Biography

City Desk Productions' principal, Jeff Nordstedt, has a unique publishing background. Shortly after graduating from Rutgers University with degrees in English and American Studies, Jeff Nordstedt began an internship at Barricade Books, Inc. For three months he filled orders, made copies, parked the car, and generally kept his ears open in the small-but-vital publishing office.

During his time as an intern, Barricade became embroiled in a first amendment battle with casino mogul, Steve Wynn. In order to get through this trying time, Barricade cut back their list in an effort to tread water until the case was resolved. As the staff thinned out, Jeff saw an opportunity. He volunteered to take on any responsibility that Barricade President, Lyle Stuart, was willing to entrust him with. Suddenly, six months out of college, he was named Production Manager. A year later he was named Executive Vice President.

During his nine years at Barricade Books, Jeff managed the production of more than 150 books. As Executive Vice President, his job responsibilities included production management, art director, editorial management, and sales management. On any given day he could be found generating reports, analyzing backlist sales, designing a book cover, advising authors on the development of their work, or debating the merits of proposed projects. Basically, he ended up in the middle of every solution to every publishing problem Barricade faced.

During this time he also managed to maintain a second career in his indie-rock band, the Milwaukees. His on-going music career has been fun, exciting, and rewarding. Over the last five years he has recorded two albums, toured the US several times as well as Canada and Europe twice. He applies his rock and roll approach to business and his business approach to rock and roll.

In 2006 Jeff made the very difficult decision to leave Barricade Books to pursue his own venture--City Desk Productions. He looks forward to combining his creativity with all he has learned about business while at Barricade in this exciting new venture.