I'm kind of puzzled by this thread. Chris didn't say that avant garde
poetry was worthless; he said that in the current market sales had
dropped by 3/4, making it almost impossible to publish it in a
commercial sense. Surely small press poetry has always valued its
cultural presence by other markers than the commercial publishing
market? Why the outrage at a simple statement of fact? The fact is
that the pressure exerted by supermarkets like Tesco, which distort
the market by demanding books from publishers at less than cost price
to generate sales volume, plus the competition of online sellers, plus
the GFC, has all but destroyed independent bookshops, which simply
don't have that kind of market clout. Much bigger publishers than Salt
are running scared at the moment, and small and independent publishers
can't now expect that new releases will even make it into bookshops,
as once they would have. As Tony said, the bigger poetry publishers
couldn't manage without subsidies. If you're looking for something to
blame, blame corporate monopolies and unfettered capitalism, which are
destroying ecologies wherever you look.
xA
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
|