I started doing small press displays here at my library in an effort to keep all the cool small press books that don't circulate all the much from being withdrawn (Lexington typically is a New York Times Bestseller (fuck you, James Patterson) and mass market paperback romance (the ladies love some bestiality erot...I mean, paranormal romance) kind of town). In the process I've learned about some really cool small presses: Soft Skull Press is (was?) one of these; however...
Soft Skull Press, the indie publisher that was rescued from financial ruin when it was acquired by the Berkeley-based publisher Counterpoint in 2007, became a West Coast outfit on Friday after 17 years in New York with the closing of its office in the Flatiron District. Both of its full-time staffers, editorial director Denise Oswald and associate editor Anne Horowitz, were laid off, and titles that were already in the pipeline have been reassigned to editors at Counterpoint.
According to Counterpoint CEO Charlie Winton, Soft Skull will live on from California, though there will not be any one there dedicated to running it. Mr. Winton, who founded Publishers Group West in 1976 and made his name in the book business as an innovative indie distributor, said that while the number of titles published through the Soft Skull imprint will drop from around 40 per year to 20, Counterpoint's editors will acquire and publish books for the Soft Skull list, thus keeping the brand alive.
Mr. Winton's conception of that brand is broad. "We see the role of Soft Skull as introducing new writers," he said, when asked to define the imprint's sensibility. "In general, those writers are probably going to be a little younger and maybe a little edgier."
I added the emphasis to the statement that worries me and which, I think, worries the writer at The New York Observer.
Read more: Indie Publisher Soft Skull Press Closes Its Doors In New York
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