Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Barnes & Noble's Future, and the ecosystem of Publishing

This New Republic article by Alex Shephard, "Pulp Friction: If Barnes & Noble goes out of business, it will be a disaster for book lovers," is a fascinating perspective.



In particular, the idea that

"The irony of the age of cultural abundance is that it still relies on old filters and distribution channels to highlight significant works."

is worth considering.

And, as the article explains, if B&N is the old financial support for risk-taking in publishing, what might be the newer supports?

Will it be the old model of chain bookstores placing huge initial orders, or will it be something else? 

Will it be crowd funding, along the lines of the recent success of "Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls?"

What do you think?




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2 comments:

  1. Kris BockJune 21, 2016 at 8:37 PM

    How does a bookstore chain that heavily promotes well-known authors support financial risk-taking?

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  2. Lee Wind, M.Ed.June 28, 2016 at 9:11 PM

    The argument surprised me as well - as the article says, "Without the initial orders Barnes & Noble places, and the visibility its shelves provide, breakout hits by relative unknowns—books like Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See or Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven—will suffer."
    best,
    Lee

    ReplyDelete