'Indie Lit Revealed' at New York's Public Library

Today’s literary publishers are keepers of the written word, Dan Simon, publisher of Seven Stories Press (Noam Chomsky’s 9-11), told a crowd of more than 45 potential and present-day literary publishers and writers at the New York Public Library’s Berger Forum on Wednesday, March 20. And, he added, it’s unfortunate that today’s publishing environment dictates that something so normal as publishing quality books and stories is considered "radical."

Simon’s introductory remarks set the tone for the intellectually charged, and intense panel discussion presented by the Council of Literary Presses and Magazines (CLMP). Entitled "Invisible Ink: The Secret World of Indie Lit Revealed," the event was the first in CLMP’s new series "Contents Under Pressure: Debates and Trends in Independent Literary Publishing."

The key topic for last Wednesday’s panel was to define what makes a literary publisher. In addition to Simon, other panelists were: Jean Casella, publisher, The Feminist Press (publisher of Ruth Kluger’s memoir Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered); Julie Koo, editor of Kaya Press (publisher of Asian and Asian diasporic literature); and Max Rodriquez, founder and publisher of QBR: The Black Book Review (a national independent review periodical whose focus is writers of the African Diaspora). CLMP’s new executive director, Jeffery Lependorf, hosted the evening.

Contrasting Simon’s eloquent definition of literary publishing was Casella’s satirical, but poignant answer to the question "What defines literary publishing?"

"My salary," she quipped, prompting laughter from the panelists and audience. Still, in all humor lies at least some truth, and the panelists agreed that, while the big publishers define success by profits, the literary publisher defines success by the quality of the work -- and unfortunately, that doesn’t always mean big sales.

Fortunately for Simon, his publishing company Seven Stories has one current bestseller that combines both the quality expected of the literary press and the corporate definition of success: Noam Chomsky’s 9-11, a bestseller on almost every major list, except the New York Times’s.

The fact that the book even exists is a testimony to Simon’s belief in the material. Though Simon sold 9-11 to about 20 publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair, he was told by a number of experts that the book would never sell in the U.S., because of the feelings of nationalism running rampant through America after the terrorist strike. Simon didn’t disagree, but he felt that the book provided an outlet for people who were tired of corporate CNN-speak. "Sales are great, but that happened somewhere along the way," he said. "We weren’t deterred by marketing considerations."

The other panelists concurred with Simon -- the writing is what motivates the literary publisher, not the sales. Said Kaya Press’s Koo: "We are a niche for writers whose work is too strange, or not commercial enough [for big publishers]."

"Commercial publishing is very conservative -- I don’t mean politically," Casella said. "But they’re looking for the types of books that sold well a couple of months ago. We fill in the gaps, and take chances that the commercial publisher won’t."

Still, no matter how noble the cause of the literary publisher, the reality is that the small publisher is a tiny fish swimming in a lake populated by a lot of big, hungry predators (many of whom will steal away a literary author at the first sign of success). "How does the small house fit into this ecosystem?" asked CLMP’s Lependorf.

For QBR’s Rodriquez, the object is to ensure that his magazine "steps out of that ecosystem." He defines literary publishing as servicing the reader. Currently, he said, his main mission is to make his magazine completely subscriber based, so he doesn’t have to worry about pleasing advertisers.

As for general survival techniques in the publishing world, the panelists noted that a number of small houses deal in reprints. Often, large publishers stop printing a book if sales drop below 1,000. Considering that a lot of literary publishers consider a sale of 1,000 to be a bestseller, handling these types of books can be relatively lucrative. More importantly, said Casella, it ensures that important work does not go out of print.

Also, literary publishers use national distributors, and this gives their titles a greater reach. "We have a national sales force through our distributor," Casella said. "And we also use direct marketing as a way [to reach a new audience]." Furthermore, with the advent of the Internet, the small house now has a global distribution channel that didn’t even exist only 10 years ago.

Other topics of the evening included the return policy in the bookselling industry ("the most liberal of any business I know," Casella said), and the place of large bookstore chains versus independent bookstores in the world of literary publishing.

Casella bemoaned the fact that large chains don’t display books because an employee thinks they’re good. Books receive in-store promotion because publishers pay for window and table displays -- sometimes upwards of $6,000. "In an independent bookstore, a book is face out on the shelf, or displayed because someone [working in the store] thinks it’s good," she said.

Simon predicted that, despite some prominent store closings, the future for independent bookselling is bright. "Independent bookstores are coming back," he said. "We’ll start to see more." --David Grogan