06/09/2015
We attended the first -- hopefully, annual -- Bay Area Book Festival, more as observers than participants (shame on us, we missed the deadline for having a booth and were daunted by the expense).
The well-attended event was held June 6 and 7 in Berkeley, with several blocks of booths, displays and buildings where events and panels were hosted. The organizers are to be congratulated.
Sugartown Publishing's printer of choice, Minuteman Press of Berkeley was one of the event's co-sponsors and did a gorgeous job of printing the publicity poster.
There were numerous panels ranging from "The Roots of Violence" with Adam Hochschild and "Transforming Terror" with Susan Griffin and Rebecca Solnit to a discussion of the writings of John Muir with Kim Stanley Robinson and presentations by writers from the California College of Arts.
Self-publishers were more or less shunted to the sidelines, given venues at greater distance from the main pulse of the event. However, a turnout for one of the few events that did speak to the changes in small press, independent, and self-publishing had to send at least 20 people away: anyone listening in the organizational sphere?
A large crowd (approximately 120) turned out for another talk on the current state of publishing that featured a Harper's representative (one of the remaining big 4 large corporate publishers), a Yale University rep, a New York Times reviewer and a rep from small press Grey Wolf. The all-male panel discussed the current fluidity of publishing when many small publishers and self-publishers are making an end-run around the obstacles that distributors, bookstores, and others throw in their path.
The Internet is what is democratizing the once protected bastions of the gate-keepers. This is a good thing, allowing direct marketing between book creators and readers, without the filter of the bookstores (who will not carry self-published or many small press books) and the distributors biased against these same producers. One wonders when the "traditional" vendors who operate as the middle-man between creator/author and book buyer/reader will wake up and realize they are losing a cut on book sales by their narrow policies and unwelcoming attitudes.
Often limited "shelf space" is cited for why bookstores and distributors turn away individual writers trying to find a home for their books, but having served years in the bookselling trade, we realize this is just code for "don't want to be bothered."
When a bookstore values the one-to-one and recognizes it is part of a community, exceptions are made, agreements are signed, and the smaller presses and self-published writers are allowed in the door. This used to be common at places like City Lights and Cody's but with Cody's in Berkeley defunct, and City Lights turning away smaller start-ups and self-publishing authors, the community of writers, publishers and booksellers is no longer as friendly as it once was.
However, writers will be heard and the Internet makes it possible to have that voice reach a larger audience, even if it means a different kind of leg work that the writer and smaller publishers must do.
Thee do I crave co-partner in that verse Which I presume on Nature to compose . . . Divine One, give
