New Technology and the Changing System of Author-Publisher Relations

Abstract

they are intriguing. My own work has addressed questions being asked by the professions and publishing community alike. But rather than focus on the subject in the most general sense, I prefer to consider one small piece of the big picture in order to better illumine the whole, if indeed one can speak of publishing in holistic terms. The specific question I should like to raise is whether it is any longer feasible to speak of the viewpoint of editors, publishers, and scholars as if they are each distinct windowless monads. Clearly, my very formulation of the problem suggests my sentiments in the matter. In some sense, the new technological environment will be defined as much by a new set of relationships between key players in the universe of publishing as by technological considerations alone. Certainly in the editorial process, the viewpoints of all other actors in the new publishing environment are central, if not shared in common. First let me note several contrasting, even opposing trends that affect the editorial process. At one end there is the tendency-which has been discussed for some time-toward monopolization in the publishing environment. It is no longer a secret, if it ever was, that a few giant publishers generate a greater portion of the business of publishing, in strictly fiscal terms at least, than at any time in the past. Indeed, the age of small old line houses which are individually owned or family managed is almost over. In such a publishing environment, the divisions of labor in the editorial process have become even more pronounced than at any time in the recent past. Publishers scarcely read what they publish, much less edit it. They either hire in-house acquisition editors (who in turn may scarcely read