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One belated Frankfurt impression Two
In response to my last posting, one reader emailed to say that the listeners were gathered around the speakers in the other buildings at the Frankfurt Book Fair because the speakers and the listeners all have German.
The implication, I believe, was that this is the reason there were no speakers in English-language Building 8.
Perhaps I was too indirect. I meant to say first that there are no such speakers and listeners on the floor at BEA and, second, that this may be a significant reality. It seems clear that books and ideas and their authors are all of real interest at the Fair, and that they are an integral part of the business of publishing in Germany (at least).
In contrast, at BEA, it so often seems that celebrities alone have the floor. I understand that this has been a practical, indeed unavoidably practical, focus in our world for quite a few years.
And I know full well that Stephen Colbert is funny.
But I do wonder if that sort of consideration really can sustain the publishing industry much longer, no matter what “books” may become. Setting aside for the moment issues of “book” delivery systems (print/digital) and the future behaviors readers, it still seems to me that as publishers we need to be focused to some notable degree on ensuring that publishing and reviewing are germane to the evolution of the culture.
This seems to me an important issue. If I can be a bit loose with etymology, to publish a text once meant to make that text public. But now the written word is born public. Texts are instantly accessible around the world and indexible by search engines. And too often it now seems that what is “published”— to be more fair, what is attended to and supported through the primary bookstream—is primarily the work of the previously celebrated.
That is, as an industry, don’t we too often these days search to appropriate a public rather than to serve one—or to further one?
Fred Ramey
Posted 13 November 2007 without using the word “platform”
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