Bibliodiversity A Manifesto for Independent Publishing

In a globalized world, megacorp publishing is all about numbers, sameness, and following a formula based on the latest megasuccess. Each book is expected to pay for itself and all the externalities of publishing, such as offices and CEO salaries. It means that books that take off slowly but have long lives, the books that change social norms are less likely to be published. Independent publishers are seeking another way—a way of engagement with society and methods that reflect something important about the locale or the niche they inhabit. Independent and small publishers are like rare plants that pop up among the larger growth but add something different; perhaps they feed the soil or bring color or scent into the world. Bibliodiversity is a term invented by Chilean publishers in the 1990s as a way of envisioning a different kind of publishing. In this manifesto, Susan Hawthorne provides a scathing critique of the global publishing industry set against a visionary proposal for organic publishing. She looks at free speech and fair speech, the environmental costs of mainstream publishing, and the promises and challenges of the move to digital.

Susan Hawthorne is a poet, an aerialist, an adjunct professor in the writing program at James Cook University, and the cofounder and publisher of Spinifex Press. She is a member of the Australian Society of Authors, PEN Melbourne, Poetry Australia, Small Publishers Network, and the Independent Publishers Committee of the Australian Publishers Association. She is the author of Bird, The Butterfly Effect, Cow, Earth’s Breath, Limen, Unsettling the Land, and Valence.