Publisher Richard Nash on BEA
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About a year ago, it would have been easy to explain what Richard Nash does: He was the head of independent publisher Soft Skull Press. But after Soft Skull was acquired by Winton, Shoemaker and Co. (which is part of Perseus), Nash became editorial director there, turning three imprints into two. Soft Skull publishes books on politics and current events, poetry, and literary fiction.
The thing that taught me I should be in publishing is that I like book fairs; I got that DNA. [when I explain that means days of standing under flourescent convention center lights, chatting with strangers] People say, ‘That sounds like my worst nightmare.’ But I love the energy of it, I love the hustle of it. I don’t think it is bad to try to hustle to sell books. I not so secretly like that -- clearly, not so secretly.
Carolyn Kellogg