Seattle Indie Book Publisher Bought by Major Publishing House

Long before Kindle-toting techies filled our coffee shops, Seattle has had a strong lit scene. And a big-time publisher has taken notice of one of the independent publishing houses that helped shape it.

On Wednesday, Sasquatch Books announced that it has been acquired by Penguin Random House, a major player in the book world that publishes 15,000 print books (plus another 70,000 digital titles) a year, according to the Seattle Times. The good news: Sasquatch will keep its Seattle office intact and will maintain its editorial independence.

Despite an increasingly tough environment for traditional print media companies, Sasquatch purports to have undergone double-digit growth in recent years. The bump at least in part may have been aided by a distribution deal it inked with Penguin Random House in 2012.

Sasquatch was launched in 1986 by David Brewster, a veteran local journalist who also founded the Seattle Weekly and Crosscut, publishing local guidebooks before moving on to other regional topics. Over the years, the publisher has released books from Seattle’s most famous librarian Nancy Pearl, Moorea Seal (whose adorable Mountlake Terrace house we recently raided) and other local lit stars.