It was established in 1934, since 1938 served as the publisher for the Union of Soviet Writers, in 1992 it was turned into a commercial organization, owned by Arseny Larionov.
It was then called Sovetskaya Literatura (Советская литература, "Soviet Literature").
Sovetsky Pisatel was the result of a merger between Sovetskaya Literatura and two Soviet publishing companies —Moscow Writers Partnership (Russian: Московское товарищество писателей, romanized: Moskovskoe tovarishhestvo pisatelej) and Writers' Publishing House in Leningrad (Russian: Издательство писателей в Ленинграде, romanized: Izdatelstvo pisatelej v Leningrade)—in 1934.
The Moscow department was transformed into a limited liability company, and another book publishing company Sovremenniy Pisatel (Russian: Современный писатель, romanized: Sovremennyj pisatel, lit.
"a contemporary writer") was established on its basis, but it was later renamed back to Sovetsky Pisatel.