Apropos an article that traces the career of Madeline McIntosh, the U.S. CEO of Penguin Random House, her plans for PRH and her views of the #publishing industry. Some points made could easily apply to Indian publishing, with implications for independent bookstores in #India. 1/n

The link is here. You may be asked to register (you can do it via Google or Facebook) to read it:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/19/books/penguin-random-house-madeline-mcintosh.html 2/n

The article talks about "the culmination of decades-long trends that have made the industry more profit focused, consolidated, undifferentiated and averse to risk." Publishers + retailers are increasingly relying on blockbusters, much to the detriment of new/midlist authors. 3/n

Some retail stores, for instance, "buy books that are surefire hits, and often wait for an unproven author to hit the best-seller list before they even order copies." 4/n

The bestseller list is for people who buy books that others have already bought. Amazon's algorithms push books that are already selling well, so more people can see and buy them. These titles in turn, attract more marketing/ sales efforts from publishers, and sell still more.

The author of the article puts it best: "Best sellers sell the best because they are best sellers." 5/n

Further, more publishers want to publish similar books, making publishing houses "undifferentiated, and averse to risk", creating what Dennis Johnson, of Melville House, an independent press, calls "the homogenization of literary culture." 6/n

A keen observer of titles published in India, will tell you that a similar trend is playing out here too. 7/n

For new and midlist authors, this can be a nightmare. If book buying is gradually moving online, and if online purchases are gamed to sell more of the same, what of the author who attempts a different narrative style or ventures into a niche genre? 8/n

What does it mean for a published author to find their book sales stagnating because their book wasn't quite the "bestseller" kind? And what about publishers themselves, those who publish the genres that no one else wants to touch before they become hip? 9/n

If you were looking for another reason to support independent bookstores, it is right here. The people behind the counter in many of these bookstores choose their books, not on the basis of data or algorithms, but by researching on each title, the plot and narrative,+ 10/n

and their suitability for the audience they serve. You are therefore more likely to find a book that you like in a bookstore, than be served one that others like, and be told that others who are reading this book also read that. 11/n

There are many authors too, who prefer to have their books sold only on Amazon and nowhere else. Having your books in bookstores and actively promoting their presence there wouldn't hurt, would it? 12/12