[-empyre-] Diversity and the Publishing Industry

[Emmett Stinson]

I think there's are two issues, which, from an industry perspective, require
clarification, and which I'll just note very quickly:

1) Notions of open access for academic texts cannot simply be exported to
the larger publishing industry in a generalised way without running into
serious and significant complications. I support open access for academic
publishing 100%, but academic publishing, in Australia, accounts for only
10% of a $2 billion publishing industry (and this matter is further
complicated by the fact that many so-called 'academic' publishers have a
substantial trade publishing list that actually brings in most of their
money).

Authors who write books for trade publishers aren't just doing so for
'status'; they are often trying to pay their rent and put food on the table.
It's enormously difficult to make any kind of a living as a writer, at all,
and often the choice to go with a trade publisher is simply about trying to
earn a semblance of a living. Moreover, the $2 billion figure above doesn't
just represent corporate profits, but also tens of thousands of jobs for
printers, editors, publishers, booksellers, designers, etc. In this sense,
this issue has broader material ramifications.

2) Not all for-profit publishing is part of a monolithic enterprise.
According to the University of Melbourne Book Industry Study 2009 (where all
of this data comes from), 90% of all book titles published in Australia in
2008 failed to sell more than 120 copies (although, admittedly, 80% of all
sales are generated by the ten largest companies). The vast majority of
titles are produced by self-publishers, small publishers, and NGOs. The
publishing industry is diverse (although it could and should be even more
diverse). There also exist a wide array of small and independent publishers,
like those I represent at SPUNC--The Small Press Network (www.spunc.com.au),
who don't make a great deal of money, but work as publishers because they
are passionate about what they publish.

Lastly, it is naive to think that self-publishing is inherently better.
Indeed, many authors keen to self-publish via Amazon, Apple and Google, for
example, are simply putting themselves in the hands of an even larger
multinational. This is, indeed, an irony of the convergence of publishing:
the endgame could result in an even further conglomeration of publishing
under a few gigantic multinational corporations.
-- 
Emmett Stinson
Lecturer, Publishing and Communications
School of Culture and Communication
The University of Melbourne
Parkville, Victoria, Australia 3010
Ph: 613-8344-3017 

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