The residual concepts of production vs. the emergent cultures of distribution in publishing

Abstract

Who wins? The base or the superstructure? I’m not a Marxist per se, but I’ve lived this struggle for some time as a writer and publisher. In this essay, adapted from my TUG ’22 keynote presentation, I describe my efforts to change or adapt the democratized tools of production to produce new forms of writing, which ultimately led to an ongoing battle with the dominant cultures of production in the world of publishing. I’ll narrate two case studies. One focuses on the writing and production of an innovative, if not disruptive, textbook in the ultra-conservative textbook industry. The second tells the ongoing story of an interloping publishing company (Parlor Press) that reveals the central challenge of distribution for both writers and publishers, from typesetting (print) to transformation (digital).