Draft:Sunbury Press

Sunbury Press, Inc. is an American independent book publishing company founded in 2004 and headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

History
The company was named after Sunbury, Pennsylvania, a Susquehanna River town very close to the Mahantongo & Lykens Valley. Sunbury's initial roots were as a regional book publisher: Its first books were genealogical titles related to these areas and the nearby historic Pennsylvania German communities.

Since then, Sunbury Press has grown and expanded considerably. Currently, the company has over 700 authors in its roster and has published over 1400 books since its inception. Sunbury Press also publishes under eighteen different imprints. Among them include Sunbury Press, which publishes history and biography; Milford House Press, which publishes general fiction; Brown Posey Press, which publishes literary fiction and creative nonfiction; Hellbender Books, which publishes horror, fantasy and thrillers; and Oxford Southern, which publishes academic titles.

In 2021, Sunbury Press, Inc. became part owner of Blood Moon Comics, LLC, producing comic book versions of the publisher's fiction titles as well as works by other creative teams. According to the website, Sunbury Press receives "approximately 1,000 proposals from authors and agents over the course of a year," publishing about 100 titles per year. The most successful categories have been history, biography, self-help, historical fiction, horror, police procedurals, and mysteries.

Sunbury Press books are sold on all major bookseller websites and eBook platforms. The publisher's best-selling titles are distributed to stores and libraries via Ingram.

The current president and publisher is founder Lawrence Knorr. In addition to being a business executive, professor, and award-winning digital artist, Knorr is completing a doctorate in history.

Best-selling books, awards, and notable authors
In 2006, Sunbury Press published its first fiction book The 100th Human by Chris Fenwick. This metaphysical fiction novel rose to #1 in its category on Amazon, becoming the company’s best-selling book ever at that time. Sunbury Press also became known for the Keystone Tombstones series, which focuses on famous people buried in Pennsylvania by Joe Farrell and Joe Farley. Keystone Tombstones was mentioned on numerous broadcast and cable TV affiliates. The company signed its first foreign rights deal with a Taiwanese publisher in 2012.

In 2013, The Cursed Man by Keith Rommel, was turned into a Hollywood motion picture. Rommel’s The Lurking Man, which was published in 2020, was also signed to a Hollywood deal.

In 2019, H_NGM_N: Murder is the Word won gold for Mystery & Crime at Florida's Royal Palm Literary Awards. In 2021, Sherye Green and Mildred Janzen won the Mississippi Library Association's award for nonfiction with Surviving Hitler, Evading Stalin.

In August 2022, Sunbury Press, Inc. acquired the estate rights to the novels of Herbert Stover, published under the Catamount Press imprint, which focuses on literature and creative nonfiction related to the Northern Appalachian region. The estate rights to the various works of Fredric Klees were acquired for the Distelfink Press, Sunbury's Pennsylvania Dutch / Pennsylvania German imprint.

Dan Joseph’s Pete Reiser biography, Baseball's Greatest What If, won the 2022 SABR Ron Gabriel Award for the best book about the Brooklyn Dodgers. Also, Thoughts and Prayers by Lee Anne Post won the Florida Authors & Publishers Association, Inc. (FAPA) gold medal in fiction.

Other notable authors include former Pennsylvania Congressman Jason Altmire ; Pat LaMarche, a former two-time Maine gubernatorial candidate and ex-vice presidential candidate on the Green Party presidential ticket for the 2004 U.S. presidential election ; former Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Mark Singel ; Duquesne University President Ken Gormley ; singer/songwriter Calvin Richardson ; and actor/playwright/director Laurence Luckinbill