agate publishing, and its founder doug seibold, have been singled out among various chicago publications as emblematic of the city's burgeoning independent publishing scene. seibold regularly appears on "newcity" lit's "lit 50: who really books in chicago," a list of the fifty most influential people in chicago's literary scene. starting in 2009, he represented agate at #24; in 2011, #16; in 2013, #7; and in 2015, his rank improved again to #6. agate's rising prominence was recognized by the "chicago reader" in its best of 2014 issue, where it was awarded the superlative "best use of start-up mode by a press no longer in start-up mode."