Oakland House Press is a solo operation. I set it up almost exclusively for publishing my own work—allowing myself full control and flexibility over my product. I do all of my own design, typography, and pre-press setups, while working with service bureaus for production, distribution, sales, and other technical issues beyond my abilities. Though I am generally not “open for business,” per se—not for retail sales or for publishing the work of others—I would nevertheless, be open to collaboration on a good project. (Contact me at Terry at Oakland House Press dot com.)

Below are some of my Oakland House projects. Follow the indicated links for additional information, sample pages, or retail purchase routes:

Spring 2013 brought the arrival of Among the Fourth Graders, a non-fiction novel. Based on my experiences as a volunteer classroom teaching assistant, circa 2000-2006, I constructed a lively comic drama, dialogue-driven narrative, with a large ensemble cast of mostly nine-year-olds, covering a year in a San Francisco classroom. Produced by BookMasters of Ohio in hardback ($16) and trade paperback ($13), it is 392 pages. Also available in the Kindle format ($3.99), all at Amazon. Production of the audio format has been delayed, with no current timetable, but this book—narrated by the author as a memoir—seems like it would be a great candidate for being read in the author’s voice. (Can somebody get on that?)

In 2008, I published my photography monograph, Relationships, which is a retrospective selection of my black-and-white personal reportage, 1977-2007, arranged around the title’s theme, in 137 images across 144 pages. For its printing (and gorgeous duo-tone separations) I hired the renown art book print house, Steinhour Press of Vermont. The covers and binding were crafted by Roswell Bookbinding of Arizona. Distribution is handled, in part, by Fotofolio of New York. It is a limited edition hardback (750, each numbered and signed), available through Amazon and assorted other online retailers ($35).

In 2006, my first book project as a publisher with Oakland House Press was not one of my own titles but, rather, the publication of Groove Control by Steve Bowman. Steve is a professional drummer (from the original lineup of Counting Crows on the August and Everything album) who works mostly now as a session musician out of Nashville. He is also a very fine drum instructor (and I was one of his students), who had developed an outstanding manuscript for his drumming exercises. But he had no publisher. So, seeing a reason to finally become one, I set up Oakland House Press; then I helped Steve edit the manuscript, and I designed the layout of the pages, set the type, and arranged for the printing and binding (via Book Masters of Ohio). Example pages of Groove Control can be found at the following pdf, and copies can be purchased directly through Steve at his website, here. Tell him Terry said hi.

Meanwhile, with Oakland House Press, I have produced a series of greeting cards based on appropriate images from my photo archives. Additionally, I use my solo publishing operation for design and production of collateral (postcards and posters), advertising my occasional photo gallery shows, outsourcing my printing and production to various service bureaus. Altogether, Oakland House Press is a means for me to get my writing and photography into print—in a style that is uniform to my personal palette, while making use of, and extending, my interest in design, typography, and other technical aspects of visual presentation.

— Terry Carroll, Publisher