| home |
| about |
| catalog |
| news |
| events |
| links |
|
< return to main ABOUT page Sander Hicks founded Soft Skull Press in 1992 as a guerrilla publishing operation run under-the-table at the Kinko's where he was employed. The first book with the name Soft Skull on it was Hicks's first novel, Foam. With partner Susan Mitchell, Soft Skull Press took off, publishing Hicks's Kinko's play Cash Cow, the novel Angelus Novus by Morgan Meis, Lee Ranaldo's Road Movies, an art book from Spencer Tunick, and poetry from indie musicians Todd Colby, Cynthia Nelson, and John S. Hall. Soft Skull Press went above-board in 1996 and became incorporated in New York State, with the business mentorship of Stuart Bagwell, then Managing Partner, Kinko's of Manhattan. The company continued to grow; in 1998 the press published The Haiku Year, Sparrow 's Republican Like Me, Intermission by Nuyorican Champion Tracie Morris, and Lee Ranaldo's JRNLS 80s. The company gained national attention, both positive and negative, when Hicks acquired the Bush biography Fortunate Son, recently dropped by St. Martin's, in the fall of 1999. The story of the book is too complex to recount in this space, but we strongly recommend the critically acclaimed and award-winning documentary Horns and Halos, which covers the book's saga from its republishing to Bush's installation in the White House by a 5 to 4 vote in the Supreme Court to Hatfield's tragic suicide in the summer of 2001. Oh yeah, Hatfield's "suicide." You mean you believe that? See the film. Hey, weren't you guys in trouble financially? Yes. From 1999 through summer 2001 Soft Skull ran up a crippling amount of debt. In late 2001 Richard Eoin Nash became publisher of Soft Skull Press. Where is Sander now? He voluntarily took a leave of absence from Soft Skull Press in September of 2001, and moved out to his aunt's house on Long Island to write a book about Karl Rove, among other various projects. Although still a shareholder of the corporation, he is no longer involved in any aspect of the day-to-day operation of the press. You can learn more about what he is up to these days on his personal site, sanderhicks.com. I saw Horns and Halos. What's been going on since? We moved the whole operation—publisher and bookstore—to Brooklyn, the best borough ever; we've started the long process of digging our way out of debt; and we've published, and are planning to publish, some really, really amazing books (see the books mentioned on the home page, and also the great titles that are coming soon!) that we're honored to have a part in bringing to the world. And the scope and scale of our list continue to expand. Do you guys need volunteers or interns? Yes! Absolutely! We are always looking for smart, motivated, and talented people who: 1) want to dive head-first into indie publishing, and Interns generally work 10-20 hours a week, and do a little bit of everything. Send a cover letter telling us a little bit about yourself and a recent one-page copy of your résumé! (Just make sure to send it to the attention of the intern coordinator so we know what it is.) Do you have an editorial vision? To borrow from indie publishing legend Barney Rosset, yes, we have an editorial vision, but to understand it, you have to read all of our books. Do you accept unsolicited manuscripts? Yes, but not complete manuscripts. How do you mean? Read our Submission Guidelines, as well as the profiles of the staff on the about page for more information. (It doesn't take that long.) I want to send you a work of fiction. Who is the fiction editor? We do not have one. There is no one acquisitions editor, nor any one fiction/poetry/etc. editor. However, we all have our interests, we all read manuscripts, and we are all editors-at-large. This is why, in our submission guidelines, we ask that you address your manuscript to "fiction editor" etc. It won't be going to one person, but rest assured it will be going to the right person. I've got a fantastic idea for a book, but I haven't written it yet, and my landlord is hounding me for the rent check! Can you give me some money? No. I sent you an unsolicited manuscript two weeks ago, prepared according to your submission guidelines; have you looked at it yet? What do you think? While we sincerely appreciate your interest in Soft Skull Press and your enthusiasm, the fact of the matter is that we only have a staff of about six full-timers, and we publish well over forty books a year, and we receive at least twenty unsolicited manuscripts a day, not including agented manuscripts. The point being, it might take us a long time to get around to reading your submission. Like, months and months. Please be patient, and understand that we simply don't have the time to discuss submissions over the phone, or via email. We know it's crummy, believe us. And it's not fair. But IF we are interested in publishing your work, trust us, you'll hear from us. I think your bosses are a bunch of pansies who are too scared to publish my book! Actually, yes. You haven't returned my manuscript! I'm coming round with the cops! We're fairly certain that Brooklyn's Finest have more important things to do with their time, sir. So what does "Soft Skull" mean? To be perfectly honest with you, we're not really sure. Sander says in an interview somewhere that it's kind of "punk" sounding. It's certainly memorable. But we sometimes imagine that it has something to do with the softness of a baby's skull as it emerges from its mother's womb, and the beauty and fragility of a new thing emerging into the world, full of promise and righteous yowling. What's up with the ant logo? It's inspired by Grove Press's cat, or Knopf's Borzoi, or the little happy glyph of City Lights. E.O. Wilson's ideas aside, the ant represents something small that lives underground, can carry many times its own weight, behaves collaboratively, and bites bigger creatures on the ass. Plus, our ant's abdomen is a pen nib. I can't find one of your books in my local bookstore! What do I do? Get your local bookstore to special order it! Help them know who we are! Not only will you get your copy, but your bookstore might order one for themselves too, and someone might discover it on their shelves, and voila!, it's like you've inadvertently become a kind of de facto Soft Skull Press street team. How are your titles distributed to the trade? Through the following exclusive distribution agents:
I think Soft Skull is awesome! How can I help you, and other independent publishers and bookstores, to survive? Real simple: buy our books! Buy lots of our books! Did love Exit Strategy? Buy it for your mom for Christmas. Hell, buy it for your cousin because it's Saturday. Did you discover Soft Skull Press because you read Fortunate Son? Get it for your GOP-lovin' uncle, make Thanksgiving more interesting this year. Buy ten copies of Get Your War On and give them to all your friends. Did you like Cool for You? Why not read Heredity? We like to imagine small presses as being somewhat analagous to small labels. Think of us, if you will, as being kind of like a Kill Rock Stars of publishing; i.e., work on the assumption that if you have a very small group of people working to put cultural artifacts they care about out into the world, if you like one of those cultural artifacts, you might like another as well—e.g., if you really dug Elliott Smith's Either/Or, you might totally dig Sleater-Kinney's All Hands on the Bad One too. The point being, we're all too small, and too broke, to put out anything that we don't think is incredible, and indie culture, whether it's books or albums, is entirely dependent on a network of enthusiasts and champions who care about it enough to, whenever possible, vote with their wallets and keep it alive. So spread the word! And thanks for your support! Thanks, Soft Skull! You're welcome. |
| Browse our titles by subject: |
| history |
| politics/current events |
| fiction |
| memoir/biography |
| music |
| poetry |
| art/graphics/comix |
| gay/lesbian |
| erotica |
| & check out what's coming soon! |