Publishing? Your guess is as good as mine. The basic idea is the same as it ever was: get words and pictures—which is to say ideas, art, entertainment, information, instruction, enlightenment, beauty, smut—to the masses. It’s how to do it that’s gotten crazy. What does it mean to put out a book when the very concept of a page is in play? Where’s the silver lining on the Intercloud?
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We asked five local players to tell us just what it is they think they’re trying to do. Agate’s Doug Seibold, Curbside Splendor’s Victor David Giron, and Drag City’s Rian Murphy all come at the problem from the independent end; as acquisitions editor for Northwestern University Press, Mike Levine sees the challenge from the academic angle; and James O’Neill presents the point of view of educational publishing behemoth Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. We’ve also sought out work by authors who’ve taken matters into their own hands and self-published.
“The status quo is good for the big guys, but when it starts to break down, opportunity is created for small companies like mine.”—Doug Seibold, founder, Agate Publishing
Tuesday: “The Prospect of My Arrival: oh, the techno-humanity!” Dwight Okita’s novel reviewed by Tony Adler
