Publishing

Publishing is the activity of putting information into the public arena. Traditionally, the term refers to the distribution of printed works such as books and newspapers. With the advent of digital information systems and the Internet, the scope of publishing has expanded to include websites, blogs, and other forms of new media.

Criticism of the publishing industry

There has been some controversy in recent times over what is perceived as a crisis in Western publishing. The general complaint is that conglomerates or large corporations have bought and merged a significant number of key publishing houses or bookstores. Consequently, an oligopoly is arising and now exercises more real influence over various aspects of publishing. It is suggested that there has been some reduction in competition but there is no reduction in the number of titles published in the national markets. This is not to deny that consolidation has produced a number of consequences:

Related Topics:
Controversy - Conglomerate - Corporation - Publishing house - Bookstore - Oligopoly - Competition

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• The corporations have concentrated on their big name authors, attempting to drive up the market share of a bestseller.
• Editorial policy now requires imprints to keep fewer authors under contract ? this has resulted in economic insecurity for the midlist authors who previously enjoyed stability of employment;
• Companies now wish to extend the payment schedule for the payment of author royalties ? in part this is a response to the demands of the retail trade for extended periods of credit, but it also maximises the amount of circulating capital available to the publisher;
• Critics claim that these events have led to the following problems:
• Not only a loss of diversity in the range of authors published in mass market outlets, but also to a decline in the quality of a bestseller as most of the middle and lower level authors must have other employment to provide income while writing the work and waiting for the royalties.
• The consolidation of companies has also made it easier to impose a political bias on the works released by the commercial publishers based in New York.
• There is an excess of transient in the mass market, a bestseller is often used as promotional tools for a possible movie deal.