Publishers,authors, and technology: A look backward and forward

New technology is not always used to its full potential. Economic and market considerations, issues of quality, and the social and political setting may impose barriersto the exploitation of new inventions. This article describes the impact of the typewriter on the division of labor between author and publisher and analyzes the reasons for the general delay in its adoption. It then reviews obstacles to greater use of the computer and offers some predictions for the near future. Beth Luey, senior lecturer and director of historical editing and publishing at Arizona State University, writes frequently on author/publisher relations. She is the author ofHandbook for Academic Authors (Cambridge, 1987) and editor ofBook Research Quarterly.     

TheParis review at forty

TheParis Review celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 1993 in Paris, Mississippi. A founding editor, the managing editor, and the editor-at-large discuss the manazine's birth and growth, editorial policies, authors, and interview subjects. James Linville is managing editor of theParis Review. His nonfiction and interviews have been published inEsquire and theParis Review and reprinted inHarper's and thePushcart Prize Anthology. Jeanne McCulloch is editor-at-large for theParis Review. She was managing editor from 1984 to 1989. George Plimpton is a founding editor of theParis Review and the author ofPaper Lion, Shadow Box, X-Factor, and other books. He has edited many works, including theNorton, Anthology of Sports Literature, The Writer's Chapbook, and the ninth volume ofWriters at Work.     

Priorities for publishing research: A multidisciplinary agenda

Publishing research, to be effective and useful, requires the participation of scholars and practitioners in many disciplines: literature, history, sociology, psychology, technology, economics, and education. Examples are drawn from trade and scholarly publishing. The results of such research can benefit all segments of the industry. Beth Luey is director, Scholarly Publishing Program at Arizona State University and have been editor of Publishing Research Quarterly since 1988. She is the author of several books, includingHandbook for Academic Authors.     

The Franco-American book trade in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries

The Franco-American book trade played a vital role in the struggle for mutual understanding during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. That trade is exemplified by the work of three colorful individuals: Joseph Nancrede (1761–1841), who left his native France and became a publisher in Boston; John Hurford Stone (1763–1818), English supporter of the French Revolution who set up his English Press in Paris, issuing works of American interest; and Nicholas Gouin Dufief (1776–1834), who fled the French Revolution and set up as bookseller in Philadelphia. Thanks to the efforts of Nancrede and Dufief, the writings of French thinkers were made available to American readers, and thanks to the presswork of John Hurford Stone, the writings of Barlow, Paine, Jefferson and others were circulated in France. As publisher, printer, and bookseller, these three bookpeople reflected the ups and downs of Franco-American relations and became instruments of international understanding. Madeleine B. Stern, partner in the rare book firm of Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern, has written numerous books on publishing and bookselling history, includingImprints on History: Book Publishers and American Frontiers. She is the editor ofPublishers for Mass Entertainment in 19th-Century America and is currently completingStudies in the Franco-American Book Trade in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries     

A report on the keynote address of Jacob L. Chernofsky

Jake Chernofsky is listed in the 1984 Who's Who in America as a “trade magazine editor, publisher,” but he is more than that. He has been editor and publisher of AB Bookman's Weekly since 1975. Before joining the magazine, Jake was a journalist working for weekly and daily newspapers and wire services in various parts of the country. Jake has served on the National Advisory Board of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, as well as having held membership in several bibliographic and printing history organizations. Jake has lectured on various aspects of the antiquarian book trade in the United States, England, and Russia. He has been co-director of the nationally know Out-of-Print & Antiquarian Book Market Seminar held annually at the University of Denver since its inception in 1979. He has also represented AB Bookman's Weekly at national conventions such as last year's Dallas convention and the ACRL convention in Cincinnati.     

U.S. book returns, 1984–1989

Between 1984 and 1989, the U.S. book industry drowned in a recorded $7.88 billion of returns: 23.87 percent of all books published during those years were returned to publishers by wholesalers and booksellers for full credit. This massive return of books undermined the stability of the book industry, causing many publishers to question the efficacy of a system that failed to operate successfully during a period of exceptionally stable business conditions, free from high rates of interest and inflation, recession, or a war. In this study the author addresses the book return phenomenon by: (1) analyzing statistics about the U.S. book industry and its twelve key market segments; (2) evaluating possible causes of the increase in returns; and (3) proposing some suggestions to reduce returns. Albert N. Greco also serves on the board of directors of the Book Industry Study Group, publisher ofBook Industry Trends, 1991.     

“Go,little book ...”: Getting a book to readers

An author, editor, agent, marketing director, and bookseller describe in turn how one book—Facing the Music: Short Stories by Larry Brown—made the journey from a writer's brain to readers' brains. Larry Brown is the author of two novels,Dirty Work andJoe, and two short-story collections,Facing the Music andBig Bad Love. His next book,On Fire, is a nonfiction account of his experiences in the Oxford, Mississippi, Fire Department. Liz Darhansoff is a literary agent with Darhansoff and Verrill Literary Agency, New York. Richard Howorth is an Oxford bookseller who serves on theParis Review's Booksellers' Advisory Board, the Board of Directors of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Board of Directors of the American Booksellers Association. He chairs the ABA's Publisher Relations Committee and in 1986 was awarded the Charles S. Haslam Award for excellence in bookselling. Shannon Ravenel is editorial director of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill and the editor of its annualNew Stories from, the South. From 1977 to 1990 she was series editor forBest American Short Stories, and she editedThe Best American Short Stories of the Eighties. Ina Stern is marketing director of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.     

Now is the time: Book publishing in Russia

A unique combination of circumstances has created opportunities for foreign publishers to invest in Russia. A hunger for books, an unsettled distribution system, availability of publishing personnel, and low costs have created a good environment for entering the marketplace. But it is not a chance for quick profits. Leonard Shatzkin has been involved in the production and manufacture of books since 1945. He is the author ofIn Cold Type: Overcoming the Book Crisis and since 1979 has been a consultant to publishers throughout the world.     

Henry Holt a-spinning in his grave: Literary agenting yesterday and today

The role of the literary agent and the reception granted agents by publishers have changed markedly over the course of the twentieth century. Henry Holt’s views of agents, written in the first decade of the century, help define the status and activities of agents at that time. These are compared with the role of agents today, using archival sources, the book trade literature, and interviews. Thomas L. Bonn, review editor of this journal, is a librarian, Library at State University College at Cortland. He is the author ofUnder Cover: An Illustrated History of American Mass Market Paperbacks andHeavy Traffic and High Culture: The New American Library as Literary Gatekeeper. He is working on a study of American literary agents.     

The librarian's perspectives: What are the issues? a report on the presentation of Corrie V. Marsh

Corrie V. Marsh is presently Head of the Acquisitions Department at the George Washington University Gelman Library. A native of Texas with her undergraduate degree from North Texas State (now the University of North Texas), she received her MLIS from Louisiana State University. Corrie has worked in Collection Development and Acquisitions at LSU, Old Dominion, Georgetown Law Center, and Brown University libraries.Corrie has developed connections with out-of-print and antiquarian booksellers in locating and acquiring special collections, ephemera, and regional resources. She is an active member of the AAP-ALCTS Publisher-Vendor-Library Relations Committee since 1984, and is also on the newly formed ALA-AAP Out-of-Print Task Force. She is a member of the Charleston Conference Advisory Board, an associate editor of Against the Grain, and an editorial board member for Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory. Coorrie has written several articles as a reporter to LAPT, contributed book chapters to the upcoming ALA publication, The Business of Acquisitions, and Haworth Press's The Acquisitions Librarian.In 1988, Corrie was able to enhance her knowledge of the out-of-print book trade through attending the annual Out-of-Print & Antiquarian Book Market Institute in Denver. She has had ongoing discussions with Jake Chernofsky of AB Bookman's Weekly, seeking ways to improve networking among out-of-print dealers and librarians.     

Toward a history of the book in America

The American Antiquarian Society, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, is sponsoring a multivolume collaborative effort, A History of the Book in America, to be published by Cambridge University Press. This article describes the project’s organization, editorial leadership, and procedures. It discusses the historical issues the series will engage and the themes and problems that have emerged. The project hopes to serve a diverse audience, including both scholars and practitioners of publishing. John B. Hench has been on the staff of the American Antiquarian Society since 1973 and presently serves as director of research and publication. He is editor of theProceedings of the American Antiquarian Society and co-editor of several books of essays in the history of the book published by the Society.     

David McDowell: Forgotten man of letters

In the fall of 1957, with the financial backing of his partner Ivan Obolensky, David McDowell released the first book list of McDowell, Obolensky, Inc. It was a small but auspicious debut: two of the six titles released that season garnered extensive critical and commercial success. Andrew Lytle's The Velvet Horn and James Agee's A Death in the Family were both nominated for the National Book Award, and Agee's novel won the Pulitzer Prize; both were bestsellers. Although McDowell would leave the firm in 1960, during the three years of his collaboration with Obolensky, he published several other notable titles to great critical acclaim. Yet, today McDowell is a nearly forgotten figure in American publishing. In spite of the remarkable success of his tenure as editor-in-chief, his contribution to American letters is commemorated only by a short entry on the firm in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, James Laughlin's comments on him in Remembering Williams Carlos Williams, one interview about his connection to Agee, and the scattered obituaries which appeared at his death in 1985. This article attempts to augment the scant record of McDowell's career, beginning with a biographical sketch of McDowell and then moving into an examination of his correspondence with author Andrew Lytle from his papers on deposit at Vanderbilt University. While McDowell appears to have had troubled relationships with other publishers, what emerges from the lengthy McDowell-Lytle correspondence is the portrait of an exemplary relationship between editor and author—and a record of McDowell's commitment to the written word. Matthew Guinn recently completed his Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina. His dissertation, focusing on southern literature, examines the discontinuities between contemporary fiction and the literature of the Southern Renaissance.     

Program Evaluation and Archives: An Essay on a Research Agenda

The author begins with comments on the importance and position of program evaluation (PE), mostly in the context of European archives. These observations, based on personal experience and on a preliminary literature review, show a definitive need for PE, despite its weak position in the managerial activities of archives. Next, the author highlights some special aspects of the evaluation of archival programs. Finally, the author draws conclusions from his general remarks and from his reading of the articles included in this thematic issue ofArchival Science. He outlines some tendencies and shifts in the definition and purposes of evaluation and a short research agenda, containing the most important issues for further development of PE in archives.     

The next ten years in publishing: National,international, and educational perspectives

In describing the Renaissance-style publisher of the 1990s, this article emphasizes the craft and skills needed to maintain quality. Ian Montagnes suggests that these skills must now be taught formally, rather than by apprenticeship. He also describes one such training program that he has conducted for editors in developing countries. Ian Montagnes is assistant director and editor-in-chief of the University of Toronto Press. He has served continuously as either associated editor or editor ofScholarly Publishing: A Journal for Authors and Editors since its inception in 1969. He has also been active in the Canadian and American associations of university presses and the Society for Scholarly Publishing     

The economic context of book publishing

A healthy publishing industry flourishes in a healthy economy. This article (written June 1990) provides a brief forecast for the U.S. economy and overall consumer spending. The authors combine economic and demographic forecasts to predict trends in book sales. Jim Haughey is Vice President, Research and Economics, at Cahners Publishing Company, which publishesPublishers Weekly, Library Journal, and seventy other business and consumer magazines and newspapers. Deborah Selsky is the economist for the printing and publishing group at Cahners Economics. She regularly writes on economics forLibrary Journal and is the editor ofPublishing Markets, a newsletter.     

The Rise of Global Publishing and the Fall of the Dream of the Global Book: The Editing of Peter Carey

The article documents the editorial relationship between Peter Carey and his New York based editor for Knopf, Gary Fisketjon, who worked with Carey on his True History of the Kelly Gang. This account provides the basis for a discussion of how globalised publishing, while promising unity—a single text across all territories—has instead introduced a tension into the previously cohesive triad of author, editor, and the single authorized text. As Fisketjon’s experience lays bare, major contemporary texts that are published in multiple editions in different global centers may well proceed through competing or at least parallel editing processes with different presses, different editors, and in different publishing territories. The authorized single edition, even of major literary texts, has been replaced by competing editions. The single edit and editor have been replaced by competing “servant[s] of the writer” (to use Fisketjon’s phrase). Cohesion, while not quite giving way to disunity, gives way to multiplicity and plurality. The experience of the Kelly Gang book is cast against a longer narrative of Carey’s interactions with editors including the University of Queensland Press (UQP) from the 1970s and Faber from the 1980s.