The hullabaloo around the purported death of the printed book is reaching a fevered pitch—again. Moveable type was going to do the book in, the paperback assured its demise and now we imagine the e-book as the one in the Grim Reaper’s robes. All this hand wringing is a sign of affection, to be sure; no one is losing sleep over the disappearance of the eight-track player, for example.
It seems timely, then, to ask all those fervent fans of the book to do what they do for their coffee and their carrots: to consider the source. Is the author being paid? Are the books legally sourced? Are the proceeds supporting Canadians or international shareholders? We are willing to ask these questions of our bananas but not our books; is it that we do not want to tarnish the “romance” of literature with questions of politics and cold, hard cash? If we want to keep the book alive, it would behoove us all to understand at least the basics of the publishing...
Alana Wilcox is the editorial director of Coach House Books. She is a co-founding editor of the uTOpia series of books about Toronto and the author of a novel, A Grammar of Endings (Mercury Press, 2000).
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