Lakewood's Shannon Okey To Speak At SXSW In March

Shannon Okey, Publisher, Cooperative Press, will present “Knitting a Long Tail in Niche Publishing” at the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin this March as part of the Interactive portion of the festival, March 9-13, 2012. Originally a music festival, SXSW has grown to encompass music, film and high tech elements. Okey's talk, exploring ways to increase creators' revenue and buck the established publishing system, will be based on her own experiences as the woman business owner behind Cooperative Press, a small press that is anything but traditional.

Cooperative Press came about in 2009 after Okey had already successfully published a dozen books with major national publishers. She wanted to champion books that would fly under the radar at a mainstream publishing house, compensate authors fairly, and provide them with more creative control. Cooperative Press pays royalties that are at least four times the industry average, and takes full advantage of fast-moving digital publishing innovations. Cooperative Press represents authors including Anna Dalvi, Heather Ordover, Alasdair Post-Quinn, Kate Atherley, Stephannie Tallent and Okey herself.

Post-Quinn's Extreme Double Knitting was named to Library Journal's “Best Fiber Crafts Books of 2011” list. Not one to rest on her laurels after being acknowledged for publishing this award-winning book, Shannon is publishing Beyond Knit and Purl by Kate Atherley this month, only one of more than a dozen scheduled for publication in 2012.

Cooperative Press is located inside the Screw Factory – a historic factory building in Lakewood, Ohio. Its books are printed in the U.S.A., unlike most other publishers, and the company is dedicated to working with printers who actively offset the environmental impact of their work.

Okey, originally from Berea, Ohio, has written more than a dozen books for major publishers, including the revised 2nd edition of Pam Allen’s Knitting for Dummies. She was named one of five “New Guard of Knitting” in Vogue Knitting’s 25th anniversary issue, is the former editor in chief of Yarn Forward magazine and has appeared on numerous crafty TV programs, including DIY Network’s “Knitty Gritty.” Her most recent book is The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design.