John Martin Pulled the Plug on Black

¶ … John Martin pulled the plug on Black Sparrow Press. The fact that one more small press bit the dust wouldn't be big news, but for those who believe in the power of symbols and metaphors, Black Sparrow Press going flat-line means the end of an era in the world of publishing. Another literary device that one can attach to its passing is irony, for Black Sparrow, considered one of the leading purveyors of fine writing is now in the hands of Random House which itself long past the days when Bennett Cerf made that Random House synonymous with great literature, is now owned by the kingpin of the sensationalistic media, Rupert Murdoch. For most small presses to be bought out by a big fish like Random House would be a dream come true, but for those who know American literature, the acquisition was nothing short of sacrilege, akin to say McDonalds presenting meals by Wolfgang Puck or Disney Inc. adding the Guggenheim to its theme park empire..

However, the truth of the matter is that Black Sparrow is in better hands than if it were to be turned over to 99.9% of small presses in operation, the vast majority of whom probably never even heard of Black Sparrow. Black Sparrow from its humble start of publishing poet Charles Bukowski on mimeographed sheets, prided itself on finding, supporting and developing literary talent, a mission that is far removed from the mission statements of just about every publishing house in today's profit-centered information age. When Martin was asked during a National Public Radio interview about the sale of Black Sparrow to Murdoch's News Corporation Ltd., one of six media groups that own publishing houses worldwide, he told one reporter, "That's just business." (Hansen & Ydstie NPR)

State of the Market

The birth of the PC and the globalization of the Internet has permanently altered the publishing industry in no less dramatic a fashion than Gothenburg's development of the first printing press half a millennium ago. It would be virtually impossible to know exactly how many publishers exist today in the world. The 135,000 books published this past year (and that only includes those registered with Browker, keeper of the world's ISBN system) (Italie, AP online) indicates that America still loves to read, that our fascination with the printed word has not succumbed to the age of visual entertainment, but it also tells of a saturated market where anybody with a PC and $89 worth of software can become a published author. Consider that 2.39 billion books -- including new and old releases -- were sold in 2002,down from 2.41 in 2000, (Italie) and one realizes just how small a piece of the pie each press is served.

Booksellers

The independent bookstores (known in the industry as "indies') are in trouble, if not on the edge of extinction, being replaced in part by larger chain stores such as Barnes and Noble, and Borders who pull in customers with coffee shop atmospheres and non-book products. The chains can negotiate volume deals with publishers, while also offering customers discount on propriety books -- titles that are published under their own labels. Internet booksellers, most notably the avaricious Amazon.com have made it so that book customers can find just about any title at below suggested retail.

The challenges to the economy over the last two years have greatly impacted the indies.. This September was the "eighth month in a row in which bookstore sales failed to keep up with overall retail (although) sales were 3.2% better than September of 2001." (ABA 2002)

California independent bookstore owner, Nicky Salan says, "Most of America's books, up until about 12 or 15 years ago, were sold in independent bookstores, We used to have a little better than 50% of the market. Now we have 17%. Over 2,000 bookstores have gone out of business in the last 10 years." (Farrington, online at NOE). The article from which that quote was taken also made mention of the fact that the public's appetite for used books will keep the independents alive. Written in 1999, the article did not foresee one of Amazon's latest marketing pitches. Tracking customers book purchases, they inform them of the demand for their purchased books and now offer the opportunity to resell them through the Amazon site.

This practice is another way Amazon is using the book industry as a loss leader," said Alex Levin, former head of now defunct small press Hedgehoghill, said in an interview with this writer. "Their discounting practices make it difficult to compete, even when the publishers offers their own discounts. Our best selling title is now being sold by Amazon below our cost to them, virtually killing our web business, just so they can sell more electronics and higher end items." (Levin 2002)

Levin noted that a certain amount of subtle collusion goes on, as Amazon listed the book without input, grabbing the title from the lists of either Browker or distributor Baker and Taylor. With such a volume of small presses, most stores will shy away from dealing with presses and will often times only deal with one or two small distributors, most commonly industry leaders Ingram and Baker and Taylor. Even those distributors who are independent or regional-based will often times contract with those two so as to get exposure for their titles. (Levin)

Due to accusations of unfair practices from publishers and small bookstores alike, the chains are for the most part unwilling to talk about propriety sales.

A making the total size of this market difficult to estimate. Barnes and Noble "is now publishing 3,000 titles, spanning an array of proprietary strategies: licensing titles directly from domestic and international publishers as well as from literary agents; commissioning books directly from authors; reprinting classic titles in the public domain; and creating compilations using in-house editors." (Publishing Trends March 2002)

Online libraries are also cutting into the market. Such sites as elibrary and questia make it advantageous to download rather than purchase books..

Small Presses

Small presses dot the landscape, but very few ever become viable. The average small press has a very short life expectancy-- about four years for the minority who actually see a book to print and much shorter for the majority of fledgling author/publishers who more than likely never overcome all the hurdles to get their manuscripts from good idea to actual hard copy.

With more books now being published than ever, it's the marketing not the quality that determines whether a book will make it or not. Most previously, unpublished writers are discovering that they are better off publishing their own first book rather than face the difficulties with getting the backing of a publishing company and then doing the promotion. As a rule, large publishers will seldom spend money on first time authors. According to Levin, many authors are saying, "If I have to do all the legwork, then I might as well self-publish and receive all the profits."

For every King and Rowling, there are thousands of authors with garages full of books that they cannot market. With the Big Six (see below) tying up the entire media industry, getting the word out requires an incredible amount of perseverance.

Seldom does a small press turn a profit, and more than likely the most profitable segment in the world of the small press is a secondary industry that in support of small presses serves up consultation, editing, design assistance, and marketing strategies to those who think that with a little bit of luck they will end up richer than Gail Rowling. One can find literally thousands of web sites offering such services

With paper and ink prices on the rise many small presses are resulting to overseas printers, most often in Asia. Specialty markets seem to be the key to a small press' ability to survive. Finding a niche and getting to that audience are keys to success.

New Technology

Just a few years ago it seemed quite obvious to just about every forecaster that the future of publishing would be in ebooks, but it just isn't happening.

By 2001, of course, expectations had been brutally downsized, and last week might have seemed like the nail in the coffin, as Reuters announced that Gemstar would try to dump its ebook business, including RocketeBook and Softbook, under the feeble proviso that a sale would occur "if a buyer emerged." (Publishing Trends 2002)

It is unlikely that ebooks will fully replace printed books anytime soon as traditional readers still prefer something they can hold in their hands. Efforts two years ago by Stephen King to publish a book strictly online proved to be a failure, as although generating numbers that would be the envy of any small press, they were miniscule compared to his traditional sales. The future might see an upswing in ebooks, as Microsoft and others have recently launched new products that make the use of downloadable books easier.

On demand printing (ODP), the newest printing technique, which is essentially anywhere from a fair to a very high quality photocopying process has created the ability to do short runs without set up costs, and while ODP costs more per book than traditional printing methods, instead of what was the standard two-month turnaround time, printers can turn out copies oftentimes the same day, meaning less cash tied up in inventory.

The advent of DVD may well lead to another sort of media revolution where the book is replaced by a reader of an interactive nature. We will probably in the next decade begin to see a proliferation of these products DVD books which will be especially useful for instructional material.

The Big Six

It's not just small presses that are living on the edge, as the downturn in the economy over the last couple of years has shown just how marginal profits in the publishing world are. The downturn has created cash flow problems for many of the largest companies and these past few years have seen a frenzy of acquisitions and mergers in the media world.

Up until the 1960s the publishing industry had largely been family-owned concerns, which favored each particular families interests, but by and large being more broad-based than today where most successful small presses have carved out a niche for themselves. However starting in the 70s, a trend started where, publishing houses were regularly purchased by and consolidated with other companies... For example, Rinehart & Company and the John C. Winston Company were purchased by Henry Holt & Company to form Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, Inc.... (which was then) purchased by the Columbia Broadcasting System. (Then in 1986), Harcourt, Inc. bought the educational and publishing division of CBS Inc., which included Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Henry Holt & Company was then sold to the Holtzbrinck group of Germany (Holtzbrinck now also owns St. Martin's). Time Warner, the world's largest entertainment and media company, owns Little, Brown & Co., Warner Books, Time Life Books, Book of the Month Club, and many popular magazines." (Columbia University Press, 2000).

Depending upon how one looks at the numbers, some twenty years ago, there were fifty large international media corporations in the world. Today there seems to be a consensus that six exist: The Big Six are AOL-Time Warner, News Corporation, Vivendi Universal, Viacom, Sony, Disney, and Bertelsmann.

Some American houses -- usually keeping their own imprints -- became subsidiaries of larger foreign and multinational corporations. Murdoch's Australia-based News Corporation in addition to HarperCollins, purchased William Morrow, and Avon, several American, Australian, and British magazines, as well as television and radio stations. The German-based firm Bertelsmann acquired Doubleday, which includes Delacorte and Dell, and merged it with Bantam. Bertelsmann by acquiring Random House in '98 became the largest U.S. trade publisher. Robert Maxwell of England bought Macmillan, the New York Daily News, and numerous other publishing enterprises. However, Maxwell's empire crumbled in the 1990s, and Macmillan was sold off to Viacom, which had already purchased Simon & Schuster. Prentice Hall, Scribner, among others. Viacom turned around in 1998 sold much of its publishing operation to the Pearson Group of England who, taking advantage of Maxwell's and other companies' cash problems had already acquired Allyn & Bacon, Appleton & Lange, Macmillan, Penguin Putnam, Prentice Hall, Silver Burdett Ginn, and Simon & Schuster.