Small Press Distribution Group 1

Small Press Distribution was a large-scale company that distributed books from small presses. Their mission was to "emphasize small press values—equity, experimentation, and access" while also "connecting underrepresented literary communities to the marketplace and to each other via book distribution, events, and public advocacy." The values they professed were equity, experimentation, and access.

One of Small Press Distribution's Logos.

History

When SPD was founded in 1969, the company was originally called Serendipity Books Distribution. At first, they distributed the books of five presses and they didn't become a nonprofit organization until 1991. Despite their small start, SPD ended up representing 572 small presses by 1999. By that point, they had net figures of more than $660,000 and occupied 6,400 square feet of warehouse. From the outside looking in, it seemed as though the company was thriving.

Turning Point

In December of 2020, an anonymous previous employee of SPD with the handle "Damaged Book Worker" made a blog post on Medium.com calling out the toxicity they experienced while working at SPD, titled "I was terrorized out of my job by Small Press Distribution." Some of the grievances this employee had included being manipulated into physical labor despite suffering from a pre-existing disability, forced into being a "captive audience" to the executive director Brent Cunningham's personal problems and racist comments, manipulated into cleaning the executive director's house while house sitting, and being underpaid thousands of dollars for a large amount of time while working at SPD without their knowledge.

Within the blog post, the author also mentioned that when they finally left SPD earlier in 2020, the board of directors offered them a $2,500 severance check only if they agreed to sign an NDA stating that they would pay a $500 fee for each negative comment they made about SPD after leaving the company. The employee did not sign the NDA.

The executive director of SPD, Brent Cunningham.

The manipulation Damaged Book Worker faced while working at SPD was so severe that they were afraid to share their story even months after leaving the company because of the power SPD still held over them.

Responses

There were a variety of responses among different people within SPD after Damaged Book Worker's blog went public. SPD staff published a blog post of their own echoing Damaged Book Worker's complaints of not receiving pay and of Brent Cunningham's toxic behavior. They highlighted the hypocrisy of everything that had occurred within SPD, how Cunningham's actions and use of discriminatory language were in direct opposition to the company's values. Near the end of their post, they thanked Damaged Book Worker for being brave enough to come forward with their experiences and emphasized the ways in which the company needed to change.

On the flip side of this, Cunningham responded with complete denial of Damaged Book Worker's allegations, a denial that did not serve him well in maintaining his public image or his position with SPD. The board of directors all agreed it was best for Cunningham to step down, especially after a public letter had been issued to the company demanding Cunningham resign. This public letter received hundreds of signatures within the publishing community, highlighting the shock and outrage many felt during this time. Cunningham was slowly removed from SPD. Initially, he stepped down as executive director and worked a smaller role within the operations sector of the company, a role where he could not work directly with other staff. This role was temporary and he eventually left the company entirely.

Company Changes

Alan Bernheimer, SPD's board president, created a list of mediation tactics he thought would help the company recover, which emphasized the importance of communication from SPD staff. Under his direction, staff were given opportunities to report directly to the board of SPD, fostering a greater sense of transparency among upper and lower level employees. Staff were also part of hiring committees for interim and permanent executive directors, allowing them to have a greater voice in the company's future. Lastly, Bernheimer created a policy where two employees would report monthly to two board members to create what he called an "ongoing dialogue."

Bernheimer was incredibly optimistic about the future for SPD, making a public statement saying “We think there’s an opportunity here, not simply to rebuild the organization, but in some sense to reimagine it; and ensure that it's doing the best job possible serving the small press community at the same time as providing a healthy and supportive workplace to everyone who works there . . . Maybe it’s presumptuous to say that we’re turning the corner, but I feel like the corner is in sight.”

While none of the other board members echoed this optimism or chose to follow in Brent Cunningham's footsteps by resigning, they did release a public statement of their own: "This has been an extremely painful time for the SPD community and the board recognizes its share of responsibility for that. We’ve heard and understand the deep frustration with how long this process has taken. We needed an independent assessment of the many allegations and complaints, corroboration where available, and the implicated parties’ response to those allegations."

By examining this public statement from the board of SPD, one can see just how different the staff's response was from those in positions of power within the company. SPD staff, who had been suffering from a toxic workplace environment for quite some time, were rightfully outraged at Brent Cunningham and at the board's negligence. While the board did "recognize its share of responsibility" for what employees had experienced, their public statement was still vague and what some might consider industry-standard. They recognized the abuse, but didn't fully admit guilt.

"SPD Next"

SPD Next's logo.

The biggest move new Executive Director Kent Watson made was coined "SPD Next," a big fundraising effort to improve service by moving their stock from their warehouse in Berkeley, California, to warehouses in Tennessee and Michigan. Their goal was to raise $100,000 using GoFundMe; they ended up raising over $111,000 and made the move.

Closure

Despite all of their new policies and money raised, SPD suddenly shut down on March 28, 2024. According to an article describing the shutdown, "SPD had lost over $125,000 in grant money in the past year, [and] was unable to secure funding in order to bridge that gap." Small presses that worked with SPD were left in the dark as SPD had closed without any warning or transitional period.

Fallout

SPD's sign being taken down from their offices in Berkeley, California.

Many small presses were left with a troubling future at the hands of SPD's closure. With their primary distributor out of the picture, small presses were unable to distribute their books, meaning they were unable to generate revenue from their books. SPD also did not pay out to small presses what they were owed in royalties. One small press named Black Lawrence Press reported having exactly 18,289 of its books stuck in SPD's warehouses. SPD also owed them an estimated $17,239 in royalty payments, which was six months' worth of book sales. The closure of SPD also left many small presses either on the brink of closure. According to Mary Gannon, the executive director of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, an estimated 10 presses have fully closed due to SPD's shut down.

Key Takeaways

The closure of such an integral company to small presses is a complicated issue. On one hand, SPD was abusing and exploiting the people who were directly in their employ, and creating an extremely hostile work environment. On the other, small presses throughout the country as now struggling without SPD to distribute their books. Small presses don't generate the kind of revenue needed to store and distribute their own books, except in rare cases or with very small presses that can be run out of someone's basement. There are a few ways to get around this, and a few companies that do similar things to SPD, but SPD was the best option for small presses until they closed down.

There are a few possible solutions to the issue of SPD. In the short term, small presses can turn to other companies like Asterism and IPG to distribute their books, or Amazon if they're desperate and don't mind feeding the hungry capitalist beast. In the long term, there needs to be a way to prevent companies from becoming monopolies as SPD did. Given the difficulties inherent in getting a bill like that through legislation, it would probably have to be something that the publishing industry itself was enforcing. There also need to be more safeguards for the employees of publishing companies, especially big companies. SPD was able to get really bad before any of their employees were willing to speak up about it, and that shouldn't have been able to happen. The simplest solution might be what SPD tried to do in opening a dialogue between employees and the board of directors; a regular meeting with multiple board members could, if the board members themselves are not also corrupt, help keep something like this from happening again. The fact that this happened at all shows a corruption in the system that needs to be rooted out.