The future of independent publishing lies not in breaking into the corporate system but rather in creating an alternative to the corporate system. Independent publishing can lead the way in creating a new industry paradigm that not only seeks to create noise with individual books, but also establishes an alternative system for the creation, production, and dissemination of literature.
If independent publishing is the construct we are working around, then it is instructive to define what is not independent, or rather, is dependent: corporate publishing and its ever-increasing demand for books that fit the blockbuster model at the expense of publishing serious, boundary-pushing, avant-garde literary fiction, poetry, translation, and nonfiction. (The general public will likely recognize the same thing in a Hollywood movie industry that has all but abandoned serious narrative storytelling.) Independent publishers have long filled the editorial gap in producing literature that propels the art form forward, but we must do more to nurture an alternative industry for literature outside of the structures created and dominated by corporate publishing, corporate bookselling, and corporate media.
This story is from the November - December 2019 edition of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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This story is from the November - December 2019 edition of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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Literary MagNet
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