Smaller Scopes
Towards a Sociology of a Singular Book Publisher: Vitor Silva Tavares’ &etc
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Emanuel Cameira
In this study attention is paid to &etc, a small independent literary publishing house based in Lisbon, that began publishing books on the eve of the Carnation Revolution, and which was not “just another case” in the Portuguese literary publishing scene of the last four decades. Having ceased its activity in 2015 (following the death of Vitor Silva Tavares, the publisher and alma mater of &etc), it showed a set of traits - return to certain forms of craftsmanship and knowledge; refusal of a purely mercantile relationship with books; promotion of marginal literary discourses and association with specific aesthetic groups; but also the inspiring character it has had for other small/non-mainstream publishers - which compel sociology to consider it. Broadly speaking, the purpose, here, is to underline some analytical concerns and concepts (singularity, biography) mobilized to understand, both historically and sociologically, the practice of &etc, thus contributing to a better knowledge of the literary publishing field in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in Portugal.
Stop Press!: Redefining Letterpress Through Artists’ Books with Examples from The Ministry of Books Collection
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ros Simms
This paper examines the role of letterpress as a medium to produce limited edition artists’ books drawing on key examples from The Ministry of Books Special Collection (University of Portsmouth, UK). The author discusses the term ‘traditional technologies’ as opposed to ‘emerging technologies’ within this genre and reflects upon what we mean by those terms. There is consideration of the aura of the original and how our understanding of this, in relation to letterpress, is still evolving. The established tradition of artists’ books using letterpress relies on a wealth of skills and expertise - this once popular technique has, with the advancement of newer technologies such as digital, often been abandoned by many educational institutions as being outmoded and labour-intensive. This paper seeks to show how this process influences the visual output to a positive effect. The creative practitioner may not wish to become an expert in this field, but does letterpress’s perceived ‘slowness’ impede the creative flow, or enhance the speculative nature of it? These selected examples from The Ministry of Books collection highlight the beauty and tactility of this medium and consider how the viewer’s experience can be enhanced through multi-sensory artists’ books.
The Self-Publishing Revolution
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jeffrey R. Di Leo
Self-publishing has always been the underworld of book culture: a haven for esoterica, wild ideas, and half-baked prose. It exists just below the imaginary border between books whose publication is paid by others—and those whose publication is paid by the author. For many, this border delimits the break between legitimate publishing and its opposite. Nevertheless, self-publishing is now the fasting-growing dimension of the publishing world. Moreover, the number of self-published books now dwarf the number of traditionally-published books. But does this rapid rise of self-publishing reflect a change in view regarding it? Perceptions about self-publishing have long moved in the opposite direction of those associated with mainstream publishing. If the latter are generally associated with publishing success, then the former are associated with failure. But now that the technology for self-publication has greatly improved and the cost is enticingly low, are perceptions about it changing? Does the fact that some authors now opt to self-publish given the choice between working with an established publishing house or doing it themselves mean that self-publishing is no longer tantamount to publishing failure? While self-publishing still evokes more fear among authors than mainstream publishing, particularly those who publish in order to advance their reputation and maximize their profit, perceptions about it are changing. Book culture has been fundamentally changed by the self-publishing revolution—and there is no going back to past perceptions about self-publishing.
Making an Impression: Sociotechnical Vectors in the Extended Space of Independent Publishing
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session José De Souza Muniz Jr.
This paper is based on the analysis of the practices and representations of publishers who attend the fairs of printed art held in the city of São Paulo in recent years. Our goal is to understanding the sociotechnical vectors that organize these practices and the materialities of the editorial objects published and marketed there. At the heart of the analysis is the relationship between the technicities (codex, paper, and print) mobilized by these publishers and certain conceptions of the past, present, and future that are inscribed in their individual and collective investments, between the "return to the artisanal" and the pretension to build a viable future for the publishing of books and other printed objects. It is concluded that the new forms of fetishization of the printed book are conditioned by both the technical evolutions provided by digital technologies and by the programmatic denial of the conventional book identified with the mainstream publishing market.
