The word from FUZE

FUZE PublishingMolly Tinsley’s visit this week sparked discussion about the relationship between the literary and the business sides of publishing. Her career as a writer spans genres—she’s written a novel, short stories, a creative writing textbook and award winning plays. In 2009, she and Karetta Hubbard founded FUZE Publishing, which published Satan’s Chamber and The Gift of El Tio.

Molly TinsleyTinsley explained the consolidation of the publishing industry in the 1980s and she described how the resulting moves to increase profit margins blurred the separation between art and commerce . As a result, large publishers gave increased priority to profitable instant books (including the celebrity bio genre), they took fewer risks (resulting in less diversity in what got published, fewer “quiet books,” and fewer chances–or second chances–for authors). As Ryland Taylor phrased it, censorship by business model was a result.

Tinsley also suggested that ebooks have the potential to restore the balance between commerce and art. Ebook publishing gives authors and independent publishers more direct access to readers and to the fruits of their work. As readers embrace ebooks, more will be published and the roles of author and publisher will blur.

As big publishers lose their gatekeeper role to small publishers and self-publishing authors, who will assume that role? The turn to ebooks will also change the work of editors, copy edits, designers and publicists, all of which will become more technology-oriented. (We’ll learn more about the impact of ebooks on libraries in Courtney Remington’s forthcoming paper.) The new model will require authors to become more entrepreneurial—more like musicians, to use Steve Scholl’s analogy. And I wonder especially about the roles of book reviewers and readers. Is serious book reviewing moribund. Can reviewing still be a force in guiding readers to books?

About Ed Battistella

Edwin Battistella’s latest book Dangerous Crooked Scoundrels was released by Oxford University Press in March of 2020.
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