March Is Small Press Month

Booksellers to Celebrate Their Kinship with Small Presses

In talking to booksellers, it’s apparent that they feel a special camaraderie with small presses. The small press’s ability to offer a unique, independent voice and a breadth of choice in many ways mirrors their own talent for offering the consumer insight and individual attention. And independent bookstores will get a chance to celebrate this kinship in March, otherwise known as Small Press Month.

"It’s important to see the role of small presses in terms of diversity, and giving people a chance to get published," said Gilda Bruckman, co-owner of New Words, A Women’s Bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "We’re well aware of small presses for what we do."

New Words has always focused on small presses, Bruckman said, since what the store initially carried only came from women’s small presses, starting with the women’s small press movement in the mid 1970s. It was that movement that gave voice to authors who otherwise might have had to stick to their day jobs -- Dorothy Allison and Rita Mae Brown being just two examples of writers who got their start from small presses. "And its value has increased as the number of publishers has decreased -- [small presses are] more valuable today," said Bruckman.

Without question, sales figures back this up. According to a comprehensive survey by the Book Industry Study Group and the Publishers Marketing Association, 50,000 independent publishers accounted for over $14 billion in sales in 1999, and this figure has been on the increase since.

Moreover, small presses have a symbiotic relationship with independent booksellers, and it’s fair to say that much of their success can be tied to independent booksellers (as well as schools and libraries). "We know that independent booksellers support small presses 12 months a year," Karin Taylor, executive director of the Small Press Center (SPC), told BTW. "We hope that Small Press Month will provide more of an opportunity for independent bookstores to focus on, and promote, small presses, thereby generating more interest in the books, and generating more sales for bookstores."

Many of the booksellers who spoke with BTW are planning to do just that. At the University of Pennsylvania Bookstore in Philadelphia, for example, Chris Hibbard, the bookstore’s director of marketing, is planning a small press panel discussion, involving small press publishers possibly discussing ways in which authors can get published (the details have yet to be hammered out). Furthermore, "we’ll have a table with small press books," Hibbard said. "Also, we’ll have a small press window display [in the month of March]."

New Words Books is also in the midst of finalizing its Small Press Month plans, though Bruckman is sure the store will have a window display highlighting local, small presses. Additionally, the store is planning to put a list of small press books on its Web site, www.newwordsbooks.com.

For their part, SPC is aggressively promoting Small Press Month in its campaign, "March is Small Press Month 2002: ‘It’s What’s Between the Covers that Counts.’" It arranged for Dominic Chianese, known as Uncle Junior on HBO’s The Sopranos, to be the "voice of Small Press Month" on public radio stations nationwide.

Furthermore, SPC is organizing a number of major events during the month, including a Small Press Book Fair at the Small Press Center in midtown Manhattan, March 23 - March 24; a panel discussion on "Independent Literary Publishing," March 20 at 6.30 p.m. at the New York Public Library. In addition, it will be giving away 7,500 free copies of the poetry anthology, Poetry in Motion, to Small Press Center visitors during the week of March 18 - March 22; and free posters celebrating Small Press Month are now available for libraries, retailers, schools, and individuals.

SPC even has a list on its Web site of suggestions for booksellers, "Six Things to Do for Small Press Month." They range from creating a Small Press Month exhibit to organizing readings or signings by local small press authors during the month of March. (For more information on Small Press Month, go to www.smallpress.org.) -- David Grogan