Callaway Arts & Entertainment

Callaway Editions was founded in 2003 by Nicholas Callaway. The company began by producing photography books, with the first of its books by artist Constantin Brâncuși. After producing Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs & Writings (1983), by Sarah Greenough and Juan Hamilton, the company began branching out by including books about design, sculpture and contemporary culture.

The company produced Madonna's coffee table book, Sex (1992), which was published by Warner Books. The book, which was accompanied by a CD, was part of a new strategy by publishers to attract customers. The single "Erotica" was included in the CD and served as promotional material for her album. The book sold 1.4 million copies, which made it the bestselling illustrated book in history, and also guaranteed some notoriety for the Callaway Editions.

With the help of Charles Melcher, Callaway Editions also produced in the same year Ferrington Guitars, its first product in the "BoundSound" series, which used the same strategy of selling the book alongside a CD. On November of the same year, the company announced Malcolm Speaks Out (1992), a "BoundSound" book with photos of Malcolm X and a CD with some of his speeches. The company was considered to be "at the forefront of the book-CD trend," and they believed that record stores would become an important section for selling books in this series.

In a 1999 profile by Fortune, the company's founder said their strategy was different from most other publishing companies. Instead of publishing a large amount of books hoping some will sell well, Callaway Editions instead focuses on a smaller number of titles, and "markets them like crazy." Madonna's book was one of the company's biggest sellers, at the mark of 1.4 million units worldwide, which marked it as the bestselling illustrated book in history at the time.

Publishing

In 2000, one year after acquiring Callaway Golf Media Venture, Callaway Editions moved from being a "book packager" to a publishing house. According to its founder, one of the reasons for the change was "the new channels of distribution", which would allow it to reach broader markets, while still serving the US region through specialty retailers. In its publishing list were included 20 titles, ranging from children's books to photography, fashion and art, among other areas. These also included books under their new imprint, Callaway Golfer.

That same year, the company's website was launched, and Callaway announced his company would soon begin working on e-books, focusing on titles for children.

The company changed its name to Callaway Arts & Entertainment in 2005, to signify the company's change of direction. Two years later, after having watched a speech by Steve Jobs and spending some time in Silicon Valley, Nicholas Callaway noticed the importance of technology for business. He then adopted a model he called "a platform-agnostic intellectual property and production company."

In 2011, Callaway said the company had stopped publishing books directly, instead choosing to license the company's titles to other publishers. This included the ending of his business that was responsible for selling products such as backpacks and watering cans. Callaway also said at the time that the company's intention when signing new books is to produce an interactive app, instead of a physical book.

Callaway & Kirk Company

In 1991, Callaway met David Kirk after buying one of his toys, "Sneaking Baby Alligator with Spinning Eyes". Callaway, who, at the time, was looking to expand the catalog of the company, saw Kirk's drawings in the toy's box and tracked him down to make a publishing deal. Kirk, who had been working as a toymaker for some years, mostly making toys for "Peter-Pan adults" and selling them for a higher price, also had been considering writing a children's book.

Kirk, whose idea to create Miss Spider came from his daughter's interest on insects, had already made a deal with Rizzoli International Publications, for $5,000 in advance, but Callaway offered a new deal of $20,000. After being rejected by several publishers, Scholastic accepted Callaway's terms of a large printing volume, in part due to the publisher's large distribution channels of schools and fairs. In 1994, the first Miss Spider book, called Miss Spider's Tea Party, was released.

The first book had a successful launch, with Madonna reading on a live broadcast in 1995. On that same year, the Callaway & Kirk Company was created to manage Kirk's creations. By 1999, they had already published eight children's books, with the most recent one being Nova's Ark (1999), which utilized 3D art for its illustrations, instead of the usual paintings. The book sold 400 thousand copies in its release year.

In 2003, a one-hour special was released on Nickelodeon, called Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids. The special, which aired on 31 March, was co-produced by Nelvana, and had actress Brooke Shields as the voice of Miss Spider. In September 2004, a new television show, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, debuted on the same channel, with a daily average viewership of around one million children. The show was the Nick Jr. Channel's highest rating premiere since 2001, when Bob the Builder premiered.