Tilbury House

Tilbury House Publishers is an independent publishing company founded forty years ago. Their children’s book division became a major emphasis beginning in the early 1990s, and since then they have continued to publish award-winning children’s picture books for both the trade and education markets. Their picture book focus is on cultural diversity, social justice, mindfulness, science, nature, and the environment. Together with educators who are specialists in their fields, Tilbury House has developed imaginative, user-friendly guides for many of our books. These free guides offer activities and discussion points along with links to additional information and resources. They are ideal for the school or home classroom! These can be found on the Classroom Guides page of their website.

In the last forty years, you’ve certainly grown and changed as Maine-based publishing house. What has been the most pivotal year or book in Tilbury’s history so far?
This year, in fact, 2016 has been our most game-changing year because we partnered with the venerable W.W. Norton to give our books the boost they need in the marketplace. Having their endorsement of our work and their determination to get our titles out there has been the wind in our sails that we’ve been waiting for. Being a small publisher based in Maine has its perks, and we’re proud to be here, publishing books from Maine—sometimes about Maine, sometimes by Maine authors—but now being a part of the global publishing scene is a reminder of just how far off that horizon is and how much harder we need to work to keep people reading good books.

What is the most exciting part (or just your favorite part) of the publication process?
Sitting in our editorial meetings with piles of manuscripts spread among our team, sifting through the sands in search of that diamond. We uncover so much talent and so many stories that need to be heard, and it’s exciting to be the discoverers of that!

How did you come up with the idea to build the Tilbury Learning Center? Is it still growing?
The Tilbury Learning Center is an ever-changing concept but the genesis was simply trying to figure out the best way to reach educators—teachers and parents, alike—as we know that our books sell heavily into the education market. To that end, we’ve created Reader Guides (aka Classroom Connection Guides) and offer educators a 20% discount if they become a member of our site. Most of this section of our website is still under construction. We have hopes of rolling out a more robust version within the next few months. Bottom line: We are eager to connect will all educators and to make our books more useful to them and to students in a classroom or homeschool environment.

Tilbury House Publishers
12 Starr Street
Thomaston, ME 04861
www.tilburyhouse.com