slow book publishing

Steven Shaviro reflects on the publication process of his new book:

“Of course, given the way academic publishing works, this means that it has been slightly more than a year since I sent the final copy of the manuscript to the Press. The time lag between submission and publication doesn’t seem to have changed at all in the almost twenty years since my first book was published, even though the technologies of publication have been completely revolutionized in the interim. (It will probably take the rise of new publishing operations, like the wonderful, open-source publisher re.press, to extend the benefits of new technologies to the sclerotic world of academic publishing).”

He’s right. The most widespread problem may be understaffing on copyeditors. But whatever the problem, it can be frustating to wait 1-2 years after a book is finished to see it on the shelves.

That’s why I give a double A++ thumbs-up to re.press.

The best remark I read about the situation is that modern book and newspaper publishers were developed to address a problem –the efficient mass distribution of information– that effectively no longer exists. Not that all problems have been solved, but they may need to be solved in a different way.