About

Programme Summary

The programme will examine the opportunities and challenges of the global literary marketplace for small and independent publishers, what can be learned from examples from larger publishing groups and how linkages between key stakeholders can be achieved in the creation of new markets. The project will also address the role of digital technologies and will look at how small and independent publishers can successfully negotiate competing cultural, aesthetic, political and communicative demands, how publishing can best be supported through public and private policy initiatives and how an effective book culture, incorporating writers and readers as well as others in the book chain, can be sustained and developed.

Project Questions

The project will address the following questions:

  • What are the opportunities and challenges of the global literary marketplace for small and independent publishers?
  • What effective practice can be learned from comparative publishing patterns from other small nation publishing? What can be learned from examples from larger publishing groups? How can better linkages between key stakeholders be developed in the creation of new markets?
  • How might small and independent publishers develop sustainable publishing programmes in the emerging digital environment?
  • How best can small and independent publishers preserve and digitise their records, in order to develop effective business and historical archives?
  • How can small and independent publishers successful negotiate competing cultural, aesthetic, political and communicative demands, and how can publishing best be supported through public and private policy initiatives?
  • How can an effective book culture, incorporating writers and readers as well as others in the book chain, be sustained and developed?
  • What effective practice can be learned from comparative publishing patterns from other small nation publishing? What can be learned from examples from larger publishing groups? How can better linkages between key stakeholders be developed in the creation of new markets?

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    Project Outputs

    • detailed interviews, tapes of interviews
    • briefing papers
    • a programme website with uploaded briefing papers, podcasts and report(s)
    • two two-day seminars (Globalisation; Digital Technologies and Publishing)
    • one one-day seminar (Cultural Policy)
    • one event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
    • one jointly-authored scholarly article