About
Sticking Place Books is a New York-based publisher specialising in cinema titles, offering interview books, memoirs, critical and historical studies, screenplays, essay collections, and the occasional piece of relevant fiction. From Aristotle to Antonioni, Apatow to Anger, nothing overly theoretical or ideological, nothing buried in jargon or lost in abstraction. We want it straight — from the horse’s mouth: writing grounded in experience, in craft and first-hand knowledge. Accounts from those who were there, who did the work. Rigourous historical, empirical approaches too, and also meaningful commentary. If there’s something in the archive worth recovering, we’ll air it. If there’s something that needs translating, we’ll give it a voice. At a time when editorial decisions are increasingly taking their cues from marketing, SPB focuses on work we consider important and deserving of a readership. Our books, which will never be fancy fetish shelf trophies, fit in the hand and will stay in your head. A good idea can be scratched on the back of a shovel with a piece of chalk. Each title an act of defiance, a pitiful attempt to slow the advance of the most plentiful element in our bifurcated universe: ignorance.
Our catalogue includes books by and about Michael Almereyda, Guillermo Arriaga, Eve Babitz, Charles Chaplin, Damien Chazelle, Larry Cohen, Alex Cox, Brian De Palma, Jonathan Glazer, Michael Haneke, Werner Herzog, Henry Jaglom, Abbas Kiarostami, Stanley Kubrick, David Mamet, Jim McBride, Kelly Reichardt, Pierre Rissient, Bruce Joel Rubin, Esfir’ Shub, Preston Sturges, Peter Whitehead, Paul Williams, Rudy Wurlitzer and Caveh Zahedi. Authors published by SPB include John Baxter, Godfrey Cheshire, Ian Christie, Michel Ciment, Peter Cowie, Michael Elias, Pamela Hutchinson, David James, Stuart Klawans, Daniel Kremer, David LaRocca, Ross Lipman, Scott MacDonald, Joseph McBride, Leonard Maltin, Patrick McGilligan, Adrian Martin, James Naremore, Gerald Peary, David Robinson, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Sam Staggs and David Sterritt.
Sticking Place Books was established in 2015 by Paul Cronin, editor of Alexander Mackendrick’s On Film-Making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director, Werner Herzog’s A Guide for the Perplexed, Abbas Kiarostami’s Lessons with Kiarostami and Paul Williams’ Peace of Mind. His films include studies of Amos Vogel, Peter Whitehead and Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool. He edited the book A Time to Stir: Columbia ’68, about the 1968 student protests at Columbia University, and made an accompanying 15½-hour documentary on the subject. Paul has translated several titles from French for Sticking Place Books and is near completion on a series of books by and about Alexander Mackendrick.
Aware of how discouraging and dispiriting the traditional publishing process can be, Paul works directly with authors, collaborating one-to-one, with speed, efficiency, rigorous quality control, and a high standard of care, personally supervising every stage of the process, from submission to publication. We are always interested in hearing from authors, whether first-time or established. Find us at info@stickingplacebooks.com. What hinders you?