Small Press Distribution (SPD) is a non-profit

literary arts Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include o ...

organization located in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. As their name indicates, the core of their mission is to act as an umbrella

distributor A distributor is an enclosed rotating switch used in spark-ignition internal combustion engines that have mechanically timed ignition. The distributor's main function is to route high voltage current from the ignition coil to the spark plugs ...

and

marketer Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

for hundreds of smaller literary

publishers Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

. SPD's primary mission is to get the books of their publishers out to bookstores, libraries, book

wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

rs, and directly to readers and writers.

History

SPD was founded in 1969 by Peter Howard of Serendipity Books and Jack Shoemaker of Sand Dollar Press. The fledgling organization provided small-scale distribution services for only five publishers. Initially called Serendipity Books Distribution, it was renamed Small Press Distribution by the late 1970s. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the organization periodically assembled the new titles of their publishers into printed catalogs, thus providing a vital link to underground literature for writers and readers around the US. By 1980, SPD was distributing the books of about 40 small publishers; by 1990, the number had grown to 330. Today, SPD distributes books for approximately 400 publishers, each of whom produces anywhere from one to twenty books a year. SPD became an official 501c3 non-profit in 1996. Since that time, its sales and staff have grown despite the demise of many

independent bookstore An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, cl ...

s that previously operated as its most consistent customer base. Given the nature of commercial publishing and for-profit book distribution, a case can be made that SPD has played a vital role in keeping grassroots, noncommercial poetry and fiction continuously available in the U.S. to new generations of readers over the last three decades.

Publishers

Some publishers distributed by SPD include the following: *

Belladonna Series Belladonna* Collaborative (or Belladonna Series, Inc.) is a small press non-profit publisher and collaborative organization based in Brooklyn, New York City. It was founded in 1999 by Rachel Levitsky as a reading series at Bluestockings in New Yor ...

* Burning Deck Press *

City Lights Publishers City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected ti ...

* Fence Books * Futurepoem Books *

Harbor Mountain Press Harbor Mountain Press is an American, nonprofit, poetry press located in White River Junction, Vermont. The press was founded by poet and editor Peter Money in 2006 (in Brownsville, Vermont). Notable authors published by the press include Alice ...

* PANK Books *

Ugly Duckling Presse Ugly Duckling Presse is an American nonprofit art and publishing collective based in Brooklyn, New York City founded in 1993 by Matvei Yankelevich as a college zine. It publishes poetry, translations, lost works, and artist's books. A micro pr ...

Controversy

In December 2020, SPD was under fire after a former employee posted an anonymous article on Medium with allegations of wage theft and discrimination based on race and gender, leading to an open letter calling for the resignation of executive director Brent Cunningham. In March 2021, the organization announced the pending departure of Brent Cunningham after internal investigations commissioned by the board of directors. The board of directors have not publicly responded to the allegations of wage theft.

References

External links

Small Press Distribution official website
December 20, 1999 {{Authority control Publishing companies of the United States Non-profit organizations based in California Publishing companies established in 1969 Companies based in Berkeley, California Book distributors 1969 establishments in California

History

Publishers

Controversy

See also

References

External links