Founder Phil Wood worked withBarnes & Noble in 1962,Penguin Books in 1965, and had a senior sales position at Penguin Books in Baltimore and New York before founding Ten Speed Press in 1971.[8]
Ten Speed's first book was Tom Cuthbertson'sAnybody's Bike Book,[9][10] which is still in print. It inspired the publisher's name and has sold more than a million copies.[10]
In 2002, the company acquired Crossing Press, a publisher specializing in metaphysics, alternative lifestyles, and healing.[13]
By 2009, the company published under its four imprints — Ten Speed Press, Celestial Arts, Crossing Press, and Tricycle Press — more than 100 new hardcovers and trade paperbacks annually, and had a backlist of more than 1,000 active titles.[16]
Ten Speed Press was bought byRandom House in February 2009 and became part of theirCrown Publishing Group division. Founder Phil Wood died of cancer in December 2010.[17]
Watson-Guptill became an imprint of Ten Speed Press under Random House in 2013, part of their Crown Publishing Group.[18]
Tricycle Press was the children's imprint of Ten Speed Press, which published theAmelia's Notebooks series,[19] among others. Tricycle also publishedWho's in a Family? in 1997 andKing & King in 2002,[20] books that addressed different types of families, including those headed by gay parents. The imprint ceased publishing new books in 2011.[21][22]
^abBrown, Steven E. F. (26 January 2001)."Full speed ahead".San Francisco Business Times.American City Business Journals. Archived fromthe original on 22 October 2002. Retrieved31 July 2022.But when they turned down a book he thought would sell, he published it on his own and watched it hit sales of 1,000 copies a day. Because the book wasAnybody's Bike Book, he called his new company Ten Speed Press.
^abCuthbertson, Tom (1998).Anybody's Bike Book. Ten Speed Press.ISBN978-0-89815-996-7.Tom Cuthbertson was Ten Speed Press's first author, and his friendly bicycle repair manual not only inspired the name of our company, it made bicycle repair accessible for the casual and serious cyclist. As the technology of bicycles has evolved, so has his classic book.
^Walters, Ray (21 January 1979)."PAPERBACK TALK".The New York Times. Retrieved31 July 2022.
^Barks, Carl; Summer, Edward; Walt Disney Productions (1981).Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge McDuck: His Life & Times. Celestial Arts.ISBN978-0-89087-290-1.
^abjoint venture with Amperwelle Studio München Programmanbietergesellschaft,Axel Springer AG, Burda, Studio Gong, m.b.t. Mediengesellschaft der bayerischen Tageszeitungen für Kabelkommunikation, Medienpool and Radio Bavaria Rundfunkprogrammgesellschaft.
^joint venture with Verlagsgesellschaft Madsack, Studio Gong Niedersachsen and Brune-Rieck-Beteiligungs.
^joint venture with Axel Springer, Heinrich Bauer Verlag, Lühmanndruck Harburger Zeitungsgesellschaft and Morgenpost Verlag.
