Independent publishers are the way of the future
By Paul Biba
So says Andy Hunter, Editor-in-Chief of Electric Literature, in a thoughtful editorial in Publishing Perspectives. He argues that the rise of the independent publisher will best Amazon, Apple and Google. Of course, ebooks lend themselves perfectly to just the type of communications democratization he’s talking about. Here’s a short excerpt:
Communications technology is democratizing. It provides tools that empower individuals and disrupt top-down control. Decentralization, in turn, fuels creativity. The information age will not, in the long-run, be bad for literature, despite the pain that many are currently feeling. Since major record labels lost their stranglehold on the market, music has thrived — fewer bands become millionaires, but far more are heard. In television, the proliferation of channels and fragmentation of audiences has allowed smaller programs to find avid niches. In each case, democratizing technology — despite the ever-present cries of doom by established interests — results in a creativity boom. Most importantly, deconsolidation allows an audience once treated as monolithic to reveal its true diversity.
As information proliferates, people need trusted filters, which — from the slushpile to the bookshelf — is a role publishers have always played. Independent presses must foster reputations as curators, with strong identities that readers relate to.
Everything paved over eventually cracks, sprouts weeds, and is overrun. The acquisition and corporatization of publishers was a paving over. Now that the pavers are out of funds, we can see the cracks emerging. Years from now, publishing will be a wild, sprouting, resurgent landscape.
September 15th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Preach on, brother.
September 15th, 2009 at 11:37 am
This is probably a sign of the most effective evolution of Big Pub, from paper-pushers to information resources. The old publishers, independent of product, should be able to more evenly and objectively steer consumers to the content they want, as well as offering their services to independent writers to improve their product… IOW, evolve from selling paper to servicing authors and consumers.