Morris Publishing

If you write it, the publishers will come.

Actually, that usually happens only in the movies … and besides, the reference is to a baseball field that Kevin Costner’s character built in an Iowa cornfield, not a book. But even if you’re not Elmer Kelton or John Grisham, take heart. You, too, can get published.

Scott Morris is the owner and president of the company his grandfather began in 1933. Located in Kearney, Nebraska, Morris Publishing has evolved from a commercial printer into a printing company that produces short-run books—typically, 200 to 5,000 copies—for self-published writers. Each year, Morris helps authors publish over 1,000 titles, which range from fiction to poetry, and from religious tracts to corporate sales manuals. The company also has a separate division that specializes in custom cookbooks.

Although the com-pany doesn’t count the Hollywood elite among its writers, some Morris authors, such as Jeannette Ferguson, have earned a measure of fame. Ferguson’s book Gardening with Guineas was intended to teach a limited audience how to raise this African bird. As it turns out, the audience is somewhat larger than Ferguson thought, and her book is now in its ninth printing. In addition, the book’s Amazon.com sales rank—as of this writing—is 3,746 (the lower the number, the higher the sales rank). In contrast, Louis L’Amour’s Sackett’s Land is only 27,294.

Talk about crying fowl.

— R.G. Robertson