Alternative Publishers of Books in North America
Alternative Publishers of Books in North America, 5th biennial edition

Byron Anderson, Editor. Additional authorship credit to the American Library Association / Social Responsibilities Round Table / Alternatives in Publication Task Force.

Published by CRISES Press, 2002.

This is a small paperback, measuring approximately 5.5" by 8.5" and running to 183 pages.

What it is is a directory of book publishing companies that are considered by the editor to be "alternative," and whom he says, by way of definition, "are independent of corporate control and commonly take risks that corporate publishing houses are unwilling to take by publishing diverse voices and points of view." He goes on to say, "The presses in this directory are socially progressive and publish in three general categories: translations, literary/poetry, and subject areas such as anarchism, erotica, environmentalism, social justice, hunger, socialism, gender studies, Third World, and indigenous populations."

There are 162 presses listed in the directory. Information given for each includes contact information (name, address, phone and fax numbers, and web and email addresses); byline or tagline; chief editor(s); organizations associated with; ISBN range; average number of new titles published per year; number of titles in print; distributor's name; subject areas of its publications; and finally a paragraph describing the publisher and its history.

In addition to the entries for the publishers there is a foreword by Herbert Schiller and a preface by Sanford Berman; the editor's introduction; a list of presses described; a bibliography on alternative book publishing; a webliography of alternative book resources; a geographic index and a subject index.

An update to this useful book was due in 2004 but wasn't produced. I have inside knowledge to the fact that a new, expanded edition is ready for publication and will probably be released in an online form this later year or next, with a print version probably following.