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Archive for the ‘indie publishing’


The State of the Publishing Industry in Canada

Published August 7th, 2008 in indie publishing | 1 Comment »

Hugh McGuire has an insightful look at the publishing industry in Canada from the point of view of a first time author:

Chapters/Indigo has reduced space for books from 70% to 60%. The rest is candles and calendars (…) The result is that publishers aren’t taking many new writers. The big presses have kicked out their smaller performers; who are now getting picked up by the mid-range presses, meaning that mid-range presses aren’t taking new young writers any more, and small presses are swamped with manuscripts from both published and unpublished writers…with nowhere to sell their books.

Where do libraries fit in all this? How can libraries help to promote small independent presses and new authors? A post last year on LibrarianActivist gives a short reading list of articles on the topic. Here are a few more:

M. K. Browning. 1984. The Small Press and the Library A View from Confluence. Serials Librarian. 9(1):37-41.

“Small” presses are those which, because of the nature of their operations, put out short runs (250 to over one or two thousand copies) of the best efforts of regional poets and writers. There are a number of these adventitious industries alive and well in the Northwest. Regional and academic librarians should know of and support their efforts because they perform a vital function culturally speaking. They help to set the parameters of a genuine regional literature clearly and advantageously because they can and do foster a certain professional competition at their level.

Byron Anderson. 2006. Alternative Publishers of Books in North America, 6th Edition.

The directory is a unique reference tool that gathers information on significant alternative presses and places this under one cover. The information attempts to educate and bring more awareness of alternative presses to librarians and others interested in these publications.

Byron Anderson. May 2006. Getting Alternative Press Titles into Libraries. Alternatives in Publication Task Force. Social Responsibilities Round Table. American Library Association.

List of ideas for libraries and librarians on how to promote small presses.

Byron Anderson. January 2008. Bibliographic and Web Tools for Alternative Publications. from ALA’s Alternative Media Task Force.

Montreal’s Anarchist Bookfair 2008

Published January 16th, 2008 in culture, indie publishing, zines | No Comments »

Saturday May 17th, come check out Montreal’s Anarchist Bookfair with over 100 vendors (book sellers and independent presses) that promote “values of mutual aid, direct democracy, anti-authoritarianism, autonomy and solidarity.” If you feel like setting up a workshop, presentation or panel discussion, send in your proposal by March 3rd.

- DD

‘Shameless’ fans of the public library

Published September 25th, 2007 in advocacy, alternative media, indie publishing, social justice | No Comments »

So Shameless is the feminist magazine and blog for teens that I wish had been around when I was a wee feminist myself. I’d be dating myself if I told you how old I was when Sassy finally rescued me from magazine hell, so I won’t.

Not only are the contributors of Shameless smart, feminist, and yes - sassy - they also know how where the good activist resources are and how to find them. I quote from a recent Shameless blog entry from Tuval, one of their contributors:

Last night I watched an old film I’ve been meaning to see for a long time. And I got it from my favourite movie store, the public library.

That’s right - the public library. (Where you can also find a print copy of Shameless at a healthy selection of library branches.)

And the film in question is Not a Love Story, by Bonnie Sherr Klein, mother of activist Naomi Klein. Coincidentally, I viewed this film about the same time I was reading Sassy.

Do check out (no pun intended:) both of Sherr Klein’s films, Not a Love Story and the more recent, Shameless: the Art of Disability.

-PC-

Distrubute This | Indie publisher holding online yard sale

Published June 22nd, 2007 in indie publishing | 1 Comment »

For fans of the hipster indie publisher McSweeney’s, oodles of books and other emphemera (like a one line apology to your girl/boyfriend written by Miranda July) are up on the hawk block. In their words, “every single thing we’ve got is on sale”.

Why the madness? Independent news source Salon.com writes a great piece about how the small press world is dealing with the bankruptcy of Advanced Marketing Services, the parent company of Publishers Group West, that took care of the sales and marketing for approximately 130 independent publishers. According to Salon, it wasn’t the fanciful, bright eyed, ’support the little guy distributor’ PGW that was in financial trouble.

“Ironically, PGW — the largest American distributor of independent publishers — was by all accounts having its best year ever, and the financial troubles of AMS, a corporate giant that mainly distributed to wholesalers like Costco and Sam’s Club, brought it down. AMS filed for Chapter 11 on Dec. 29, a result of being unable to bounce back from SEC and FBI investigations into its advertising accounting practices — which led to three executive indictments — and a class-action suit on behalf of its shareholders. As Horowitz points out, ‘It wasn’t the indie distributor; it was a big, old-fashioned corporation with accounting problems.’”

Un-fans of McSweeneys might want to throw their support to another indie publisher, like Cleis. However not every small press outfit was equipped to deal with this; the mergers and additional bankruptcies have already started. Salon.com reports that Soft Skull, Hugh Lauter Levin and Inner Ocean were absorbed by larger publishers, while Carroll & Graf and Thunder’s Mouth, two Avalon Publishing Group imprints, folded.

The good news (sort of) is that another company, Perseus, took PGW over keeping much of it intact. The downside is that this results in consolidation of distribution for 300+ indie publishers under one company - a bit precarious for the industry should Perseus run into trouble.

McSweeneys approach is a testament to how any bunch of creative and independent maverick thinkers would deal with such a blow. To illustrate … (and yes, I like lists).

1) through derivative ideas. according to the McSweeneys website, Fantagraphics salvaged their company from a similar situation a few years ago.
2) using the Internet. cyberspace being a quick and effective ad hoc distributor of a shout out (but no substitute for the actual distributor).
3) through community. with love and support, their authors and loyal readership have come to their aid in a jiff.

Despite the alarm this raises, the deals to be had are awesome. Collection development librarians and avid readers alike can pick up some interesting titles by ordering online.

i) 50% off backlisted books
ii) 30% off new books
iii) $5 off subscriptions - including an ‘instant gratification’ subscription if you haven’t gotten your fix lately
iv) gift certificates - why limit your gift buying to birthdays and special occasions?

All of this flags the challenge for librarians in keeping their collections diverse in the age of outsourcing. Discussion around this issue calls for its own post, me-thinks. In the meantime, here are a few articles.

Rude, R. I. (2001). Academic libraries and social responsibility: The what? so what? and what now? Catholic Library World, 72(2), 94-98.

Manoff, M. (1999). Outsourcing selection in academic libraries. Technical Services Quarterly, 16(4), 67-70.

Knuth, R., & Bair-Mundy, D. G. (1998). Revolt over outsourcing: Hawaii’s librarians speak out about contracted selection. Collection Management, 23(1/2), 81-112.

Atton, C. (1994). Beyond the mainstream: Examining alternative sources for stock selection. Library Review, 43(4), 57-64.

Hitchcock Mort, K. A., & Mort, K. A. H. (1983). Small and alternative press acquisitions. Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory, 7(3), 233-238.

-PC-