9mm Books, pronounced "Nine Millimeter Books," is a San Francisco publishing company that specializes in producing, publishing and selling edgy contemporary art books. The company began in 2004 by co-publishing their first book, entitled "Tiki Art Now!" with another publisher, but decided to go it alone the next year, producing two more titles and following it up with a series of other art books since that date.
In the second year of the publisher's existence they got into the regular trade book business, but quickly dropped out because of quality issues with mass production. Now the company sells directly to retailers at wholesale prices, as well as directly to consumers at retail prices.
Alehouse Press is a literary publishing company founded in 2006. This publisher and press produces literary journals including poetry, essays and reviews. They also publish the works of emerging and established writers as well as a special collection of winners from the Happy Hour Poetry Awards Contest. The company has plans to expand to full collections in anthology form as well as chapter books and other books in the same vein.
An award-winning fiction writer named Jay Rubin heads the Alehouse Press. He also teaches writing locally at the College of Alameda.
Chronicle Books began in 1967 and grew into a highly respected publishing company in San Francisco. Chronicle publishes a list of books that span the areas of fine arts such as design, art, architecture and photography. They also publish cookbooks, children's titles and produce gifts such as stationery, writing journals and address books.
The publisher has produced many award-winning books and New York Times best-selling titles. Chronicle Books distributes their titles to partner publishers such as Blue Apple, Princeton Architectural Press, Laurence King, Quirk Books and Moleskine, according to the company website.
Weldon Owen, commonly referred to as WO Publishing, has been a leader in visual reference titles and cookbooks since the 1980s. Weldon Owen specializes in illustrated nonfiction books and branded books for national brands.
Among the most well known series of books published by Weldon Owen include the Williams-Sonoma line of cookbooks and the "Kellogg's Special K Challenge & Beyond" cookbook. The company also produces and publishes specialty books for periodical companies like Parenting Magazine and Field & Stream.