The Sixteenth International Conference on Books, Publishing & Libraries

Abstract

Self-publishing has a negative connotation, commonly dismissed as the domain of bad writing and irrelevant authors. Yet it has been the means of introducing some of our most interesting, important, controversial, and beloved works. American literature is rich with stories of writers who published their own work, including Walt Whitman, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Amiri Baraka. While scholars have studied this topic in relation to specific authors and publications, there has been relatively little focus on the history of self-publishing. Why has this history not been told? What are the benefits and challenges in trying to tell this story? Drawing from an Ohio State University Library exhibition exploring American literature through the lens of self-publishing, this paper reflects on and uses the process of exhibit curation as a starting point for considering these questions, what work has been done on this subject, and what gaps still exist.