THE ONCE AND FUTURE SMALL PRESS

THE ONCE AND FUTURE SMALL PRESS
How cutting-edge technology could be used to promote
Illinois' cutting-edge literary arts and rewrite the story of small-circulation publishing

by Ryan Reeves

James Plath, founder of the now-defunct Clockwatch Review, ran a successful publication until it began to run him. "I did my time with the Illinois Arts Council and other groups," says Plath, an Illinois Wesleyan University English professor, "but getting funding eventually wore me down and I couldn't do it anymore."

The inaugural issue of Clockwatch Review, a journal of poetry and prose, rolled off the presses in 1983. Plath and his supporters hoped the publication would challenge mainstream literary trends of the time. In that sense, Clockwatch Review was very much in step with another trend. Small-circulation journals, often founded to exert change within a discipline, generally survive a limited number of press runs, then quietly fade as money and resources dwindle. But Plath found a way to rewrite that story for his little publication. In fact, Clockwatch Review illustrates an even newer trend: the use of cutting-edge technology to promote cutting-edge literary arts.

These days, computers are blamed for a decline in reading, even a decline in writing, but Plath believes they could help save some of the smaller presses and advance the cause of experimental, read commercially risky, literature. At the least, his story offers new hope to Illinois' smaller publishers. After 16 years in print, Plath's publication sidestepped failure by evolving into an electronic-only journal.

While technological innovations offer Plath and other independent publishers new opportunities, they do present new problems. Still, adapting to a technology that was not available even 10 years ago may be the only way for some small Illinois presses to survive.

When Plath discontinued Clockwatch Review last year, "the phoenix that rose from the ashes" was Clockwatch Reviews, a Web-based magazine that focuses strictly on book reviews. "Magazines are doing what they should be doing now," Plath says, adding that the old format of Clockwatch is no longer needed.

No question, the technology could help reconfigure the economics of small-press publishing. Plath, having "done his time" with organizations that provide funding to small publications, decided to forego the "inundation of paperwork" that goes with such grant-seeking. Electronic publishing freed him from the constraints of standard overhead, production and printing costs.

Meanwhile, the trend toward print-on-demand is beginning to cut overhead costs for other small-circulation publishers. In traditional publishing, a journal or a book is printed in bulk, then marketed with the hope that each copy will be sold and enough interest will be generated to warrant subsequent press runs. With print-on-demand, the journal or book can be published, bound and distributed upon the request of a buyer or a bookseller. Theoretically, nothing ever has to go "out of print."

For example, if a publisher prints 3,000 copies of a book and only 300 sell, 2,700 copies collect dust. However, if a publisher knows that a particular book will sell better over a longer period, as is generally the case with new and unknown literary works, print-on-demand opens the possibility of producing without excess. If 300 copies are needed, 300 are printed. When more are ordered, more are printed. That could

28 December 2000 Illinois Issues www.uis.edu/~ilissues

The Brave New World of the university press
The University of Illinois Press has launched an electronic publishing venture, blending old printing techniques with new technology.
The Theodore Psalter: Electronic Facsimile is now available. The original version of this 11th-century document is housed in the British Library and is one of the most rare pieces of religious writing in existence. In a published statement, Paul Arroyo, the press' new electronic publisher, says, "The Theodore Psalter is special because it's one of the few psalters, or collections of psalms, from the Byzantine era that's intact and has lots of known history — who the artist was, who the sponsor was, what abbey had housed it."
The U of I press made the psalter available on CD-ROM in May. Now anyone with a computer can see the original document in its entirety, and in full color, with the option of magnified views of each page. In addition to the original facsimile, the CD contains the psalter's text in Greek and English. Both versions are wholly searchable, with hyperlinked annotations for every page. There are three essays on the text.
And it's user-friendly. A reader can insert the CD into a computer and start reading, browsing or just admiring. Unlike other CD-ROMs, there is no need to install the program onto a computer's hard-drive. "As soon as you put the disk in the drive, the psalter just appears before you," Arroyo says, "It's kind of like having batteries included with your toy." The CD, he adds, presents viewers with "the kind of detail that you might see if you were actually sitting in front of the manuscript at the British Library." It's intended to "emulate the feeling of a book on your lap."
The CD costs $75. Contact Paul Arroyo at parroyo@uillinois.edu.

help alleviate the financial risks associated with producing new material that has by nature a small initial following.

Curt Matthews, CEO of Independent Publishers Group and the founder of Chicago Review Press, believes print-on-demand offers advantages to small presses. He estimates the technology will be up and running at his business within the next year. And he predicts such innovations will turn out to be a saving grace in a book market that is becoming more fragmented. "Niche interests have new people coming in constantly," he says.

This may seem a wonderful, if not Utopian, way of publishing, but there are some risks for smaller operations. Charles B. Harris, director of Illinois State University's Unit for Contemporary Literature, worries that while the new medium offers a wonderful format for the specialized press or journal, it accents the already limited exposure of small press publications. Harris argues readers still discover books by browsing at bookstores. If a publisher chooses to print only when demand dictates, books aren't on any shelves to be browsed.

Further, Harris says, "If you're printing on-demand, then you're not out there to be reviewed." And fewer reviews mean less interest and demand.

Nevertheless, Harris, like James Plath, believes the Internet has the potential to raise public awareness of small presses, and that it is going to become the chief way for smaller publishers to get attention. In accord with that, the Unit for Contemporary Literature has, with the assistance of the National Endowment for the Arts, set up the nation's largest Web site designed exclusively for the support and promotion of noncommercial literary presses and magazines.

An advantage of the Internet, Harris says, is that it also allows small publishers to promote themselves in ways they couldn't otherwise afford. "One ad in The New York Times Review of Books would roughly be an annual budget for a small press." Using ISU's Litline platform (www.litline.org), however, costs relatively little when compared to the costs of a media advertising campaign. Most small presses, Harris says, are just "a grant away from going under."

Curt Matthews offers another perspective. "The great thing about niche interests," he says, "is that you don't have to get people interested. They're already interested when they come to you." His Independent Publishing Group has placed its entire catalog online for perusal. The technology enables readers to approach publishers, turning mainstream publishing on its head — a concept many small-press publishers can appreciate.

Nevertheless, such technological strategies are not widely employed yet, a reality Plath is comfortable with, too. "That's what small publishing is about — you start small with a big idea, then wait and see. "