Soft Skull Press

[Popeyesays]

Soft Skull Press
55 Washington Street, Suite 804
Brooklyn, NY 11201
http://www.softskull.com/


It's not in the index, and I'm looking for a paper publisher for my e-published stories. I plan to link them together to novel length. All the stories are within a 90 day period, anyway with the same characters.

Who knows anything about them? I've been to the website which I found at Fiction Addict on the web.

Thanks in advance,

Scott

 

[James D. Macdonald]

Soft Skull's gone; here's what replaced 'em:

http://www.vgascon.com/DKM/index.html

 

[Popeyesays]

Soft Skull's gone; here's what replaced 'em:

http://www.vgascon.com/DKM/index.html

How very YUCK!!!!!!

They published interesting books this year, did they just shoot themselves and come back as a parody?

I thought DKM stood for Deutches Kriegsmarine

Regards,
Scott

 

[James D. Macdonald]

I have no idea where the truth lies with this one.

 

[UrsusMinor]

Hmmm. I'm more than a bit confused.

Soft Skull was certainly present at BEA back in May, and they had a new post on the NEWS portion of their website only a couple of weeks ago. Their Submissions still seem to be open, and you can certainly order books from their website...

It is true that Sander Hicks founded Soft Skull, but Richard Nash has been publisher since 2001--when Sander Hicks left. I have no reason to believe that Soft Skull isn't still up and running, except for the the comments on the Drench Kiss (Sander's) site. I'm not sure the Publishers Weekly quote is legit.

Do you have information outside of this, Uncle Jim? (The link you posted itself seems to be defunct--click on any link there and it seems to cycle round and round to the same single page.)

At any rate, Popeyesays, I wouldn't give up until I had further info. They are a great small press (Nash won the Association of American Publisher's award for creativity in a small press just last year) and I would mourn to hear they were gone.

 

[Popeyesays]

Well, I'll drop a submission in the mail in a few days. I have to re-write the opening so that the stories tie together more tightly. They want thirty pages or a chapter along with the usual stuff. They don't take e-mail queries or subs, so it'll have to go out tied to a turtle.

When I hear anything back, I'll let you guys know.

There's a phone number I'll try tomorrow just to see if rumors of their demise have been exaggerated.

Generally speaking, I think the print trade is more gossip-ridden than any old lady's quilting society ever was.

After all the ancestor of the water cooler was the scuttle-butt-the place where a man on the sailing ship could get a drink when water was plentiful on board. It was the natural equivalent of the office water cooler today. People gathered around and passed on news, some factual, some fanciful.

Thanks, Uncle Jin and Little Bear for chiming in with useful info so quickly.

By the by, Friday is my birthday. This is the last year I get to push 60. I'll be riding it 2007 birthday, and pulling it thereafter.

Regards,
Scott

 

[Popeyesays]

It looks to me that they are adding a line of e-pamphlets to be marketed through Amazon.com and iTunes rather than getting out of the book business.

Publisher's Weekly (e-version article):
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6354160.html?text=soft+skull+press

 

[victoriastrauss]

Soft Skull appears to be alive and well, at least judging by its latest blog entry.

Drench Kiss is the brainchild of Soft Skull founder Sander Hicks, who is no longer associated with the publisher.

- Victoria

 

[CaoPaux]

Alive and acquired by Winton, Shoemaker & Co. May 2007.

http://www.softskull.com/files/Counterpoint_SoftSkull_PR.pdf

 

[dlparker]

I received an email reply to a query sent in September (asking more or less for clarification on what kind of works they were interested in). Today is October 25. So there is someone there responding.

 

[Sushi]

FYI: Softskull is now an imprint of Counterpoint LLC (http://counterpointpress.com/index.html). From the About Us portion of their website:

"
COUNTERPOINT LLC was created in 2007 through the acquisition of three notable independent presses: Counterpoint, Shoemaker & Hoard, and Soft Skull Press. In January 2008, the company began publishing two imprints, Counterpoint and Soft Skull Press. Shoemaker & Hoard titles are now being published under the Counterpoint imprint. Also in January 2008, Counterpoint began publishing books in association with Sierra Club Books.
Counterpoint publishes fiction, literature, and poetry in addition to nonfiction, including history, memoir, biography, and nature. Soft Skull publishes contemporary fiction, as well as graphic novels, and nonfiction, including current affairs, counterculture, and politics. Sierra Club Books publishes books on environmental topics.
The company’s primary office is in Berkeley, California, and it maintains an editorial office in New York City. Sierra Club Books is based in San Francisco.
Counterpoint books are distributed by Publishers Group West, a division of the Perseus Books Group."

 

[az shea]

2011 - 2015.

Not dead: Soft Skull subsumed as a category more than an imprint, looks like. (The SS website is actually Wordpress.) Their submissions says you don't need an agent to submit btw.

The rest of my original post below.

----

I'd queried them in 2010 and 2011.

FYI: Softskull is now an imprint of Counterpoint LLC (http://counterpointpress.com/index.html).

Updating thread for reference. I have email from June 2011.

As of Nov. 1, 2010, Soft Skull's New York office has been permanently shuttered and the imprint and all its business has been absorbed by its Berkeley parent company, Counterpoint Press.

It refers anyone with business queries to Counterpoint domain email addresses in the Berkeley office.

(Yeah, can you tell I've been updating my query db lately?)

 

[CaoPaux]

In '16, Counterpoint merged with Catapult, and Soft Skull moved back to New York.