The small publisher is dead. Long live the small publisher.

I witnessed it myself, he was lying face down on the floor, blood pooling from his head. That he was dead, was quite obvious.
In 2002 my first novel, The Lodger, was published by GMP (Gay Men’s Press). Even as it came out I was hearing rumblings from the publisher; Waterstones were playing difficult, upping the percentage of the book’s cover price they wanted to retain, independent bookshops no longer existed. And Millivres, the parent group which owned GMP, were beginning to realise they could make more money selling dildos than they could books…

A serious novel that no one was interested in later, I wrote a sequel to The Lodger, Rising Camp. Just as I was finishing I heard the news, GMP was no more, they were, so to speak, dead. As Rupert Smith wrote in his 2006 article, “The era of niche publishing is over.”

In a way.

Because publishing, it seems to me, is in a constant state of flux and well able to adapt to changing market conditions.

This year, 2009, is the 50th anniversary of the publication of William Burroughs’s The Naked Lunch. That it is now a classic text belies its origins. The Naked Lunch was first published by the Olympia Press, a tinpot fly-by-night seat-of-your-pants publisher, in Paris in 1959.

That The Naked Lunch wasn’t picked up by a more mainstream publisher retrospectively is obvious. This was before the Lady Chatterley trial and Burroughs book was full of sexual references. This meant it fit perfectly into Olympia Press’s ethos being both erotic and avant-garde.

The Naked Lunch therefore found the right publisher at the right time.

Publishing houses have changed since those days. While they were formerly run like gentlemen’s clubs, long lunches, cigars and deals by handshake etc etc, these days they are big business, corporate. The cottage industry of yesteryear has amalgamated, been taken over by large multi-media companies. These days they are part of one, or two, big happy families. For example Random House includes the imprints, Arrow, Bodley Head, Century, Chatto and Windus, Ebury Press, Harvill and Secker, Hutchinsonn, Jonathan Cape, Vintage, William Heinemann and so on.

Many of these imprints, if not all, will formerly have been their own publishing house, independent and subject to their own long lunches etc etc.

Along with the homogenisation of publishing houses has come the homogenisation of book selling. The end of the net book agreement, whereby discounting was now allowed effectively meant the wiping out of small independent bookshops.

What we have now is big business selling to big business.

The death of GMP then is part of a longer and ongoing trend. And perhaps, rumours of this death too are exaggerated.

But first an aside. From reading deflamatory posts on writing websites from writers about agents and editors the point often seems to be forgotten that agents, editors, publishers et al are also people who love good books. The evidence of this is that many good books are published.

It is easy for some to look at Jordan and other celebrity (ghost)writers and say this is the reason they aren’t published. Ludicrous obviously. There has always been popular culture and ever since publishing existed people have been bemoaning its decline.

My attitude to publishing is consistent. If I write something good enough it will be published. If I’m not published then it’s my fault. I don’t blame the system.

My agent told me one of the reasons she read my submission was because I had been published before. For this I have to thank GMP with whose death I started this blog and to which I keep coming back to.

For while it may have died small publishers do continue and indeed these days are proliferating. Like the Olympia Press of their day they are able to target audiences not reached by the mainstream guys. These days the back streets of Paris aren’t their home but the digital highways of the internet, and the advance of print on demand technology.

My latest short story was published in a collection put out by Peepal Tree Press, ‘the best in Caribbean writing’, Bookkake is publishing ‘new and classic works of transgressive literature’, Salt does a really fine job of publishing new collections of poetry and short stories, Five Leaves publishes crime and Jewish interest books amongst other things, Sylph Editions books of ‘experimental writing, theoretical essays, monographs and photography books’. And in the sci-fi world there is PS Publishing, Night Shade, Golden Gryphon, TTA Press, Tachyon, Prime. (Not my domain so thanks to LiteratureNetwork.org editor Damien for these).

And of course Canongate, the small Scottish publisher, which sold millions of The Life of Pi and has had hit after hit since then.

Changes are ongoing.

Launched this week in London was the ‘Espresso Book Machine’. Choose from one of 500,000 books, mostly out of print texts, and within minutes it will print you out a perfect paperback while you wait.

Also at a recent meeting I had with my agent she told me she was planning to open a bookshop. Due to the recession shop rents have come down. According to her the next few years would see the rebirth of the independent bookshop.

So, all is good in the world of publishing. In fact, I’d say, we’ve never had it so good.

Some books:

Penguin Special (The Life and Times of Allen Lane) by Jeremy Lewis tells the history of the modern paperback.

Paris Interzone and This Is The Beat Generation by James Campbell are two very fine books about literary life in Paris in the 50s.

Supported by Writing East Midlands

Drew Gummerson’s first novel ‘The Lodger’ was published in 2002. It was a finalist in the Lambda Awards in the States. Drew’s latest book ‘Me and Mickie James’ was published by Jonathan Cape in July 2008. Drew is also an award winning short story writer, his short fiction being widely published and featured on Radio 4