Aloha,
[In the way of announcements, this one is about potentially diminished
access to small press publishers and widespread distribution of small
press books to the consolidated outlets now dominating the US book
market.]
Folks outside the SF Bay Area may, like me, have missed this story
about the bankruptcy of Publishers Group West and its impact on
a lot of small presses. This bankruptcy threatens the existence of a
lot of small publishers, because PGW was a major distribution operation
and because PGW was holding Xmas season receipts and had not passed
them on to their small press publisher clients.
Much as I don't like it, it's clear that consolidation is the way of the
book
world these days. But consolidation often constrains the diversity of
interests and voices. Without PGW (or the adoption of the follow-on buy
out proposal) I think that, for a time, at least, diversity will diminish
in the book world.
And most Neo-Pagan books come from small presses...
>From SF Gate. See also Progressive Review Undernews.
<<More than 130 independent publishers across the country were hurled into
financial crisis on Dec. 29 with the bankruptcy of the parent company of
Publishers Group West, the Berkeley firm that distributes books from much
of the small press world.>>
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/27/MNG9DNQ8TM1.D
TL
[URL all on one line, as always]
Musing One Book For All The People! Rose,
Pitch
who still has a copy of the little red book
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