Montezuma Publishing Wins Book Awards
Two books from Montezuma Publishing received awards this year, garnering national attention to the SDSU-based custom publishing shop.
San Diego State University’s campus-based publishing house, Montezuma Publishing, might be best known for its custom course materials and work with graduate students writing theses or dissertations, but the book publishing side of the organization is gaining quite a reputation of its own.
The custom publishing shop won three awards this year for two books:
- First place in the Women’s Issues category of the International Latino Book Awards for “Chicana Tributes – Activist Women of the Civil Rights Movement,” edited by Rita Sanchez and Sonia Lopez
- First place in The Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards – Best Book in the category of Recovery for “Chicana Tributes – Activist Women of the Civil Rights Movement”
- Finalist in the 2018 International Book Awards – Health: Addiction & Recovery category for “Paradigm Change – The Collective Wisdom of Recovery,” by L. Georgi DiStefano
The International Latino Book Awards are the largest and most significant Latino literary and cultural awards organization in the United States. Winners span the nation, 17 countries in Latin America, Spain, and a dozen other countries.
The Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards from the National Association of Book Entrepreneurs (NABE) have been presented for more than 35 years and honor some of the finest independently published and small-press books in a wide variety of categories.
Heart and soul
Montezuma Publishing General Manager Kim Mazyck described the awards as “a really big deal” for her shop, which is considered a small publishing house. Montezuma Publishing has a staff of 11 mostly part-time student employees on the book publishing side of the business.
“From the standpoint that we are a small boutique publishing house, the exposure for us is an amazing thing,” Mazyck said. “To receive acknowledgment on a national level for our work is very rewarding and quite unexpected.”
In determining which publications receive recognition, Mazyck explained, awards committees consider a book’s content as well as its design and layout.
“It’s the whole package,” she said. “You pretty much tell them what audience you’re trying to reach and they look at the book and assess whether you have achieved that level.”
Mazyck said her young staff “put a lot of time, effort, and heart and soul into these projects.” She said the award-winning work is something her student employees will be able to carry forward into their careers.
