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Samuel Goodstein Grand Illusion |
Fact of life in American culture: Big companies - be it a movie studio, record company or publisher - dictate what the vast majority of consumers watch, listen to and read. This is fine, and even if it were not fine it is an unchangeable truism. That said, small independent artists and artistic companies have an important role in our culture: To promote artistic diversity, to give non-mainstream artists a chance to reach a wider audience and to promote the arts in general. Today - with the growing popularity of indie-rock and independent films - independent art is arguably stronger than ever. Unfortunately, small independent publishers have not fared as well as their indie brethren in the music and film industries; small presses are fighting for their lives. The outcome of this fight will have important implications for American writers, readers and supporters of artistic diversity.
Thanks to an insightful article in The Village Voice, I have learned that this is Small Press Week. I have also learned a few other things that are worth sharing.
Three trends are dramatically changing the American book industry and creating a situation wherein behemoth bookstores and publishing houses thrive, while small presses go the way of the Beta-Max. First, of course, is the exploding popularity of superstores such as Borders. These superstores are not bad. In fact, these stores bring books to smaller markets - such as my hometown, Flint - that previously were unavailable; furthermore, what better way to spend one's time than browsing in Borders? However, to maintain their store size and high number of stores, the Behemoths must make best-sellers their top priority. Of course they stock Nietzche, but they exist to sell John Grisham. Because the publishing business is exploding, and best-sellers are best-selling like never before, marketing has become almost as important in the book world as it is in other entertainment genres. The inevitable result: Publishers must spend big bucks to promote their books so that they can pay million-dollar advances to authors and reap profits.
One interesting wrinkle in the new Book Economics is that most bookstores now charge publishers to place their books on display in the store; meaning, those books that you see spread out on display at most bookstores are there because the publisher paid "rent" to put it there. If you want your book to sell, you had better pay the rent or else it will be relegated to the shelves, stuck somewhere between Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolfe. The result: Small publishers cannot afford to pay the rent, let alone pay for big marketing campaigns, and their books are usually relegated to the shelves -where sales are considerably lower.
Another wrinkle is the fact that bookstores return un-sold books to the publisher, and recover part of the purchasing cost - the Behemoths are increasing efficiency by turning books over at a faster rate, a fact that hurts slow-selling independent books. Because small publishers cannot pay to market books, cannot rent high profile spots in big stores and have many of their books returned (some are experiencing return rates as high as 60 percent) they are being swamped. The result: A small group of large publishing companies are becoming even larger, at the expense of the little ones.
The second trend is that funding sources for small presses are drying up. This is because private foundations are pulling out and because the NEA - under Republican assault - has eliminated its literature division and is being forced to cut funding for small presses from $1 million to zero. Furthermore, libraries -which were long a source of revenue for small presses - have not escaped the Republican blitz and are cutting back on purchases. Between Behemoth stores and less support for non-profit publishers, the little fish are drowning in the big ocean.
The final trend is that independent bookstores - long a key market for independent publishers in part because they often gave small presses cheap or free display spaces - are going out of business. This only deepens the crisis.
To the credit of the large bookstores, they often try to promote small presses - Borders here in Ann Arbor is a great, and welcome, example. Unfortunately, this is usually not enough to defend the indies from the larger economic forces at work.
Fortunately, there might be hope. As the Behemoths focus more and more on John Grisham and Dean Koontz, a niche market might open up for small presses to focus on literary titles. If the indies can put together a business strategy that will be mutually beneficial to themselves and the Behemoths, the two might be able to work in tandem. Hopefully something along these lines will be worked out - for the future J.D. Salingers of the world.
- Sam Goodstein can be reached over e-mail at faygo@umich.edu, and thanks The Village Voice.