Considering that Melville House evolved out of the book blog MobyLives, it shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise that the indie publisher nails social media. The company, which was founded by husband-and-wife co-publishers Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians in 2001, has a voice-y, engaging Twitter presence, a daily blog (Moby still lives!), a DUMBO office that doubles as a bookstore, and an active Tumblr account — while also publishing poetry, literary fiction, and nonfiction. Whether taking on bigger entities like Amazon, Penguin Random House, or Donald Trump, dropping F-bombs with abandon, or engaging followers with irreverent jokes, Melville House shows that sounding like a human instead of a #brand on social media can be good for business. Or at least, better than the alternative.
@melvillehouse