Among the aspects of this brave new world least popular is ownership of small, dedicated companies by huge, multifaceted corporations. Many see this tendency as resulting in a more mediocre culture. Resisting this rising tide of conglomerates are the few, the proud, the independent book publishers running houses that remain oases of individual taste and passion.
The ultimate difference between independent and corporate owned publishing is that the former has at its core someone who got into the business out of a genuine love of books. Still better would be someone driven by a real love of literature, but maybe one should not demand too much. This gives some hope that more thoughtful decisions will be made about which books get published and which do not.
It is not at all unusual to find small publishing houses owned and largely staffed by graduates of Master's of Fine Arts programs. Many of these might have entered their program hoping to produce work so exceptional so soon that they would end up teaching their art on the college or elite high school level. This fortune befalls few today, leaving graduates seeking employment that will keep them fed while writing their poetry or crafting their sculpture.
As the number of MFA graduates has grown, the limited number of teaching positions has come to many to spell the end of the old dream of a cushy teaching career. Meanwhile, outside academe but just barely, the size of audience for nearly all the fine arts is in a generational free fall. It grows clearer to each graduating class that the very infrastructure of fine arts needs support.
More and more graduates are looking at the economics of the arts squarely and concluding that the real front lines of the arts lie in the means of their production. If only poets read poetry, it is an open question whether poetry truly exists. Increasingly, MFA programs themselves offer their students training in how to publish a magazine or run a book publishing house.
Technology, especially consumer electronics, is assigned much of the blame. Doubtless it has given billions of people worldwide easy access to the arts. However, on the whole it has made it more difficult, not less, to make a living as any sort of artist.
Many express concern about yet another of electronic media's ill effects upon the public interest in fine literature. There is much that suggests the public attention span is becoming eroded by the quick-cut ethos of big budget movies, video games, and TV. There are tens of millions of moviegoers who simply cannot sit through a black and white movie, and silent movies are simply out of the question. So is attending a play, or reading a modern poem.
21st century technology takes, but it also gives new opportunities, some with great potential. Indie publishers might like to hearken back to the 1920s, and its heroic little magazines. Meanwhile, the future of the arts might belong to the self-publisher, building his or her book entirely online, who might not even have an MFA.
The ultimate difference between independent and corporate owned publishing is that the former has at its core someone who got into the business out of a genuine love of books. Still better would be someone driven by a real love of literature, but maybe one should not demand too much. This gives some hope that more thoughtful decisions will be made about which books get published and which do not.
It is not at all unusual to find small publishing houses owned and largely staffed by graduates of Master's of Fine Arts programs. Many of these might have entered their program hoping to produce work so exceptional so soon that they would end up teaching their art on the college or elite high school level. This fortune befalls few today, leaving graduates seeking employment that will keep them fed while writing their poetry or crafting their sculpture.
As the number of MFA graduates has grown, the limited number of teaching positions has come to many to spell the end of the old dream of a cushy teaching career. Meanwhile, outside academe but just barely, the size of audience for nearly all the fine arts is in a generational free fall. It grows clearer to each graduating class that the very infrastructure of fine arts needs support.
More and more graduates are looking at the economics of the arts squarely and concluding that the real front lines of the arts lie in the means of their production. If only poets read poetry, it is an open question whether poetry truly exists. Increasingly, MFA programs themselves offer their students training in how to publish a magazine or run a book publishing house.
Technology, especially consumer electronics, is assigned much of the blame. Doubtless it has given billions of people worldwide easy access to the arts. However, on the whole it has made it more difficult, not less, to make a living as any sort of artist.
Many express concern about yet another of electronic media's ill effects upon the public interest in fine literature. There is much that suggests the public attention span is becoming eroded by the quick-cut ethos of big budget movies, video games, and TV. There are tens of millions of moviegoers who simply cannot sit through a black and white movie, and silent movies are simply out of the question. So is attending a play, or reading a modern poem.
21st century technology takes, but it also gives new opportunities, some with great potential. Indie publishers might like to hearken back to the 1920s, and its heroic little magazines. Meanwhile, the future of the arts might belong to the self-publisher, building his or her book entirely online, who might not even have an MFA.
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You can get a detailed summary of the factors to consider when choosing a book publisher and more info about independent book publishers at http://whitebirdpublications.com right now.
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