New technologies spur new companies and new ways of thinking. As artificial intelligence emerges affecting everything it touches, it’s worth looking back at a technology-driven creative explosion of entrepreneurship and invention from the era of desktop publishing in San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s-90s.
Bay Area publishing pioneer Vicki DeArmon has a unique perspective. She cofounded the popular Foghorn Press as well as the Independent Travel Publishers Association, was president of San Francisco Bay Area Books Festival (attracting 35,000 readers), launched the Bay Area Book Council, produced the 25th Annual Earth Day Celebration at San Francisco’s Presidio, created Copperfield Books’ nationally recognized author events program, and currently runs Sibylline Press, which exclusively publishes work by women over 50. Her most debatable claim to fame: producing the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest. Local News Matters tapped her for this recap of the heyday of book publishing, the subject of her 2025 memoir, “Foghorn: The Nearly True Story of a Small Publishing Empire.”
While the New York establishment focused more on literary publications, small Bay Area publishers carved out niches in genre and reader do-it-yourself books. Foghorn Press established itself as a premier outdoor guidebook publisher. Conari Press made waves with “50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth,“ Ten Speed provided a necessary staple for job seekers in its annual “What Color is Your Parachute?” Ulysses Press brought smart to the travel genre. Nolo Press made legal advice readable and affordable. Chronicle Books, Heyday, Ten Speed Press, Wilderness Press, Berrett-Koehler, Hunter House and many more—each found its voice and audience. Central to this was a powerful East Bay distribution triangle: Publishers Group West in Berkeley, Bookpeople (1969-2003) in Oakland and LS Distributors. Their collective strength helped put Bay Area titles into national circulation, redefining the possibilities for independent publishing.
It was a Wild West era, led by scrappy, savvy and fearless publishers. Among them was 25-year-old Vicki (Morgan) DeArmon who cofounded Foghorn Press. Like many creative startups, the publishing house’s early days were defined by endless hours—100-hour work weeks were the norm—and a learn-as-you-go attitude that Vicki and her business partner and brother Dave Morgan epitomized. The Bernal Heights office pulsed with late nights, laughter, and the music of Bob Dylan playing at full volume.
Foghorn’s first big break came with the release of a San Francisco 49ers team history—perfectly timed to the team’s legendary run of Super Bowl wins in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Suddenly, Foghorn had a sports franchise to match its energy, and fans snapped up the book in droves. A few years later came “California Camping,” a statewide guide to public campgrounds that hit a nerve with outdoor-loving Californians. The company’s top-selling book led to a catalog of outdoor guides, sports books, and other regional titles that cemented Foghorn’s expansion to the Boiler Room in Potrero and its place in independent publishing.
A dense ecosystem of independent bookstores embraced and championed small-press titles. In San Francisco alone, Cover to Cover, Books Inc., Green Apple Books, Booksmith, Alexander Books, City Lights, and A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books were cultural treasures. Publishers and booksellers joined forces to launch the first San Francisco Book Festival, drawing 15,000 people in 1990. The following year, the bookfest doubled in size. The San Francisco Chronicle, the main media sponsor, turned its then-celebrated Book Review section into a 20-page festival program of author bios, panel schedules and publisher spotlights.
The festival grew into a full-time operation as the Bay Area Book Council. Under DeArmon’s leadership, the council fostered a sense of community among the Bay Area’s many presses through initiatives such as a read-aloud day, teacher grants and a Junior Publishers Program as well as idea exchange roundtables within the book industry. A Publishers Weekly multi-page feature showcasing Bay Area publishers was a declaration that West Coast publishing had arrived, with its own voice, aesthetic and ecosystem. Long indifferent New York publishers booked booths at the San Francisco festival and began to watch the region more closely.
The publication of niche titles was not the only way small presses defined themselves and seized market share. One hallmark of the Bay Area small-press boom was its inventive guerilla marketing. For Instance, Foghorn launched bookstore display contests with Girl Scout troops, who constructed themed windows displays for books like “California Camping.” The winning troop got a sponsored camping trip; the bookstore received a month’s supply of Girl Scout cookies. DeArmon’s “Books Building Community” program took it further, pairing titles with nonprofits, and then donating a share of sales and creating built-in advocacy networks. The SPCA promoted Foghorn’s “The Dog Lover’s Companion” guidebooks; conservation groups backed hiking titles such as “California Hiking.”
Foghorn’s spirited grassroots publishing built immersive relationships among readers, books and causes. For instance, a “Save Angel Island” campaign ferried 300 participants to the state park for a hike, lunch and a book signing—in an April downpour. Guests were delighted when actor Mike Farrell from the highly-rated TV series “M*A*S*H*” appeared to rally the soggy crowd. Another was the Bay Area’s March for Parks, in partnership with the National Parks Conservation Association and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The 25th anniversary of Earth Day drew more than 20,000 attendees, more than 75 organizations, a mainstage concert headlined by music legends Etta James and Bob Weir, trail restoration projects and live international teleconferencing through Earth Day Global Tea Party sponsored by Pacific Bell (now AT&T California).
By the early 1990s, the combination of title choice and marketing led to record sales by many small presses. Foghorn Press books were carried by national retailers like Costco, REI and Waldenbooks, as well as indie bookstores. Costco alone carried up to seven titles a year, selling thousands of copies per title, confirming that Foghorn had built something special. Their regional guides had become go-to resources for travelers, hikers and pet lovers throughout California and other parts of the United States.
By the mid 1990s, Foghorn expanded into other categories, such as professional sports team histories (Warriors, Raiders, Rams, Broncos), coordinating autographing events and book signings with sports alumni. The books drew attention from local and national radio and TV and magazines; occasional mentions from famed Chronicle columnist Herb Caen and inclusion on popular television shows like “Bay Area Backroads.” Annual revenues approached $2 million—a remarkable achievement given the publisher’s scrappy beginnings.
But the tides were shifting. Large retailers began enforcing stricter return policies. The distribution model that had sustained Bay Area publishers for over a decade was unraveling. Distribution companies and many presses folded or were sold. Others had to recalibrate. Foghorn was sold to Avalon Travel, the travel publishing imprint of Publishers Group West, which was eventually acquired by Hachette. Though Foghorn no longer exists, its legacy lives on through books like “California Camping,” still in print and widely used by campers across the state.
The rise and fall of this Wild West era of book publishing is still felt in the deep readership of the region, obvious in the success of the subsequently established Bay Area Book Festival and Litquake and the local flourishing independent bookstore community. Small presses are still taking on the niche categories and popularizing them. In 2022, at 63, DeArmon launched a new publishing venture: Sibylline Press, to champion the voices of women over 50 in fiction and memoir.
As the world braces for the next wave of technology through artificial intelligence, publishing as an enterprise will be affected, perhaps fundamentally. The use of human writing to train AI has already launched a lawsuit by the Authors Guild even as publishers use AI to enhance their business operations and marketing. It’s the Wild West all over again.
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