By Donna Hemmila

University presses get the stereotypes from both sides: People either think their books are too stuffy or not stuffy enough.

"One of the misconceptions about university presses is that you only publish boring books by professors," said Lynne Withey, director of the University of California Press.

On the other hand, she said, there are those who think the presses are popularizing or dumbing down serious academic writing.

Both views are off the mark, particularly where the UC Press is concerned.

"We really aim to publish the kind of work where scholars are speaking to fairly broad audiences," said Withey. "What we're good at is getting books out to the world."

The 115-year-old university press, with a staff of 140, publishes 200 books a year with titles ranging from Pathologies of Power to Perfect Pairings, a guide to picking the right wine to go with dinner. Some titles appeal more to academics while others attract a general reading audience. In addition to books, it publishes 50 multi-issue scholarly journals.

Among the six largest academic publishers in the country – including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT and the University of Chicago – UC Press is the only one connected to a public university and the only one located west of the Mississippi.

Headquartered on a side street half way between downtown Berkeley and the UC Berkeley campus, the press attracts authors from around the world. About one-fourth of them are affiliated with the UC system. Whether faculty members choose to publish with UC Press usually depends on what subject matter they're writing about since the press specializes in the humanities and social and natural sciences.

For UC Riverside professor Richard Minnich, UC Press was a logical choice to bring out his recently published California's Fading Wildflowers.

"I was born and raised in the state, and that's rare," said Minnich. "My father was born here. California is deep in me."

His research debunks a misconception that California's coastal regions and inland valleys were once covered with grasslands. From historical journals of Spanish explorers and early naturalists like John Muir, Minnich has documented that the state was covered in poppies, lupines, popcorn flowers and other native species before invading Europeans and their flora took over. There was so much rich source material, he could hardly confine his research to a 20-page journal article.

"The press provides an opportunity to write about research in a way I can't in a journal article," said Minnich. "For me, I'm just delighted to get this story out in book format."

The academic authors the press publishes know the value of presenting research in a way that's digestible to a general audience, Withey said, and the UC Press editors work with the writers to foster digestibility.

Withey can appreciate both the publisher's and the scholar's perspective since she's written four books herself, including Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams. She has a doctorate in history from UC Berkeley and taught at Berkeley and the University of Iowa. A former administrator in the UC Office of the President, Withey has been with UC Press for 22 years. She was appointed director in 2002 and is responsible for launching the digital publishing program.

In addition to the 4,000 or so titles it keeps in print, UC Press, through a partnership with the California Digital Library, has nearly 2,000 books available free online to UC faculty, staff and students, with a significant number available free to the public. The Mark Twain Project Online is one of the major UC Press digital endeavors since it is the print publisher of the definitive scholarly editions of Twain's writings held in the Mark Twain archives at UC Berkeley.

Not all university presses are as committed as UC Press has been in publishing such costly scholarly editions, said Twain Project editor Robert Hirst.

"It's no exaggeration to say that the edition of Mark Twain on which I've spent most of my professional career simply could not have been done with a commercial publisher, who would have been always worried about the bottom line more than anything else," said Hirst. "UC Press has been willing to meet every demand for quality we have made of it."

The Twain Project shoulders the cost of research, editing and proofreading through National Endowment for the Humanities grants and private donations. UC Press, however, has been willing to pay for quality paper, typesetting and illustration reproduction, items Hirst said a commercial printer just wouldn't invest in.

UC Press also publishes titles commercial publishers are cutting back on such as wine books. In July, UC Press issued its 23rd book in this category, Wines and Wineries of California’s Central Coast, and will bring out six wine-related volumes this year.

Meanwhile, the press continues to feed the reading public's appetite for natural history and environmental books. Since 1959 the press has published 96 volumes in its California Natural History Guides series.

One of the most popular natural history books is The Jepson Manual, current edition 1,424 pages. It has become a reference bible for California plants. First published in 1925 by environmental pioneer Willis Linn Jepson (namesake and benefactor of UC Berkeley's Jepson Herbarium), the field guide is a favorite of botany scholars and amateur native plant enthusiasts alike.

"It's the standard manual on California plants," said Withey. "I've seen people hiking with it, and it weighs about 5 pounds."

The publisher's current bestseller is Planet Earth, the book companion to the 11-part , Emmy award-winning Discovery Channel series. Planet Earth has sold 137,800 copies since it was published in May 2007, the largest first-year sales of any book in UC Press history. An academic press book typically sells from 1,000 to 2,000 copies its first year.

Over their published life, other books have broken the 100,000 sales mark: Ishi the Last Yahi (1981), Art and Visual Perception (2004) and Europe and the People Without History (1982) are a few of the best-sellers.

Housed under the UC Office of the President and governed by a board of directors, the press is dedicated to promoting scholarship rather than increasing the bottom line like a commercial publisher. But it still must operate like a business, Withey said.

About 85 percent of the publisher's budget comes from book and journal sales. In 2007 it brought in revenue of $29 million. Another 10 percent of its budget comes from the university, including some endowment dollars, and the remaining 5 percent is money the press raises itself through the UC Press Foundation.

With the high cost of publishing small runs of specialized books and producing highly illustrated art and science books, the press struggles to keep its publications affordable. One way it does that is though private donations. Each year potential donors have an opportunity to sponsor a particular book or series. A three-year $5 million capital campaign is currently under way to raise money for new programs and technology improvements all aimed at advancing scholarship and enriching lives.

"We're conveying scholarship to a variety of audiences, and we're supporting research and teaching," said Withey. "There's also a real public service commitment."

Donna Hemmila is editor of Our University.