Written by: Bryn Grisham
Quintessence exhibits at dental meetings throughout the world.
Whenever I go to dental meetings, I overhear people talk about what great books Quintessence publishes and how beautiful they are. Comments like that are golden and I couldn’t agree more. But most people don’t realize just what an outlier Quintessence is, not just in the quality of our books but also in our whole approach.
Quintessence stands alone as the last independent dental publisher.
By publishing standards, Quintessence is a tiny company, which is rare in this era. Over the last 20 years, all the small dental publishers have been absorbed by huge medical publishers. Quintessence stands alone as the last independent dental publisher. How have we been able to do it? Part of our continued success has been our laser focus on our products. We only do dental books, nothing else, and we make sure they are simply the best dental books in topic, content, and overall presentation.
Renowned orthodontist David Sarver is no stranger to dental books, and when he started looking for a publisher for his latest book, he came to Quintessence. His reason? It was all about the visual quality: “I chose Quintessence as my publisher because of its superb handling of imagery and layout. My book is about esthetics, and it was important to me to be an esthetic book itself. That goal was achieved: as you open the pages the photography just leaps off the page.”
Excellence doesn’t happen by accident.
That kind of excellence doesn’t happen by accident. First, you can’t have esthetics without quality images. Quintessence understood that principle from the beginning, and we take great care that our authors’ images look great on the printed page. We also know that color correction is important to printing vibrant pictures. In publishing, it is standard to color correct images to match blacks and grays throughout an entire book. But how do you find color technicians who are skilled in the subtle colors of enamel, dentin, and gingiva or understand how saturated blood should look in surgical images? In turns out, you don’t find them anywhere. We know because we tried, and in the end we realized we had to train our own color technicians to work exclusively with dental images. They are masters at what they do, and that is why they nail it every time.
Quintessence’s team of expert color technicians.
“A good editor is like a pair of Spanx: firming up the body, making the subject look good, and absolutely invisible.”—Sandi Layne
But Quintessence publishes more than just the art books of the dental world. Content is king and that is by intention too. Most of our time and energy goes into superb clinical manuals and textbooks that illustrate protocols step by step. We are lucky to work with some of the best dentists and oral surgeons in the world—clinicians who not only know their craft extremely well but also recognize how to document and explain what they do to achieve their results. It takes a very savvy writer to do that, but the savviest writers know they need an exceptional editor who really knows her bookcraft and can seamlessly translate their raw materials into a stylish and well-appointed book. Fiction author Sandi Layne describes the essential role of an editor best: “A good editor is like a pair of Spanx: firming up the body, making the subject look good, and absolutely invisible.”
Quintessence consistently publishes the best new books in dentistry.
Other publishers have an assembly line structure, which means that a manuscript is passed through the hands of a series of different editors, each providing a discrete task. In contrast, at Quintessence, each book project is assigned to one editor who sees the project through, from submission to publication. As senior editor Leah Huffman explains, this “leads to a close working relationship between the editor and the author, which undoubtedly leads to a better product because the author and editor are listening to each other and making decisions together. Our authors will tell you that this makes their experience working with Quintessence enjoyable and successful.”
The bottom line is that Quintessence cultivates excellence in publishing by working with people (both authors and talented staff) who really care about dental books and bring their best to their projects, every time. When that is the way you work, people are going to notice.
Renowned orthodontist Sandra Tai at the Quintessence office in Illinois.
“What sets Quintessence apart is their attention to detail and quality of their work.”—Richard Miron
Author Richard Miron, a biomaterials researcher and oral surgeon, has written several textbooks and book chapters with various publishers, but once he started working with Quintessence, he never looked back. “What sets Quintessence apart is their attention to detail and quality of their work. The core staff has all been at Quintessence for 10+ years and has gained tremendous knowledge and know-how along the way. They simply understand how to bring the best out of each author, and this passion of theirs has been the cornerstone of their reputation over many decades.”
Quintessence does have a reputation for publishing great books, and given the intention and focus of everyone involved, our reputation is well deserved. The goal has always been to elevate the dental industry by publishing the best dental books, and we’d like nothing more than for other publishers to follow our lead, but for now we will continue to do what we do best and set the standard. And, of course, if you notice how good our books are, don’t hesitate to let us know.
Bryn Grisham is the Director of Book Publications at Quintessence Publishing. She has been with Quintessence for more than 15 years.