progressive publishing
Jennifer Nix talks about the nascent progressive publishing movement on Glenn Greenwald’s blog:
A number of us have been saying that we need some kind of concerted, politically-connected and -driven effort to effectively usher progressive and other good ideas--in the form of books--onto bestseller lists and via special sales and distribution, if we are going to have a chance of competing with the right-wing message machine.[…]
I urge you to realize the importance of supporting other important books, too. Like American Theocracy, Crashing the Gate and Hostile Takeover. The better progressive-minded books do in the marketplace, the further these ideas will spread. Right-wingers realized a long time ago the importance of controlling and beefing up sales of their books, so they reach bestselling numbers and dominate news coverage. We cannot stand by and let corporate- and right-wing media continue to control the debate.
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If the media won't cover our ideas intelligently, we must create our own successful vehicles to generate discussion.
Her examples of what can be done with progressive books in the marketplace of ideas—such as it is—are spot on. For as much as I utilize my local university library, it’s equally important for us to patronize booksellers. Since small progressive publishers can’t pay to have their books stocked up front in the big chain bookstores, we need to do what we can to raise their public profile. If they don’t stock it, demand that they do. A few requests at each outlet can make a huge difference.