Early Years

A question we are often asked is, “if you are based in Newcastle, why are you called Cambridge Scholars Publishing?” Well, the answer to that is actually very simple. CSP was founded in the city of Cambridge by alumni of the University of Cambridge. When the original owners took roles at Durham University, they relocated the business to the nearby city of Newcastle, and brought the name along with them.

Though the majority of the company’s life has now been spent in the North East, Cambridge remains an integral part of our history.

Within a few short years of its founding, CSP began to establish itself as a specialist publisher of scholarly monographs and edited collections in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Under New Management

After establishing CSP in Newcastle, CSP’s original owners made the decision to leave the UK and, as a result, CSP was soon bought by a consortium led by CEO Graeme Nicol (with our original owner remaining involved).

An engineer by trade, Graeme was aided by trusted advisors to bring him up to speed with the unique quirks and challenges of the publishing industry. He soon got to work devising and implementing a new, “everything under one roof” model, with printing, warehousing, and distribution all handled from a single location, allowing for sustainable, friction-free production and supply. This was achieved by the implementation of our innovative Print on Time system, in which micro-stock is held alongside an efficient print department which allows new stock to become available within 24 hours.

This system ensures minimum paper wastage and a smaller carbon footprint, all without impacting the availability of our titles. It also means skilled jobs are kept at home, in our Newcastle HQ, rather than outsourcing them.

Move to Lady Stephenson

It soon became clear that the location that CSP had called home since the move to the North East was no longer fit for purpose, and so the business was relocated to the historic Lady Stephenson Library in the heart of Walker, a former shipping area just outside Newcastle city centre. The building was completely renovated, with the top floor converted into a printing workshop, and the lower floors adapted for office space and warehousing.

With the move came an expansion of the CSP catalogue, moving, for the first time, beyond our core subject fields in Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, and into the fields of Health, Life, and Physical Sciences.

What Now?

Though much has changed since those first years, one thing has remained our central focus: to provide an inclusive service that celebrates diversity, champions original thinking, and puts our authors at the centre of everything we do.

We believe that every scholar has something of value to add to their field, no matter their experience, background, or institutional prestige. We can now proudly boast of a truly global community of authors and editors, with early career academics standing alongside seasoned academics.

What began as a hobby enterprise has now gone on to become one of the world’s leading scholarly publishers, with over 700 titles published per year.

Here’s to another 20 years and more!

Testimonials

One thing that we’re extremely proud of is our record for author satisfaction, with authors frequently returning to publish with us again and again. Here’s what some of our returning authors have had to say about their time publishing with CSP:

“I have worked with Cambridge Scholars several times, as an author and as an editor. I have found everyone involved to be helpful, thorough and professional. Manuscripts move from submission to production quite quickly, allowing more timely work to be available for readers.”

Laura Finlay
Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology, Barry University; Co-editor of the Peace Studies: Edges and Innovations series

“What a delight to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of Cambridge Scholars Publishing. I have been honoured to publish five titles with this press ranging across various platforms broadly related to ecology, the environment, and climate change. I have found the staff’s expertise to be extraordinarily helpful, guiding and nudging along from the proposal phase to publication in an enlightening, supportive and practical manner. There are four features for which I am especially grateful. First, the manuscript review and proofs processes are superbly streamlined and very responsive to changes that need to be made. Second, the marketing and promotion processes are outstanding—I hear regularly from colleagues who are grateful for the ease of finding, ordering, and delivering books. Third, the publisher’s website is imaginative, easy to navigate, and enticing in a manner that enables perusing other titles so interesting. Finally, the published books, from the external covers to the internal layout, are most inviting and very attractive. I look forward to working with Cambridge Scholars Publishing on many other projects.”

Gerard Magill, PhD
Vernon F. Gallagher Chair and Professor, Center for Global Health Ethics; Senior Research Fellow, Grefenstette Center for Ethics in Science, Technology, and Law, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA

“I've had the pleasure, over the past years, of publishing three books with Cambridge Scholars Publishing: USA Pop, Luxury and American Consumer Culture and The Creative Process: An Ethnographic Analysis. It was always a positive experience for me. I would describe the staff at the press as highly professional and always helpful—at every level, from dealing with the process of submitting a proposal to working with the production staff. That explains why I hope to publish other books with them in the future. I recommend them to all authors looking for a press with whom to work.”

Arthur Asa Berger
Professor Emeritus of Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts, San Francisco State University

“My association with Cambridge Scholars began in 2003, at the very inception of this company. From the outset, the hallmarks were openness and innovation. The company has distinguished itself by undertaking projects that others might have regarded with caution or even scepticism.  The result was the ground-breaking publication of the complete libretti of the operatic master Giacomo Meyerbeer, which led, in turn, to a unique and unprecedented musical catalogue in Romantic opera and ballet. 

Further books and scores emerged, covering a comprehensive survey of the composer’s life and work. Other studies in opera followed:  Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, with source books on the opéra-comique and the operetta.  The books on ballet saw the publication of the first ever life and works of the neglected and now resurgent Ludwig Minkus, a comprehensive reproduction of his chief, as well as work on the French Romantic Ballet, Cesare Pugni, and Romualdo Marenco. At a wider level, this openness to ideas has forged the way for the creation of a broad and exploratory list, covering a gamut of subjects across the board, with perspectives of a wide and original nature.

The books which emerged from the beginning in both hard and soft covers were produced using the latest digital technology, with arresting cover design, and characterised by close consultation and cooperation with the authors. Over the years, and with stimulating regularity, new, effective and attractive technology is being used to introduce striking presentation, especially in the sphere of illustration. Here new techniques allow for marvellous colour centrefolds—an aspect of production that is transforming the style, nature and potential of publishing.  So, openness to ideas and innovation in production technique are the hallmarks of a dynamic company at the service of knowledge and education, and at the forefront new publishing ideas.

This author has published over 100 works with CSP in the fields of literature, music and Scripture, sometimes in collaboration with other scholars, and always in the interests of expanding historical understanding and new interpretation. CSP is an agent in the spread of knowledge and the liberating enlightenment that can come with it—principally by encouraging scholars of every kind, offering them hope and potential, whether this is in rediscovery of the new in the old, or in pushing forward the limits of perception and understanding of the world around us.”

Robert Ignatius Letellier
Lecturer and author attached to the universities of Cambridge and Salzburg and the Maryvale Institute

“When I chose to publish with Cambridge Scholars Publishing, I made a very wise professional decision. I really felt that the publishing team cared about my books and they were most accommodating in relation to my requests in every respect. Most importantly, I would choose to publish with the press again. Throughout the entire process of the submission, review, editing, design, proofing, printing, and distribution, all were professional, prompt with responses and thorough at every step of the way. They provided clear guidelines and their standards are high. Indeed, I am indebted to the team members for their expertise, generosity, enthusiasm and respect. Moreover, the entire process was painless and efficient due to their hard work, patience, and professionalism. It was a real pleasure for me to work with them. I highly recommend this press to anybody interested in working with a well-organised, capable, knowledgeable and committed editorial team who will treat your work with the consideration it deserves.”

Professor Tom O’Donoghue
Graduate School of Education, the University of Western Australia

“Cambridge Scholars Publishing was recommended to me by an academic who had recently had a book accepted for publication. I was delighted when I received a letter of acceptance from Cambridge Scholars for my first book, which was a revised and updated version of my PhD thesis on the rather “niche” subject of language articles in the French press, with particular reference to the work of Aristide (Maurice Chapelan) of Le Figaro. That book, Aristide of Le Figaro, was the first of several.

Publishing with Cambridge Scholars has been a joy. Thanks to them, my three books on Maurice Chapelan and my work on Claude Duneton’s language articles have been well received and recognised by French writers of influence. I am now preparing a fourth book on Chapelan’s comico-erotic novels, which he wrote under a pseudonym: Aymé Dubois-Jolly.

I would recommend Cambridge Scholars to any academic who is seeking a good, reliable publisher, as they are always ready to help and advise at any stage, from the preliminary submission of sample text to the completion of the cover. It is reassuring to know that the result will always be a handsome, expertly produced volume, of which any author would be proud.

Congratulations to Cambridge Scholars on their 20^th anniversary and all power to them for the next 20 years and beyond!”

Mary Munro-Hill, PhD
Honorary Fellow of the University of Hull

“Cambridge Scholars Publishing is the scholar’s friend, not least because it encourages a real diversity of academic thought and expression, something particularly welcoming to the scholar seeking to publish for the first time. It is impressively supportive of all aspects of book production, allowing authors their say in such important areas as marketing and publicity, artwork, cover design, as well as all the subsidiary stuff that goes on behind the scenes in the production of an academic study. Having published four books in a row with them I have found the various departments of CSP unfailingly helpful and supportive, quick in their responses to those inevitable queries and niggles that arise in the publication of a demanding text, and—no little thing, this—agreeably friendly in their author interactions. I am happy to stay with them as long as they’ll have me!”

Nicholas Gayle
Author of Byron and the Best of Poets; Byron and the Sea-Green Isle; Pope, The Odyssey and the Ontology of Language; and Conrad and the Being of the World