Here’s a nifty little factoid for you. There are something like 500,000 new books published in English every year. That’s just England and the USA; there are of course lots more in other languages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_published_per_country_per_year
And that’s just the new titles, never mind reprints of Dr. Seuss and every other classic.
With so many books being published, well, let’s face it, some books are better than others– less than 2% of all these books sell more than 500 copies. But what also gets lost is that the sheer volume of books being published makes it that much harder for a book that has real merit to get itself publicized. If you never hear of a book, if your local store does not stock it, if it goes out of print, that is the same end result as its being censored.
There are many ways to publicize and market a book, but the fact is, books that are sanctioned and published by large media conglomerates are the ones that get the prized media attention promotion. The same company that owns comedy central also owns simon and shuster. Virtually every radio and TV talk show host has a book out. Books by movie stars get lots of shelf space. Most radio shows that feature authors are there to push one political agenda or another, so the book you wish to promote has to serve that show’s interest. One hand promotes the other.
What happens is that, if someone writes a really important book, it is quite possible that it can experience de facto censorship because no one will ever hear of it– not because it was banned or burned, but because there is just so much noise in the bookosphere that it is very easy for it to simply be ignored.
We like to think that good books will rise on their own merit, but my cynical self doubts this. For a book to get read it has to get promoted, and lack of access to promotion is the new censorship. To get widely read, a book has to pass muster of both a phalanx of literary agents and editors, and their primary interest is “will it sell?”. And the default is always to give preference to a book that has an already established “name” attached to it.
I am often advised to read a given book that is in fashion today, but more and more I am learning to proactively ask people, what is the best book on business or communications you have ever read? Consistently, they will point to a book that is at least 10 years old. These books are “old news,” and therefore are not being actively promoted in blogs or in the general newsmedia. By being passed over for what was published this morning, they are subjected to a form of censorship. Given the volume (in terms of both size and perceptual overload) of books thrown at us every day, there is a very real danger of some important books getting lost in the shuffle, and the people around you being inundated solely with information that was chosen for them by the folks who own both publishing houses and media outlets, and not reading the best book available. I think this is dangerous.
© Justin Locke
