Will Cyber-Publishing Conglomerates Drain America's Literary Life?

© 1998 Nick Dispoldo, Free Press contributor

corporate merger is taking place that could lead to an explosion of internet bookselling and the termination of independent bookstores and booksellers.

Bertlesmann AG, the German media conglomerate that already owns Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, is set to purchase Random House along with its two sister imprints Ballantine and Alfred A Knopf. The pending deal is being reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

It is estimated that annual sales of the proposed merger will begin at about $1.8 billion. Newsday reports thatthe 7,000-member Authors Guild and the Association of Authors' Representatives have filed objections with the FTC. The Guild contends the deal would give Bertlesmann control of more than 36 percent of the bookstore market in America. According to the Guild, "No single company should have this much control over authors' expression or this much influence in our culture."

Richard Klein, a co-owner of Book Revue, an independent bookstore in Huntington NY, does not share the concern that books that are not commercially appealing will be less likely to be published.

"There are thousands of publishers in this country and a lot of them are publishing literary books, and the independent stores, like us, are always willing to take chances on lesser-known writers," Klein said.

But Klein misses an important point. Bertlesmann is planning to go into cyberspace with "BooksOnline" (their working title at present), which will be the newest addition to that internet book market since it was pioneered three years ago by Seattle-based Amazon.com, which reported $148 million in sales last year. The prospect that customers can now bypass Main Street and conveniently order through a computer should be a concern not only to booksellers but to every writer in America unless the writer happens to be Norman Mailer, John Grisham, Anne Rice, or other established best-selling authors.

Not only are books increasingly sold by computer, publishers also increasingly require authors to write, format, and submit by computer and email.

Electronic submission will undoubtedly be an economic hardship for thousands of struggling writers who cannot afford sophisticated machinery or the other glittering gadgets comprising state-of-the-art. Megan Morwen Johnstone, in a letter published in Small Press Review, articulately describes a concern of many writers: "There is a growing trend, starting with university presses and filtering down to the 'street' presses, for writing manuscripts to be submitted on disc, with press guidelines on an internet website. This presumes that all good/interested writers can afford a computer, printer, modem, telephone, net services.

"The cost of these items is not within the reach of many writers who are... poor, disabled, elderly, minorities, disenfranchised and any combination of the above."

Johnstone makes a further alarming observation: "It is not only money which has sharply begun to divide American classes in the past twenty years... but is also who 'owns' access to the new media communication."

The corrosive effects of colossal corporate conglomerates is certain to drain the literary life and creative culture of many of America's small or struggling artists and publishers. The only questions that remain are how severe and how quickly the erosion will occur.