This directory of alternative book publishers in North America is in its sixth edition, and has become a very useful collection development tool for many libraries. There are 163 presses listed in this edition, 126 of which are in the USA, 19 in Canada, and 18 international presses which have a North American distributor or address. There are 33 new presses in this particular edition.
The presses are presented in alphabetical order and include such items as ISBN prefix, distributor, editor information, average number of titles published per year, number of titles in print, publication interests, and motto. A short paragraph then describes the founding year, history, and publication subjects of each press. A short bibliography of alternative publishing literature (1996‐2005) is given, as well as a very useful subject index, categorizing the presses into areas such as Alaskan Native, Gender Studies, Parenting, Mystery, and Social Issues, among many others.
The preface provides a concise and understandable history of the challenges and hurdles that alternative publishers face from many sides, including large media conglomerates, control of information by various constituencies, and the difficulties of marketing and distribution. The introduction discusses how presses were identified and chosen for the volume, and attempts to persuade readers to purchase alternative press books directly from the presses or through the Booksense website at www.booksense.com. Readers are also invited to help keep the volume up‐to‐date, and the author mentions additional resources available at the Bibliographic and Web Tools for Alternative Publishers webpage at www.libr.org/AIP/bibtools.html
