Good Books Independently Edited

Jim Lichtenberg of Lightspeed, LLC., wrote an entry in ForeWord's (Good Books Independently Published) Publishing Insider blog today called (with unconscious irony) "Where are the Editors?"

The editors work for independent (non-corporate) publishers. I'm not saying that no editors work at the big houses, but rather that many smaller presses, because of specialization and less greed, still focus on books, not product. Besides, for a real comparison to most of what HarperCollins publishes today, we should ask if anyone really ever edited classics such as Sinister Stories, or even Peyton Place? ("We need more emphasis--I know, -m- dashes!")

The basic premise of Lichtenberg's blog is probably true. Eventually well-crafted paper books might become a niche good the way storytelling has. Hmm. A print run of 5000 is considered high where I work, and the audience is frequently defined as the "educated lay-reader." In a country that hovers around (mostly below) a 30% college graduation rate (see here and here) where fewer and fewer people read, maybe we're already in the niche.

"The Sky Will Not Fall"

Library Journal's LJ Academic Newswire today reports on the passing of the NIH mandate bill. Most of the comments are summed up, oddly enough, in the UK blog from the Research Information Network.
I don't think the big STM publisher's predictions of doom and gloom will come to pass. At worst, they will need to adjust their business practices to account for the drop in use of articles after the twelve-month window. As they charge for database search use as well, costs are unlikely to decrease, though small libraries, societies and companies will probably continue to cut access to that 12-month window as they are priced out of the market. However, as this is a continuing trend, it will be difficult to blame it solely on the NIH mandate--though I'm sure corporate shills will try. This new mandate is a needed balance to the ridiculous rate for-profit publishers' journal costs have been increasing over the past twenty years, a move in favor of the public and government greatly needed to counter the tyranny of these corporations. The quote in LJ Academic Newswire from SPARC Executive Director Heather Joseph sums it up best, "The sky will not fall."

Online as Opportunity

MediaPost's Online Publishing Insider today talks about the opportunities available to magazines that offer content online--and not just clickable articles.