Japanese manga and anime are becoming more and more common in America. However, finding professional and 100% realiable information about the who, what, where, when, and why of anime and manga may be quite challenging. Stone Bridge Press, publisher of the all-time anime fan favorite Anime Encyclopedia, has published numerous titles not only about anime and manga, but on Japanese culture, language, and more! Focusing on the land of the rising sun, Stone Bridge Press seems to have every aspect of Japan covered. Akadot conducts an exclusive interview with Peter Goodman, publisher and editor-in-chief at Stone Bridge Press.

Akadot: Some Akadot readers may be new to your company and titles. Can you tell us a little about your company?

Peter Goodman: I started up Stone Bridge Press in 1989 with the goal of publishing books in English about Japan. It's not really that I was so intent on informing the world about Japanese culture, but I had begun my publishing career during the ten years I was living in Tokyo from 1975 and really enjoyed the creative and publishing possibilities that Japanese subject matter provided. Almost any subject area in Japan has many years of history and development behind it, and while the culture as a whole is analogous to our Western model the Japanese approach in almost every area is different enough to provide a fresh, at times startling view of the familiar. So in a sense, the goal of Stone Bridge Press is to offer insight into the mindset of the West by focusing on the mindset of Japan. It is also to provide me with a variety of projects that are different enough from each other to keep us creatively challenged. I guess it's also about providing us with a living, but, well, publishing is a tough business with a lot of ups and downs.

Akadot: Is there any special reason why your company is named Stone Bridge Press?

PG: When I was working as an editor in Japan I did several books on Japanese gardens. Taking one of the standard garden ornaments when starting up my own company, I thought, hmm, I'll be Stone Lantern Press: shedding light, solid, prominent in the brush, will make a great logo, etc. Then I found out there was another company named Stone Lantern that published bonsai magazines. So I became Stone Bridge: solid, a pathway across cultures, etc. But in my heart I would still really prefer Stone Lantern.

Akadot: You have a variety of books published with different Japan-related topics, how do you decide which topics you want to publish?

PG: We receive many more submissions than we can possibly publish. I'm in the comfortable position of being able to publish only books that in some way I find appealing. That is, we're not totally market driven. But we're not a vanity press or a nonprofit humanitarian enterprise either, so salesworthiness is definitely important These days I'm looking at language books, a crossover area of design and belief that I call "aesthetic spirituality," and popular culture, which includes film, anime, and manga. I guess these are the aspects of Japan I personally find most interesting. I would like us to do more serious fiction, but I just find literature too challenging in terms of marketing and publicity; this is the one area where I'm frustrated to the point of discouragement. Talk to me in a year and perhaps I will have a sunnier outlook here.