Small presses and their reader communities
- Submitting institution
-
University of Greenwich
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 28054
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
-
-
- Book title
- The Contemporary Small Press: Making Publishing Visible. New Directions in Book History
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- ISBN
- 978-3030487836
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2020
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- Yes
- Additional information
- This chapter uses narrative research as a method to investigate how three small presses establish and develop a relationship with their readers; what they understand the nature of that relationship to be, and what meaning and significance it has for them and the creative, cultural and commercial objectives of their publishing enterprise. The narratives described and interpreted within the chapter include interviews with three owner-managers of small presses; website copy, social media posts and email newsletters produced by the small presses, and fiction that they have published. Presenting in depth analysis and interpretation of these narratives, the chapter argues that, through these different texts, small presses engage in the construction of an overall narrative about themselves, their books and the wider world, in which readers can take part. This approach is quite different to the way that large trade publishers market and sell their books. These small presses encourage their readers not only to buy books, but to become co-creators of a narrative, to shape it and to make sure that it can be realized. Importantly, this includes the possibility of providing material support to the press by becoming subscribers (i.e paying an annual fee to receive a certain number of books a year), and subscription has become central to the financial sustainability of these presses. The chapter finds that the continued success of small presses depends not only on their publishing individual books that readers want to buy, but on inspiring and nurturing an active and engaged community around a particular narrative that resonates with wider cultural values.
This research is part of a wider initiative to explore new directions within the field of book history.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
