Not a political economy of book publishing

 This isn't reaally a political economy. It’s more a stream of consciousness. I’m not in the frame of mind to make this respectable by cloaking it in fancy language.

Let’s consider what is going on in the world of traditional and e book publishing. It is about time that we looked beyond merely the experience of the reader as consumer. We have to consider the perspectives of the other different major ‘stakeholders’ (I hate this Blairite word, but I guess it conveys what I mean) in the publishing industries. Because there are multiple industries, well, that I can identify. I tend to categorise them as follows. Although the situation is more complex, three categories suffice to get my meaning across:

1.     Largest, mass publishers. These are often global corporations who have steadily bought up many smaller publishers over the past couple of decades. They’re often content to shelter behind the original name of the company they’ve bought out. They do most of the big book deals with celebrity authors, they fill Waterstones and other major chains’ shop windows and they sell most of the books bought in the UK. Many of these publishers have spotted ways of promoting digital publishing and increasing sales and are chasing people they identify as potential high earners with particular e book titles, so as to maximise their profits from the very recent advances (the first Kindle was only produced by Amazon less than 3 years ago) in digital technology.

2.     Smaller, independent publishers. These are still numerous and often occupy niche markets, such as for particularly well-read groups of fairly traditional users of books and the authors who serve them. Examples that come to my mind – still trying to avoid naming names – are publishers of books on railways and historical trains, wartime, cookery and gardening. Often, the markets for the books are pretty impervious to short-term shifts in the economy, because the readers of these books – the way I see it anyway – tend to like to have them on the bookshelves to refer to.

3.     Self-publishers. It was a big jump above from huge global publishers to smaller, specialist publishers and it’s at least as big a jump to the world of self-publishing. There is a huge number of authors out there, most of whom have long since given up trying to obtain a contract with a mass, or even a smaller publisher. The Internet and digital advances made in publishing since the 1990s have served them well, in one important sense – they now have very cheap technology available on their desktops to produce their own books. And that’s what they are doing. They don’t need to take any notice of the comments of any independent person, whether a reviewer, an agent or a publisher. They can use Print on Demand (POD) and only create single copies for members of their family, or they can ask the local ‘bookshop’ – which in reality may be a village store or post office –  to hold a few copies on sale or return. They can be flexible over the content of the book. They may print it this month on a local history, get feedback from local people and produce an enlarged edition next month incorporating extra written material and photographs. This can all be in hard copy.

These self-publishing authors, of course, may be into traditional publishing through a local printer, they may use their own desktop publishing programme and send this off to one of thousands of Internet-based businesses ready to produce self-published books in any design and number the author wishes. They may do the whole job themselves, using a local print shop and finding a bookbinder who will put the whole lot together after they’ve produced a pile of paper with print on each page, edited to their own satisfaction.

So, where do we go from here? Well, the bad news is that the mass publishers and, probably many of the smaller publishers, are still likely to be interested mainly or wholly in profit. The good news, however, is that the self-publishing authors can go on more or less forever producing their own books or paying for others to produce them. Apart from being ripped off at the fringes of their marketplace by Vanity publishers (trying to maximise returns by charging extortionate prices for printing and publishing somebody’s book), there really is no way in which this market will change, of its own volition.

And a bit of me thinks, well done, independent authors, if you’re able to empower yourselves to the point where you can do this, keep away from authority figures in the world of mass, celebrity and high status publishing, keep away from profiteers, keep away from critics, keep away from people who are likely to discourage you before you’ve really got going. You could find this takes you in some as yet completely unknown direction that could give you and your future readers a great deal of pleasure. You could be on the threshold of a new world of publishing and authoring. You could become part of the these revolutions in publishing.