Foghorn

The Nearly True Story of a Small Publishing Empire

by Vicki DeArmon

Memoir | Trade paper $20 | ISBN: 9781960573926

The heyday of small press publishing in San Francisco lives again...

This memoir that reads like fiction recounts the never-before-told story of the heyday of small presses in the 1980s and 1990s in San Francisco when Bay Area presses—armed with arrogance and personal computers—took the publishing field. This is the story of one of those presses and its intrepid publisher, Vicki Morgan (DeArmon).

At Foghorn Press, Vicki was 25, young, brash, and ambitious. She quixotically built a book publishing company from scratch with her eccentric brother to help. As part of their optimistic Morgan heritage, the siblings strove to grow Foghorn Press with no capital, 100-hour work weeks, cheap beer, irrepressible belly laughs, and no book publishing experience. Over 13 years, they assembled a cast of often preposterous authors and resistant staff while outlasting a drunken ex-husband, a con artist, inscrutable distributors, a fleet of good ol' boys, terrible cash flow, and their own differing aspirations. Books were brought to market and miraculously sold from their offices in the Boiler Room until Foghorn became a resounding success with sales, media, and acclaim. But of course, the story doesn't end there.

Praise for Foghorn

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“Packed with heart, humor, and hard-earned wisdom, it's a story you won't want to put down—or see end.”

—Nina Schuyler, award-winning author of Afterword and In This Ravishing World

“Foghorn is a beautifully written time capsule of a book. It captures a bygone era in publishing and a heady chapter in a young woman’s life.”

—Julie Checkoway, author of The Three-Year Swim Club​
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About the Author Vicki DeArmon has been in the book industry for forty years as a respected publisher, bookseller, and innovator. She started her San Francisco publishing company Foghorn Press when she was twenty-five, growing it into a $2 million enterprise before selling it fourteen years later. She also worked at Copperfield’s Books as the marketing and event director and as consultant to California’s independent bookstores. She’s a writer whose short stories and essays have won awards and appeared online and in print. Vicki is one of the founders of Sibylline Press and serves as its publisher.

Book Trailer

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Catch Vicki in the San Francisco Bay Area this week only!

Wednesday, April 2 – 7pm Dive into the 80s and 90s publishing scene in the Bay Area as Vicki DeArmon talks about her memoir at Bookshop West Portal, San Francisco ​LEARN MORE​

Friday, April 4 – 7pm Celebrate the launch of Foghorn at Copperfield's Books, Petaluma ​LEARN MORE​

Saturday, April 5 – 2pm San Francisco Bay Area Book Lovers' Party and Book Launch, The Presidio in San Francisco ​LEARN MORE​

Sunday, April 6 – 1pm Vicki DeArmon talks about her memoir and the heyday of small presses at Book Passage in Corte Madera ​LEARN MORE​

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