Here’s more from my working paper ”Thinking Thru the Future of Publishing” from 50 years ago. Your may want to substitute “email” or the like for “photocopy.”

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As I wrote at the time:

Good Soviet writers, boxed out of publication at home by the official writers’ union, produce Samizdat or “self-published” editions that are hand-copied or mimeographed and passed under the table, sometimes as novels & volumes of poetry that sell for $50 or so a copy & are surreptitiously sold on street corners, often at personal risk from hand to hand.

Cheap photocopying opens an easier means of doing the same thing.

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A turning point: How do we turn these obstacles to our advantage? How do we plan our strategies around the status quo?

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As hinted earlier, the adventurous writer is often boxed out of circulation, as commercial and even university presses contend there is no money for poetry or fiction when they make no deep effort to nurture what they have. There is also a problem that there are generally few bookstores, & that more than 25 percent of all trade books sold in the nation are sold in the NYC area, where about 5 percent of the national population lives. It should also be noted that throughout much of the rest of the country, the bookstores that do exist are generally of a general sort, with very few stores devoted to special interests. Thus, it should be no surprise that San Francisco should be a major center of poetry, since there are a number of bookstores specializing in poetry there & PUBLISHING THEIR OWN SMALL editions.

In political science we face the same problem: It is very difficult to circulate to potential audiences. The high cost of most publication excludes small-circulation working papers, in most situations, altho Workshop is an exception. (And even here, the case is limited.)

To get into the professional journals requires time (delays of six months to a year being not uncommon), often followed by rejection. In addition, there are often the high costs (again) of typing & mailing, & the common need to revise to fit the particular styles & needs of specific journals.

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Unlike many of the little magazines publishing poetry & fiction, which are often a personal thing carried out by an individual editor at his own expense for several issues, until the venture collapses under continued losses, the social science field appears to be frequently supported by professional associations or the prestige of particular schools. (Altho PG informs me this is not always the case; cf, Policy Studies Journal.)

Given the increasing appearance of photocopy “rip-offs,” will subsidy of artists/researchers become increasingly necessary?

In recent years federal money has helped to underwrite a number of little mags. Given the increasing use of photocopy subsidy of artists become increasingly necessary?

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NN has mentioned that in chemistry, at least, a number of highly specialized journals are now being circulated & stored on microfiche. The approximate cost is 25 cents, altho the user must have access to a $200 reader. However, as NN points out, this should not be a problem for scientists willing to pay $600 for a calculator.

While scientists may possibilities of progress such as this, microfiche does have the disadvantage that it must be read at the reader: one cannot curl up in a cozy chair to read it by the fireside.

Also, because of its small size, the ability to steal such units becomes increasingly easy, unless libraries install elaborate request & check-out procedures for its use. (Use of the Lilly Library, with its padded doors, electronic locks, page users cards left in the stacks wherever books are removed, may be a good indication of the type of system necessary to sharply prevent theft.)

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In poetry at least, for those few interested “in the feel of typescript,” one alternative is to issue single poems in broadside form, on large sheets carefully printed, using fine art paper & limited editions. Such versions, suitable for framing signed by the poet, often cost between one and 10 dollars.

Special editions of books can be arranged the same way, as collect items. be enthusiastic over the systems & group can be arranged the same way, as rich collector’s items.

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On another hand, limited experiments have been performed in which groups of poets or novelists have banded together to get works into print. By forming a cooperative, in which a number of participant/patrons each contributes $200 or so to a common kitty, which is used to ensure the publication costs, the underwrite the costs of production until sales have replenished the kitty. A set of common pool rules is established, in which any one member can recoup his share of the fund at the time he decides to withdraw from the effort. A common committee is established to determine which works should be published.

In one case, a group of fiction writers in NYC have operated this way to produce a series of novels that have been distributed by one of the publishing houses (Dial?). So far, all of their volumes have sold out in the first edition, somewhere in the range of 8,000 to 10,000 copies.

In the other case, a group of poets in Minnesota, headed by Robert Bly, a widely respected & published poet, have banded together to issue a series of low-cost Minnesota-area poets, many of whom generally unknown. Because many of these writers do not yet have enough solid material to fill an entire volume on their own, the volumes have often been split between two or more poets. are young & generally unknown.

The circle has found enough of a market, including cultivation of high school libraries in the state, to make ends meet in their project.

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The potential exists for such a method among the Public Choice circles. I do not know what the legal situation concerning such an arrangement would be, but we can discuss that. I would assume that we would have to set up some sorts of arrangements outside of the university structure if we were to operate in this manner. I don’t know.

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Stay tuned for next week to see where this thinking leads.

You can find my works in the digital platform of your choice at Smashwords, the Apple Store, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Scribd, Sony’s Kobo, and other fine ebook retailers. You can also ask your public library to obtain them.