I never thought that I’d be discussing problems and issues in the publishing industry from the comparatively safe vantage point of a website, but such is life. For internet readers, publishing in print now occupies a peculiar place. Books are not as necessary, or as widely read, as they once were. Periodicals and newspapers have been somehow supplanted by the instant internet press (present company excluded - since when have we been that on top of things)? As readers, this presents us with a problem: should we continue to support printed media with our wallets or should we simply stick with what is (relatively) free?
As a writer, I’m inclined to instantly persuade you to keep spending money on books. In fact, I’ll go right out and implore you - PLEASE KEEP BUYING BOOKS! There has been a lot of debate, both in publishing industry circles and in the popular media, about the future of publishing. With digital storage as cheap as it is, and even crazier things on the horizon (hologram storage…and I thought it was just for baseball cards), the future of digital archiving seems complete. Admirable undertakings like Project Gutenberg and UBU Web have started making the great texts available to the public for free. Pay services like JSTOR have started collecting academic journals. Countless magazines and newspapers have online archives. Ease with the click of a button.
But what of the book? Of bound, printed matter in general? There is something very nice about a hard copy of a text. It is tangible. It is legitimate. In general, what is published and sold on the marketplace has some merit, built-in readership, or originality. Magazines have editorial boards. Journals are peer-reviewed. Most novels and works of non-fiction are scrutinized by several editors. The correction of proofs is already one better then most websites, this one included.
Books as objects delightfully reflect the period of their publication. I have an almost-complete set of the works of Honore de Balzac from 1905. I got them for a dollar a piece at a thrift store. These wonderful tomes are bound in green cloth, have a rice-paper inlay next to the title page, and look very nice on my shelf. I have books from the late 1960s with very psychedellic cover art. My more recent books smell like new cars.
There are many challenges facing the publishing industry:
From the academic standpoint - The print runs of most academic books has decreased. Copies are generally sold to institutions. Price-points of hardbound books often prove prohibitive to private sales. Thankfully, many presses offer somewhat affordable soft cover editions. Recently, this industry has acknowledged that it must start looking at digital alternatives or die. For an older generation of academics, physical publication was part of the job. For future generations, it may be an unknown pleasure.
For the mainstream - Most books do not turn a profit in their initial run. Some never turn a profit. Some almost justify themselves after they’ve been remaindered off, but it is hard to guage sales figures after bargain distributors have snatched up available goods. A very small number of titles sell quite well . While these are often the safest titles (books by James Patterson and things like Seabiscuit), their success is good for the industry at one level, as it allows publishers to diversify their offerings and take chances. A few Da Vinci Codes could potentially help loads of other writers.
For the margins - Niche publishing is always on shaky ground. Many magazines fold because of poor distribution. Many specifically-targeted books never find their audience. Some books are readily snatched up by genre enthusiasts. The mass-market Romance is safe in this regard, while the monograph on a rock band may not be. Publication has often served to justify fringe culture, giving it a chance to speak to itself. It will likely continue even without the profit margins (no pun intended).
Street Cred:
Some publishers need to be appluaded for their willingness to provide a breadth of material. My personal list of heroes.
The Guernica Editions Picas Series offers a truly multi-cultural slate of works in all genres. A personal favorite is their translation of THE FILMS OF JACQUES TATI by Michel Chion.
Green Integer has a header to their website that says it all. “Essays, Manifestos, Statements, Speeches, Maxims, Epistles, Diaristic Jottings, Narratives, Natural histories, Poems, Plays, Performances, Ramblings, Revelations, and all such ephemera as may appear necessary to bring society into a slight tremolo of confusion and fright at least.”
McFarland is a legend in film circles. In particular, it has proven itself as one of the most receptive publishers on the horror genre in the US. Look for HORROR FILMS OF THE 1980S by John Kenneth Muir this Halloween (shameless plug: it contains an appendix on Ken Russell writen by yours truly).
The list could go on and on - Duke University Press, BFI Publishing, Dover (with their famous thrift editions), Wallflower Press…
One of the real dangers of the death of print publication would come in the wholesale liquidation of the writing profession. If no one can afford to write for a living, then the world would simply cease being an even marginally literate place. Bobby quoted some surprising figures to me just recently that made me wonder about the current state of things. Nearly 65% of adults have not read an entire book since high school. A similar percentage have not set foot in a bookstore within the last year. Electronic literary, I feel, is co-dependent on print literacy. Both must thrive!
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