New small press to publish books by Cris Cohen, perhaps others. 
A new small publishing company has opened in the Triangle with a name that reflects the tenacity of a little boy with special needs. Cris and Michele Cohen have launched Tyrannosaurus Max Press, LLC, in Cary.
Cris Cohen is a humor writer, columnist and blogger who announced recently that he was going to publish a collection of his humor columns in book form, entitled “Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane.” Proceeds from sales of the book, which is due out this fall, will go to a local baseball league for children with special needs. Cris and Michele are regular volunteers for the league, and their son, Max, is one of the players.
Cohen knew he was going to self-publish the book – meaning that he would pay for it to be published rather than wait for a traditional publishing house to buy the rights. He didn’t know until recently, however, that he was going to launch a small press in the process.
”I thought that to be a publishing company you had to have a large office in New York City and hundreds of employees who liked to wear tweed,” said Cohen. “It turns out you just need some forms and a Visa card. So we thought, ‘What the hell.’”
His immediate plans are to publish “Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane” and other books he will write himself. “But you never know,” he added. “Maybe we will publish books from other authors in the future.”
Once disrespected by the traditional publishing industry, small presses and self-publishing have now become what Publishers Weekly, the international, weekly trade news magazine for publishers and booksellers, calls a “phenomenon.” As a result, Publishers Weekly began publishing the PW Quarterly last year, a quarterly supplement announcing self-published titles and reviewing work from small presses that PW believes deserve of a critical assessment.
Entering the growing industry of small presses, Cohen named his new company Tyrannosaurus Max Press after his son’s baseball nickname.
”With the special needs baseball league, every kid gets a nickname that is announced when he or she steps up to bat,” Cohen said. “We had originally considered giving him the nickname ‘His Parents Are The Smartest, Most Attractive People You Will Ever Meet In Your Life’, but we worried that the announcers wouldn’t say it with the conviction and awe that it deserves. So we went with ‘Tyrannosaurus Max’ instead.”
California artist Manuel Sanvictores created the logo for Tyrannosaurus Max Press, LLC.
Cris Cohen is the author of the humor blog “Nothing In Particular: Trying Not To Take Life Too Seriously” (http://criscohen.typepad.com). For more information on Tyrannosaurus Max Press and “Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane,” visit www.stayingcrazy.com and the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/stayingcrazy.
About Cris Cohen:
Cris Cohen, the author of the Nothing In Particular blog, was born in Buffalo, NY, and grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, eventually graduating from the University of Southern California. After a stint in rock radio in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, Cris started writing his humor column for a collection of California newspapers. He eventually gravitated toward the tech world and Silicon Valley, working for companies such as Netscape and Cisco Systems. Cris, his wife Michele, and their young son Max moved to Cary, North Carolina, in 2008. Cris’ blog is available at http://criscohen.typepad.com. His first book, “Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane,” is due out in the fall of 2011.
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