Anvil Publishing, Inc., the publishing arm of National Book Store Inc., aims to popularize books and reading by publishing trade books different Filipino audiences would read, and making them available and accessible, highly attractive and engaging therefore competitive on store shelves. Books must not sell only because they’re required in schools. Genuine love for books and reading can only be cultivated through books read outside of the school.
Anvil is an eleven-time Publisher of the Year as cited by the Manila Critics Circle. To date, it is the biggest and most progressive trade book publisher in the Philippines. Founded and operationalized in 1990, it publishes and occasionally imports a wide range of books:
Trade books: cookbooks, dictionaries, self-help, reportage, culture and the arts, fashion, history and politics, popular songbooks, psychology, fiction, poetry, biographies/autobiographies, new age, travel, comics books, health and parenting, inspirational and religious, and others.
Children’s books: generic coloring books, activity books, storybooks, etc.
Textbooks and Reference books: nursery, elementary, and secondary, college and university textbooks.
Anvil has an established nationwide dealer network servicing key cities and municipalities. These dealers include National Book Store, Anvil’s mother company and the largest bookstore chain in the country today with 200-plus outlets (including Powerbooks and National Book Store Express branches), Goodwill Book Store, Rex Book Store, Solidaridad, Central Book Store, Popular Book Store, Gaisano chain, Fairmart, Landmark, CID Bookstore, among others. It also has a nationwide academic sales force servicing schools and libraries.
Anvil has pioneered in expanding local trade lines. It has introduced popular-format books which are reasonably-priced. This, after years of a local publishing tradition of scholarly/academic publications in limited print runs, which take years to sell. It has gone into popularizing psychology (sex and gender issues, parenting, stress management, etc.), history and concept books (gay anthology, erotica by women, women on midlife, etc.).
It has succeeded in improving the look of the local book: from cover and design to paper and printing. It has been recognized by the Manila Critics Circle as a publisher that has proven “…books can be both quality and commercially viable productions…” (from the Citation for 1990 and 1991 Publisher of the Year Awards), and “for consistency in its output in quality and number” (from the citation for 1995 Publisher of the Year).
To date, Anvil has put out almost 2,000 titles. Around 200 titles have won major book awards and recognition.
