Indie presses to rush out Cindy Sheehan books

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from today's Publisher's Weekly e-newsletter...

Friday, September 23, 2005

Indie Presses to Rush Out Cindy Sheehan Titles

On the eve before Cindy Sheehan is to lead an anti-war march in Washington that is expected to draw over 100,000 protestors, Seven Stories and the brand new Maui-based Koa Books plan near-instant publications from some of her comments from her "Bring Them Home Now Tour."

Just in time for Saturday's march, Seven Stories will have 10,000 copies of Dear President Bush, a pamphlet interview of Sheehan with Open Media series co-founder Greg Ruggiero. Sheehan's Not One More Mother's Child will be the launch title for Koa Books, which is planning a 25,000 first printing for its November 11 (Veteran’s Day) pub date.

Surely the woman whose supporters call the "Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement" could have gotten the attention of many big publishing company executives, so why did she decide to go with a pamphleteer and a start-up? The reasons include: the desire to get her message out as true to Sheehan as possible; to get it out as fast as possible, and to do it with people known and trusted by Sheehan's advisors. Jodie Evans, the co-founder of CodePink has been with Sheehan practically since she set up Camp Casey outside Bush's Crawford ranch. Evans says she has known both Ruggiero from Seven Stories and Arnie Kotler, the founder of Koa for years, and she put them together with Sheehan. Kotler is formerly editor-in-chief of the Berkeley-based Parallax, which has a history of publishing social activists.

"Arnie has an unerring instinct for agents of change and he has been able to deliver their messages," says Evans. Kotler had planned to launch Koa Books next year with a focus on personal transformation, progressive politics and native cultures, but moved up his plans when given the chance to publish Sheehan. He has signed on with Publishers Group West for distribution, and Inkwell Management is handling foreign rights for the book of essays, letters and speeches that illuminate Sheehan's anti-war stance.

Ruggiero had even less time to produce his pamphlet. He met Sheehan at LaGuardia airport on September 12 and interviewed her during the car ride to a press conference. Much like its bestselling 9/11 by Noam, Dear President Bush is in interview format. The rush to press meant that the first 10,000 copies are to saddle stitched and distributed by AK Press. "This is the abbreviated version of a longer book to come later," says Ruggiero. "The idea is to get something out fast and get it into people's hands."

None of these (un-agented) projects is a memoir. "They are more about the moment than the journey," says Evans.

--Bridget Kinsella

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1. lit kick

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