The Conglomerate Era: Publishing, Authorship, and Literary Form, 1965–2007

Sinykin, Dan

doi:10.3368/cl.58.4.462

Cited by 23 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 15 publications

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“…While conglomeration and platformisation have significantly reshaped the contemporary publishing industry, it is specifically their capitalist function in shaping the economic structures in which books are sold that we are interested in here. Conglomerate capitalism has been a feature of the publishing industry since the consolidation of ownership that picked up pace in the 1960s, when a multiplicity of small publishers were merged into a few large corporations that dominate the field internationally (Sinykin, 2017; Squires, 2013; Steiner, 2018). The last stage of conglomeration in publishing included processes of vertical and horizontal consolidation of publishing houses under transnational media corporations.…”

Section: Publishing Bestsellers and Capitalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutions, platforms and the production of debut success in contemporary book culture

Parnell

Driscoll

2021

Media International Australia

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Bestsellers, defined by the high sales numbers they achieve and the hype they generate, are success stories that periodically galvanise the contemporary book industry. Most publishers actively seek to produce bestsellers, using a range of strategies. Contemporary bestsellers, particularly from peripheral markets and by debut authors, are produced through the strategic joining of two co-existing modes of capitalism: conglomerate capitalism and platform capitalism. This article analyses the publication pathways and reception of two debut bestsellers by Australian authors: Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites and Heather Morris’ The Tattooist of Auschwitz. To analyse these case study titles, we constructed publishing histories, collected five media reviews for each book from reputable publications and literary journals, and scraped the top 100 reviews on Goodreads. These case studies show how the particular textual qualities of each book, highlighted in publishers’ marketing material, shape the media and reader reception of each book, and the mechanisms and strategic alliances with traditional institutional and platform networks at work in producing success in post-digital book culture. Bestsellers show the logics and systems of an industry in flux, and the strategies that can support a debut work to reach a mass audience.

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Section: Publishing Bestsellers and Capitalismmentioning

confidence: 99%