Much More Than Seven Stories

Publishing approximately 50 titles a year, focusing on American history and politics, poetry, alternative health, media studies, the environment, peace and justice issues, Spanish-language titles, and more, Seven Stories Press is a very busy and dedicated independent publisher. But the work of the staff of 12 (plus interns) receives guidance from an unusual source: Seven Stories publisher and founder Dan Simon names Nelson Algren, who died in 1981, as a sort of spiritual editorial advisor. "A lot of the fiction, and poetry, and literature are consistent with his credo...," said Simon, "that literature should be the voice of the dispossessed."

Simon credits Algren for inspiring him to become a publisher. In 1984, he came across a tattered copy of a short story collection that included Algren's "A Bottle of Milk for Mother," which left him "dazzled." He was then amazed to learn that all of Algren's work was out of print. At the time, Simon was an assistant editor at W.W. Norton and was also editing books for Glenn Thompson of Writers and Readers.

Simon told Thompson, "I've fallen in love, and the writer I've fallen in love with died several years ago and all of his books are out of print." The upshot was Thompson offered Simon an imprint to reissue the works of Algren, and after a lot of legwork with the assistance of literary agent Candida Donadio, Algren's books were published under the "Dan Simon/Four Walls Eight Windows" imprint.

Simon edited and published books at Four Walls until 1995, when he founded Seven Stories with the intent of publishing "works of the imagination" and "political titles by voices of conscience." Seven Stories' authors include Octavia Butler, Ted Solotaroff, Kurt Vonnegut, Noam Chomsky, Angela Y. Davis, Ralph Nader, Howard Zinn, and Gary Webb.

Political titles, of course, have had their share of ebb and flow in terms of market share and reader interest. In Seven Stories' case, it has been more of a flow, then ebb, and then flow again. After 9/11, serious political nonfiction from Seven Stories and other independent publishers was in high demand. (Seven Stories' 9/11 by Noam Chomsky sold over a million copies internationally.) The big houses noticed the trend, said Simon, and "suddenly there were torrents of books on the same political topics and a lot of them were bad. It became much harder for readers to find the sort of books they were looking for and the quality of the [public] conversation was spoiled." Now the tide has turned again, he said, and, with fewer houses publishing political titles, Seven Stories can better reach its readership.

An important political title for this fall, said Simon, is The Five Unanswered Questions About 9/11 by James Ridgeway. Simon said that Ridgeway is not under the sway of conspiracy theorists or apologists, and, instead, charts his own course as an "outspoken but also middle of the road [author].... Jim brings the subject back into the purview of any serious reader, anyone who takes seriously the responsibility of being a citizen," he said.

Another big upcoming book is Kurt Vonnegut's A Man Without a Country, a collection of wry mini-memoirs, complete with diagrams that examine life, art, politics, and the artist himself. Simon described A Man Without a Country as "naked, whimsical, and full of heart."

The press also publishes the Open Media series, which began in 1991 as a pamphlet publishing effort in opposition to the Gulf War. It was brought to Seven Stories in 1997 by its co-founder, Greg Ruggiero. The series covers peace and social justice issues and features such notables as Chomsky, Zinn, and Alice Walker. Open Media books are meant to offer accessible, short guides to political issues and, generally, have a suggested retail price of under $10.

Siete Cuentos Editorial, the Spanish-language imprint, was created in 2000, perhaps a little ahead of its time. "When we launched we hired a wonderful editor... and were doing maybe eight to 10 titles a year. The market wasn't ready," explained Simon. "But we scaled way back and the market caught up." He describes the current market as "very strong."

Titles include Spanish-language editions of Our Bodies, Ourselves, Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestras Vidas, a project of the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, and Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, La Otra Historia de Los Estados Unidos.

Seven Stories became a Book Sense Publisher Partner in 2000, a year after Book Sense began. "I think it's a great program," said Simon. "Independent bookstores are where we look to have a buzz begin when we're doing exciting things." He described the White Box mailings as "really important" to "stand as a bulwark against the blockbuster phenomenon."

Simon added, "Great mid-list and backlist titles help keep publishers and booksellers alive and great future backlist sellers do not come from the blockbusters of today. The excitement starts at independent bookstores and builds from there." --Karen Schechner