director of Clemson University Press, stated: “Clemson’s partnership with Liverpool has been essential to our growth over the past eleven years. We look forward to many more years of ‘Teaming UP’ with our publishing colleagues across the pond!”
Anthony Cond, Chief Executive at Liverpool University Press, commented: “Liverpool University Press has been delighted to ‘TeamUP’ with Clemson University Press for more than a decade to increase and amplify the high-quality scholarship in Clemson’s lists through a distinctive – and enjoyable – partnership.”
Sources
John D. Morgenstern & Theresa Whitaker (2021), “International Publishing Partnerships,” The Serials Librarian, 80:1-4, 35-40, DOI: 10.1080/0361526X.2021.1877078
