New Welsh Review 94, Winter 2011

Editorial:

'It's Raining Fish, Halleluja!' and Other Magic (Gwen Davies)

In this issue, Rhian Jones compares the music industry's hysterical reaction to downloading and applauds publishers’ ‘shrewdness in [their] appropriation of digital’s potential’ and their ‘uncharacteristic speed’. One of her examples of publishing initiative is the ‘crowd-funded’ or sponsor-based enterprise Unbound, modelled on the trendier industry’s PledgeMusic, which promotes interaction between reader and author as well as a social network-inspired democracy. Unbound simply posts book proposals (hopefully protected from plagiarism), and those whose quota of financial pledges falls short will not get into print. Basically a slick update of the eighteenth-century subscriber-book concept, it is interesting nevertheless. Especially so, considering that journals have begun to move in the opposite direction, using the formats and distribution networks (both physical and online) of the book in order to enhance their primary subscriber-based income.

Rhian continues, ‘As the expectation of profit from music is now firmly weighted towards auxiliary activities like touring, merchandise, or sponsorship deals, so the literary establishment might similarly moderate attitudes to profit and fame from producing books per se.’

This is true of both industries’ mainstream. But the reduced scales and margins here are such that ‘fame’ and even ‘profit’ remain fanciful notions for many Wales-published authors. And yet those who do embrace ‘added-value’ activities, such as touring shops, bookfairs and festivals, are unquestionably more attractive to cash-strapped presses. Need I add that image- and career-enhancing opportunities are also offered by literary magazines? read more...

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