1. NEWS REVIEWS BESTSELLERS CHILDREN'S AUTHORS ANNOUNCEMENTS
DIGITAL INTERNATIONAL OPINION
SUBSCRIBE | LOGIN | E-NEWSLETTERS
Volume 256 Issue 43 10/26/2009
Ranson-Polizzotti Launches New Imprint
by Judith Rosen | Oct 26, 2009
TTweeeett 0
LLiikkee SShhaarree 0
Iam following the river./ I do not know where it is leading./ I am doing my exact thing,” Sadi Ranson-
Polizzotti wrote in “Following the River/Seeking the Spring,” which is included in her newly released volume
of poetry, (for goodness' sake), from Tenn.-based Twilight Times Books in the U.S. and Alyscamps Press in
France. Despite personal setbacks, including her brother's suicide and her own melanoma, 43-year-old
Ranson-Polizzotti's career path has seemed charmed. She went from handling publicity for David R. Godine
Publishers to founding her own press in 1995: Lumen Editions, the literary imprint of Brookline Books, an
educational house in Brookline, Mass. Now, after a five-year hiatus from Lumen, she is returning to
publishing and a new imprint, Fibonacci Editions, part of Twilight. The two will operate independently, and
Ranson-Polizzotti will remain in the Boston area.
Article continues below.
RELATED STORIES:
PW issue Contents
More in articles by Judith Rosen
Want to reprint?
Get permissions.
FREE E-NEWSLETTERS
Enter e-mail address
PW Daily Tip Sheet
More Newsletters
2. “I don't know what people like, but I can offer them something that moves me,” said Ranson-Polizzotti, about
the aesthetic she will bring to her new venture, which will release its first book later this year. “That's what I
did at Lumen,” she added, “and it works.” She described the decision to close Lumen as “still painful”: to
leave behind an imprint that was in the black, that had every title reviewed in the New York Times Book
Review, that had an editorial board with luminaries like Nobel Prize—winner Saul Bellow and published
Marguerite Duras, who brought her final work, Writing, to Ranson-Polizzotti. Of the split with Brookline, she
said only, “I left on the day I was to sign partnership papers,” declining to elaborate further on the nature of
the break with Brookline in this interview or elsewhere.
If “Lumen” indicates a measure of light in a dark time for Ranson-Polizzotti, “Fibonacci” designates beauty
and the connection between mathematics, philosophy and art in the midst of chaos. “Expect honesty,
integrity, different points of view, the unexpected, the ridiculous, the translated, the young and the new,” said
Ranson-Polizzotti. “Of course I want sales. I want reviews. But as a publisher and a writer, I want my
authors' voices to be heard and the historical record to be accurate. At the end of the day, does a book wind
up in the library? Will the book be relevant 20 years from now?”
Just as she did at Lumen, which she launched with Silk, a collection of short stories by debut writer Grace
Dane Mazur, Ranson-Polizzotti will have autonomy over Fibonacci. Twilight founder Lida Quillin said, “I'm
just here to provide support.” Although the two presses are very different—Twilight began a decade ago as
one of the first e-book-only publishers—their goals are similar. “If it's great writing, I want to publish it,”
Quillin said, echoing Ranson-Polizzotti. But Twilight's list of roughly 12 books a year is less literary and
includes science fiction, suspense and vampire romance, as well as poetry.
Five years ago, Quillin began offering dual print and e-book editions. As an independent publisher, she
prefers to be nimble and start with small initial print runs, typically 500 to 700 copies, and then reprint
immediately, which she did for Ranson-Polizzotti's (for goodness' sake). Her strategy is paying off, because
70%—80% of Twilight's revenue now comes from print and the 60-title backlist. While Midpoint Trade Books
handles distribution for some Twilight titles, Quillin is in the midst of moving it in-house, and will distribute
Fibonacci and eventually other small presses.
Ranson-Polizzotti first met Quillin when TeleRead.org editor/publisher David Rothman asked her to
negotiate the contract for his suspense novel The Solomon Scandals (Jan., 2009). She also served as art
director and handled publicity for his book and several other titles. “She did such a fabulous job that it just
escalated,” said Quillin. In addition to backing from Twilight, Ranson-Polizzotti is getting creative help from
Paul Angles, who does online marketing for the prepaid credit card provider Green Dot. He designed the
Fibonacci logo and is developing the fibonacci.com site.
Since Lumen's closing, Ranson-Polizzotti has written prolifically for the Internet, largely through her Web
journal, the Tant Mieux Project (tantmieux.squarespace.com), one of only a handful of sites that Bob Dylan
links to his own bobdylan.com. She is also senior cultural and political analyst for the online journal Cyrano,
for which both Gore Vidal and Noam Chomsky write and which links directly to Tant Mieux. And she is
working on two full-length books, one on Lewis Carroll, the other on Dylan.
As a music critic, she listens to multiple playlists. The one for Fibonacci, she said, has three songs: Nick
Drake's “Fly,” Dave Brubeck's “Take 5” and Stan Getz's “Corcovado” with Astrud Gilberto.
