Macro- and Micro-Economies

"At What Price Progress?" is the first in a series I'm writing at Phoenicia Publishing to encourage discussion about about the future of poetry (and other forms of writing) in the challenging new publishing environment. Hope you'll go over and read it there; this is a typical Cassandra series (but I decided to post there to encourage visits to the new site.)

"It's obvious that as the larger publishing houses merge and find themselves squeezed financially, taking risks on experimental, innovative writing - especially where the audience may be limited - has already become less and less viable. Academic publishing and journals are becoming, in my opinion, an increasingly  insular club. So, for truly creative writing, writing by people who don't fit into the existing systems, writing that crosses genres and boundaries and takes risks -- the sorts of things that small presses and independent bookstores once championed -- online publishing is one of the only remaining solutions. Doesn't some of that work also deserve to be in print?  Yes. But we've yet to figure out how the economy of it can work for everyone's benefit."

Comments

[Beth]

At Phoenicia, James (http://coyotemercury.com/blog1) writes:

This really an interesting piece and it touches on a lot of what I've been thinking about lately as I send out my own work. Last night, I was wrestling with the decision to submit a batch of poems or post them on my site. I wound up sending them off, but a part of me wishes I'd just posted them on my own site. Does this make me an unserious writer? I don't know, because I'm very serious about craft not so much about the business side, I guess. When I think about online as opposed to print publishing, I tend to prefer seeking out online journals mainly because a good one might pull more readers than print ones. I often hear/read that print journals are mainly read by those whose work has been published there. I don't even know if that's true or not, but it seems likely. I completely agree with your 3rd point about the need to support short runs and chaps. Most of my book buying lately has been in those areas, but I am trying to shop a novel around to agents, which leaves me very conflicted about all of this. This comment is getting too long. Thanks for this essay and I look forward to reading more in this series in the hopes it will help me work out my own thinking on these issues.

[Beth]

Elizabeth (http://www.elizabethenslin.com) writes:

It's refreshing to read a piece on the future of publishing that includes a thoughtful analysis of capitalism. There's a lot to mull over here. I'll be back.

[Beth]

...there are a number of additional perceptive comments at the Phoenicia site.

[Ásta]

Perhaps we need more of this kind of thing:
http://www.spdbooks.org/

Hi Beth, it's been a while since I've looked at your blog. I'm always so glad when I do, and grateful to you for all you do.