American Literature Needs Indie Presses

There is a pretty healthy grant ecosystem which sustains a lot of small presses. SPD, a distributor, also does a lot to help alleviate costs involved with getting books to stores and handling reviews / promotions. Book fairs, such as the Brooklyn Book Fest, also can make the difference between being in the red and being able to reprint.

I would disagree that it is worse now. If anything, you lose less money these days. I run a small press myself and while I wouldn't say we are rolling in the dough we are still able to keep the lights on. My strategy has been to make really unique-looking titles - both design-wise and content-wise - in small limited print runs (less than 200). This helps build the buzz about the author / work and then I sell the PDF for about half the price. I've been running it for about three years this way. Small presses are slow burners. Ugly Duckling Presse, perhaps one of the biggest "small presses" in NYC, has been ongoing twenty years and are just starting to get mainstream recognition.

It's a really great scene. I've worked in publishing (one of the big five) and I honestly find the culture and taste toxic. Small presses are very much their own community, still a distinct lifestyle and scene. I know people who sleep in their workshops next to their letterpress. I've held some of the most gorgeous books I've ever seen, designed by my friends, only one copy, made just for fun in the middle of the night. Losing money is worth it for that.

They are. Entropy, the sci fi and literary magazine, keeps a running interview series of old and new small presses. There are a lot and they all do different niches: http://entropymag.org/category/small-press/

Some people can't let go of the past.

You can own a paper book in perpetuity. You can lend it, gift it, and read it in 40 years when the tech giants at the time of its publishing are long dead and their standards long forgotten. No one needs to know you have it or what page you're on, it doesn't need network, it doesn't have naturally degrading rechargeable batteries, doesn't need a charge at all. It strikes a reasonable balance between freedom for its user and renumeration for its creator.

I love reading on my Kindle, but ebook-exclusive publications are going to have evaporated in a few decades, and hardbacks will still be here.

Printed book sales have gone up in the U.S. over the past two years, though this was largely driven by 'adult coloring books' and (in 2015) Go Set a Watchman.[0]

In my experience, the Strand in New York[1] is every bit as crowded as it ever was. While some smaller stores have failed, others[2] remain hectic with popularity, and while I don't have their sales figures I do see plenty of people making trips to the counter. Friends in other cities in the U.S. have much the same thing to say about bookstores near them. That won't reach everyone, but it isn't only urban environments where print lives on.

I do wonder what all factors come into play here. Certainly there are many people who do not like to be roped into buying books from one retailer, or else converting them haphazardly using Calibre. More 'open' platforms, like the Kobo, are difficult to find in certain markets—and why search them out when EPUB prices might not beat prices at your local store (as at the Strand, if you're in New York)? Many e-books are still clumsily produced, thanks to some combination of a limiting markup language and corner cutting at publishers (poorly proofread OCR output, common in older materials, regardless of firm).

Then there are the sentimentalists. There's no reasoning with sentiment—and why would there be?

Then there is the ease of lending, exchanging, etc. You don't have to deal with pesky rights, and no need to convert anything. No need to give over your reading habits to someone else's server. It's your book.

I understand some of the skepticism myself. Most of us have lived through deprecation of file formats and obsolescence of software. I do have e-books tucked away in plain text now, but that's the only reason I feel they're less brittle than the books on my shelves.

[0] http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bo... [1] http://www.strandbooks.com/ [2] http://www.mcnallyjackson.com/

There's nothing wrong with paper books, it's just that you have to consider the tradeoffs now that we have multiple formats.

Pros: Can lend it out, doodle in the margins, flip quickly through the pages, use without electricity, etc.

Cons: Can't search by text string, can't highlight a word to look it up in the dictionary/wikipedia, can't sync highlights and notes to the cloud, can't use without light, can't carry 10,000 in your pocket, can't read at 2x speed while jogging (audiobooks), etc.

Different people have different priorities, and they'll choose their format accordingly.

I read a lot. I have never read an ebook unless some of the long form stuff that occasionally gets posted here counts. The only things I have to worry about are fire, water damage, mold, and worms. That's not too difficult to control, especially compared to the electronic versions.

Plus, no one can come along and decide to change the title or any of the words later because of some political fashion trend.

I really prefer reading on a e-paper display, mostly because it's right there and always ready to go, but also because the light is better than any physical booklight I've ever used. It is super convenient; the other day I was cornered by skunks on my bicycle ride home, and I was able to quietly stop and read for the half-hour or whatever that it took them to get off of the bay trail. I don't dread lines or anything of that sort because I always have a book with me, and the lighting is such that no matter how dark it is, I can read it, and the lighting is dim enough that I probably won't bother other people.

But... but it is annoying that I can't practically lend or give away any of these books, and I'm paying substantially more on the kindle than I would for used physical books. I spend a few hundred dollars a month on kindle books, a number that would be dramatically smaller if I bought (used) physical books. Heck, I think kindle books are often more expensive than their physical counterparts, just because there's no inventory to keep about; there's no reason for the publisher to get rid of books that sell slowly.

Right now I'm studying high school/remedial college math, history, literature, and eh, even after I'm done with the books in question, I won't be able to stock a library for my little cousins with my leavings.

The e-book is a nice solution, sure, but it's a nice solution for people with a lot of disposable income. I remember, as a kid, reading my parents libraries, and then going through all the castoffs I could find. In the e-book world? a kid on the budget I had as a kid would be restricted to texts written before 1923, and/or would resort to piracy.

At $30, it's inherently a luxury item.