December 20, 2006
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‘Common Sense’ Was, I Believe, Kind of a Big Deal
Adam Bellow wants to bring back the pamphlet! Think: 4-by-6, $4. Here’s the pitch:
The pamphlet culture that is trying to emerge, which has been called into being by the ideological struggle of our time, is being hampered by the old paradigm, by the market constraints on publishers who cannot sell a small book unless they put it in hardcover and give it a price that makes it worth the cost of distribution. That’s the publisher’s dilemma. The blogger’s dilemma is how do I get my voice heard. Not just in the blogosphere but outside it.
In particular I love the idea that pamphlets could lead you back to blogs, so the argument isn’t static but rather dynamic, evolving, and two-way.
To make a dent, though, I think Bellow’s got to take a broader view. The pamphlets can’t all be about Lebanon… there are a lot of other important things to talk about in the first decade of the 21st century.
And, of course, the pamphlets have to be available in bookstores — in little stacks next to the cash registers — not just online.
Finally, Bellow could take some design advice from these guys.
P.S. Check it out if only to find this line: “He was very close with the leading polemicists of the day…”
Posted December 20, 2006 at 10:49 | Comments (3) | Permasnark
File under: Books, Writing & Such, Briefly Noted
File under: Books, Writing & Such, Briefly Noted
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While I think that Bellow is right that the publishing world needs to respond to the immediacy and access offered by the internet, it seems almost patriarchal that his solution is “let me print a copy for you.” It’s certainly nice that he offers me a PDF for easy printing, but then why do I need him to mail me a copy?
Not to plug myself, but I think that your link to Revelator offers an interesting contrast. We’re doing something similar—trying to offer work that isn’t finding a publisher to a broader outlet—but we’re bypassing the whole money part. Immediacy and information are great, indeed, essential, but the question is increasingly going to be “why should I pay $4 for it?” (Especially if the whole point of a pamphlet is supposed to be that it’s disposable.)
While Bellow seems to have a good thought, there’s something backward about his method. It’s is kind of like saying, "you know, we don't do much exploring anymore. You know what we should do? Bring back the astrolabe!"
I agree on all counts. The more I think about this, the less cool & interesting it seems. The problem here is not format or even really distribution but attention -- a problem Bellow has no solution for.
Aw, shucks. I kinda like the idea of the pamphlet-book. How many internet or magazine articles circulate among the blogging circles/intelligentsia for a year or more before they get turned into a book -- usually an overly stuffed, sometimes watered-down, no longer nearly so hot to the minute tome? (I'm looking at you, The Long Tail.)
Ideas from the web and other media are already crossing over into books, and getting a new kind of attention, both from the media and a different kind of less-web-connected audience. It's also a renewed attention from the same audience as before. The problem to me (and funnily enough, for book publishers and booksellers) is how to make that connection work better, not wonder why you're making it at all -- and this seems to be a start.
Oh, you know who else would really benefit from a publishing shift to the pamphlet? Academia. If your average web/magazine article is too thin to stretch over an entire book, this is all the more true for many, many academic publications. Harry Frankfurt's "On Bullshit" lingered for twenty years in a collection of his other philosophical writings. When they pulled it out, stuck it in a pocket-sized book, and prominently displayed it on bookstore tables before the holidays, it sold like hotcakes. And this is analytic philosophy.
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