Published In

Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2019

Subjects

Publishers and publishing -- Social aspects, Small presses, Publishers and publishing -- English-speaking countries, Self-publishing

Abstract

Publishing did not have independents enter self-discourse until the 1960s when media conglomeration created a need to distinguish other publishers from this network of corporate giants. But rather than decimating the independent publishing landscape, the corporate conglomeration of book publishing has opened a space for independent publishers to thrive (Simon and McCarthy, 2009; Schiffrin, 2001; Hawthorne, 2014, 2016; Kogan 2007, 2010), in part because of the social currency that positioning themselves as independent in discourse affords. In order to analyze the use, purpose, and meaning of independent in publisher discourse, this article conducts a content analysis on mission statements of 39 US-based independent publishers. Through content analysis of mission statements, this article illuminates the way that certain publishers construct a particular social function and marketing appeal by the use of independent in twenty-first century book publishing discourse in the US.

Rights

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Tous droits réservés © Groupe de recherches et d’études sur le livre au Québec, 2019 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/34581

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