[HN Gopher] The Collapse of Small Press Distribution
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The Collapse of Small Press Distribution
Author : Paul-Craft
Score : 59 points
Date : 2024-04-09 18:09 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (lithub.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (lithub.com)
| ilamont wrote:
| Distribution and wholesaling in this industry is a mess. A lot of
| these firms - SPD included - were living in the 20th century when
| it came to all areas of operations. I'm not surprised to hear the
| news that they are consolidating further.
|
| Even before SPD went out of business, it was very difficult to
| get "traditional distribution" that enables sales in bookstores.
| Indie publishers often forego distribution (and by extension,
| bookstore sales) and go it alone with their own websites, direct
| sales to individual retailers, and print on demand through Ingram
| and Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
|
| I recommend the following article for insights into challenges
| faced by SPD:
|
| _The Berkeley publishing mindset of the 1970s was singular and
| beautiful in many ways. These people did not set out to be
| celebrities or to make names for themselves per se, or even to
| strike it rich. The orientation to publishing was around books
| for their cultural merit and value, and if they reached more
| readers than expected, wonderful. The ecosystem supported itself
| because everyone supported each other. If there were halcyon days
| in book publishing, this was it (not accounting for the truly
| problematic and systemic -isms that have since become so widely
| unveiled and understood). The afterglow lasted a good many years
| because I caught its tail end in the early 2000s when I started
| at North Atlantic Books. By then, these guys were in their 60s,
| starting to wind down, and many of them wouldn't be around to
| tackle the tsunami of change that was on the horizon._
|
| https://brookewarner.substack.com/p/distribution-the-most-mi...
| mistrial9 wrote:
| this is true, and it goes back further.. to small press
| freedoms in North America and in Europe ..
| barfbagginus wrote:
| Does this threaten the continued operation of the Library
| Genesis?
|
| If not, then I don't feel threatened or scared by the closure of
| what seems to have been a backwards, discriminatory and
| exploitive org.
|
| Long live the Great Library in the Sky. All books and knowledge
| must be distributed for free, until we achieve the revolution
| that Aaron Swartz fought for.
|
| If you're concerned about this disappearance, increase your usage
| and contribution towards the Library Genesis!
| vundercind wrote:
| As someone who considers Libgen about twice as valuable as the
| entire rest of the Internet _combined_ : I don't think this is
| relevant. I'd expect this leads to fewer published books
| overall, and worse promotion of another set of books that do
| still at least get published in some form, so, fewer on Libgen,
| either because the books never exist or because they don't get
| noticed.
| greenie_beans wrote:
| i agree, idealistically, but libgen has nothing to do with
| this. these indie presses have launched the careers of so many
| great writers, how will libgen do that?
| gaucheries wrote:
| While I was in undergrad, I volunteered at SPD's warehouse in
| Berkeley for a summer. Although I enjoyed my time there, and I
| learned a lot about non-profits, publishing and more, I found it
| be a very strange, tense, and awkward place to work. And cliquey.
| I did not feel welcome, seen or accepted. Kind of like the Bay
| Area at large over the past decade or more (and I speak as a
| regional native).
|
| An anonymous former employee supports the claim that SPD was a
| poor place to work, run by toxic people:
| https://damagedbookworker.medium.com/terrorized-by-spd-61201...
| gedy wrote:
| While I feel for this person, this gets very messy when people
| passionate about the industry agree to "unpaid internships".
| Yes it's not right and they should stop, but it's literally a
| little like letting someone screw you with no commitment, then
| you being upset they don't feel the same way as you do.
|
| I know the arts are rife with this stuff, but stay away from
| it.
| neilv wrote:
| > _an alarming email on her phone. After 55 years, Small Press
| Distribution (SPD)--one of the last remaining independent book
| distributors in the US--was shutting down immediately, with no
| advance notice or transitional support. Its website went dark,
| its Twitter account was deleted, and no one was answering calls._
|
| Why not give warning of imminent shutdown?
|
| > _To make matters worse, many small presses say SPD owes them
| money. "We're owed upwards of $8,000," says Gzemski. "We just
| released three books [at Noemi], and all of the preorder and
| event order revenue from those books has disappeared._ [...]
| Goettel says SPD owes Black Lawrence Press more than $17,000--an
| enormous sum for a small press.*
|
| Was the reason for no warning that they needed or wanted the
| incoming revenue, which they might not have gotten if they'd
| given a warning?
| greenie_beans wrote:
| i've been trying to get this on the front page, glad somebody
| did!
|
| book industry distribution is a wreck. this is so bad for
| independent literature, and the literary ecosystem as a whole.
|
| fuck ingram. my dream is to compete with ingram if i'm successful
| with this: https://www.bookhead.net/marketing/
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(page generated 2024-04-09 23:00 UTC)