Dear Friends, Students of the Sword and Lovers of History,
We are proud to announce the debut of Freelance Academy Press, a new publishing venture by Tom Leoni, Christian Tobler and CSG’s co-founder Gregory Mele.
Freelance Academy Press offers its readers both innovative books and rich supporting material in the fields of Western martial arts, American and European history, arms and armour, chivalry, historical arts and crafts, and related fiction for adults and young-adults. We accomplish this through the introduction of new educational books and timeless, carefully selected reprints. Each of our titles features innovative cover composition, clear illustrations, high production value and solid binding. Our goal is to give book-lovers a product in which the quality of the subject is matched with a notable degree of professionalism and cleanness of design.
Freelance Academy Press: Something Different
Our goal is to be more than just another publisher, and our name “Freelance Academy Press” reflects our core structure and philosophy. As with many modern expressions, the origin of the term freelance has largely been forgotten. Originally, a “free lance” was a knight for hire, which in the modern world now means an individual hired to do contracted work.
The foundation of a publishing house is determined by the quality and diversity of its catalog. We are keenly aware that the structure of our business is built on establishing solid, enduring partnerships with our freelancers – our authors. That is why we collaborate with our authors to shape and refine their vision into a work that will withstand the test of time.
If freelance is our structure, then academy is our philosophy. Since we are passionate students of the subjects we publish, we are invested in seeing interest and knowledge of our titles grow on a global basis. We carefully choose titles and materials that lead readers on a historical journey that does not merely end with the final page of a book. Instead, our philosophy incorporates the three-tiered approach of Discover-Learn-Experience:
Discover – Freelance Academy Press broadcasts and promotes the existence of fascinating topics such as Western martial arts and the modern communities that exist within this rapidly expanding arena. By doing so, we help these communities to grow and we encourage interaction between the individuals within them.
Learn – We provide high-quality instructional and translational works for our readers. Because even the most scholarly of historical works should not be dry and boring, we emphasize readability and visually-compelling presentation in order to make your journey back in time a stimulating adventure.
Experience – In today’s publishing world, a press must be about communicating ideas, not merely about printing books or DVDs. We encourage you to return to our website, in particular our blog, time and again. We promise that you will find it to be an ever-growing repository of supplemental training documents and video clips, featured interviews and Q&As with leading researchers and instructors, and free downloadable e-books and translations. As a further bonus, subscribers to our periodic newsletter will receive “sneak peaks” and advance news of new title releases, as well as pre-order discounts and a few other surprises.
In short, Freelance Academy Press is run by aficionados of Western swordsmanship, for aficionados of the Art of the Sword. We seek to forge an interactive, on-going relationship between reader, author and publisher that is well beyond the model of a traditional press. We invite you to come to www.freelanceacademypress.com now and join us on this odyssey.