The History of British and American Author-Publishers

"The History of British and American Author-Publishers" by Dr. Anna Faktorovich is an invigorating plunge into the muddy sediment of history that supports the modern publishing industry. Faktorovich deftly explores the roots of artistic and marketplace tensions that continue to plague authors and publishers today.

In the introduction, she shares research questions that have guided her exploration. Perhaps foremost among them is "Why did most successful author-publishers have to create their own companies...?" (page 8). The many answers to that question are presented to the reader with great clarity throughout the book. There were then (and are now) many more reasons for authors to assume the publisher's role than just the pain of a show more rejected manuscript. Authors' personal angst was just the beginning of their stories.

Power and intrigue remain at the crux of the intersection between art and politics in the works of the authors Faktorovich has chronicled. She presents the tabloid-esque publishing climate surrounding the careers of Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allan Poe, with scintillating details from the gossip of their times. For example, her explanation of Poe's death counters the conspiracy theory that Poe was assassinated due to a rift with Queen Victoria.

Especially helpful to students and historians are the charts Faktorovich created to highlight thematic elements. There's a chart on "The History of Author Publishers" featuring authors' "Life-Plot Movement[s]" {page 347) and another chart that aligns each author with their "Political Cause" and the "Outcome of the Struggle" (page 342). There's also a diagram of past business activity that accompanies the discussion on the few monolithic publishers who constitute the corners in today's publishing marketplace. All these charts are so helpful that I wish that this book included yet another chart on the "Big Five" that lists the names of their imprints along with other associated ventures and properties (like cable television channels, etc.) .

Also very helpful to students is Faktorovich's primer (in the introduction) on proper definition and nomenclature in professional publishing. For example, the phrase "self-publishing" is a vernacular faux pas that is best avoided in conversations on author-publishers.

This book was absolutely delightful to read and one of the best "Early Reviewer" volumes that I have had the privilege to enjoy! show less

I have come to appreciate the layers of striation that the publishing industry can provide. If viewed as a cross section of the literary landscape, every genre has a clear color and texture showing the world all that helped define it and differentiate it. Having read a vast array of novels over the years, I am lucky to be able to easily move from highly enjoyable mass market pulp trash to questionably appropriate pornographic debtors prison fare to introspective efforts and instant classics. While many readers have difficulty shifting gears in this manner, others of us get bored or hyper critical if we read too much of the same genre and instead crave the variety.

Non-Fiction has one of the highest degrees of contrast in variation as show more each topic can shift from dry and factual to emotional and vivid. This book sits right in the middle, giving a critical eye to the history of publishing in the UK and American markets, but carrying a strong but veiled vein of iron resolve behind each passage.

Preview copy - Slated for January 2018 release.
The History of British and American Author-Publishers (Anna Faktorovich)
Anaphora Literary Press
368 pages
ISBN: 978-1-68114-373-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-68114-374-3 (Hardcover) / 978-1-68114-375-0 (ebook)
LCCN: 2017950922
Breaking the boundaries and becoming a success is the only dream Authors strive to realize. Success is to be defined differently, but undeniably the goals are variations: money, fame, social change, casting out of personal demons, bragging rights, the destruction of one's enemies. Some of these seem a bit far fetched, but are accurate as squabbles amongst Literati are frequent and typically public. Unfortunately, the fascinating trend of classic authors are displayed in a series of diluted failures, and any who gain the success they search for commonly only achieve this after their deaths. Every one of them highlighted in this study are masters of the side hustle needed to get their works known; that side hustle is the effort that makes a long-standing difference.

Author-Publishers is a deep fact study that sets out to describe a number of complex topics.

This study sets the stage for readers to understand that the big four publishing conglomerates control the publishing universe as it stands today. The conglomerates themselves have such a stranglehold on approval, that it is nearly impossible for authors to break out when their stories are closer to the human wellspring than formulaic butter churner novels. All of the authors in this book (eg Woolf, Melville, Dickens) were found to be heavily invested in self-promotion, publication, and frequently defied censorship of the growing print empires by releasing their own work. Most of them were then subsequently cannibalized into the larger whole, regardless of the effort.

While reasonable and allowable, there is a heavy-handed vibe that borderlines pushy in Author-Publisher's perspective that self-publish get a bad rap on all fronts. It then repeatedly beats home that all authors discussed were self-published and how the universe is better by proxy (which is actually true in my opinion). This borderline commentary does not mean that the Author-Publisher study is incorrect, instead that Faktorovich is heavily vested and passionate about her perspective. As she herself is a co-op publisher and holds close relation to the other authors discussed by shared experience, the undeniable perspective makes sense. Faktorovich benefits from history in the facts that she is not leading the call to war, inciting social flames, nor being mentally or physically tortured in order to allow her work to be crafted. The inquisition is unlikely to hunt her or brand her insane, but she may not be making great friends pointing out items such as the Harpers publishing world being built off blatant piracy.

While the publishing world itself might have a derisive and vocal perspective of self-published works in it's elitist core, most readers could care less. The general population holds a completely separate view of self-publishing, which the publishers and authors have full control of. Our perspective can be swayed. We are looking for properly priced and well-edited work which entertains or feeds our souls in some way. In my experience, many non-conglomerate works are well crafted, but frequently they are fraught with editing mistakes which could have been avoided, thus retaining the book's illusion. It is painful to be ripped from the text to decipher an editing flaw, spelling error, or grammar which could be corrected in advance with minor oversight by a couple of trusted individuals or actual editors. Poor editing or presentation can take a great book and force it into mediocrity simply by being unreadable.

Additionally, 'The History of British and American Author-Publishers' delves into the mysterious deaths of many self-published greats. I found that the common thread was the poor quality of healthcare, over burdened medical egos, and archaic medical practices compared to modern times. Surely, there are correlations made which undeniably drive the reader toward plausible shady or conspiratorial behaviors. I shudder at the thought of having a seton installed to stabilize my wild moods or (were my gender swapped) be placed on significant unrestricted drugs and electroshock as a method to regulate the simple genetics of being female. The only true flaw I found in this book was part of this malpractice segmentation. A tangent on Michael Jackson included proving merit to malpractice even in modern times was ill fitting and annoyed me beyond description.

Long and short: If you are looking for a primer on the historical greats, advice on a thousand new non-fiction 'must read' topics to research on Wikipedia, or critical and solid advice on how to succeed via a non-conglomerate publishing avenue (by avoiding historic mistakes), you should look into snagging a copy of this. It is a bit depressing to identify with great authors by reading deep details of their pain and failures, but there is a degree of pity that once reached is actually quite inspiring.

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Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the Author or Publisher for review purposes. You can bet on the fact my perspective will be unbiased regardless of source, but when you are presented with a bottle stating drink me or object marked eat me, I would suggest you do neither. Instead, perform some quick research to ensure that they are not mislabeled. Both could be nothing more than frog spit mixed with glitter disguised as magical and extraordinary so check your ingredients. show less

This was so incoherent that I couldn't persist with it. The subject matter veers madly from Rembrandt to block printing in China, to the author's own publishing business. The author seems to believe that every author who started their own printing business and subsequently died must have been murdered. Frequently, she denigrates all the books that are being published today, but quite a few of these are quite good and I've reviewed them on LibraryThing.

I would have rated it lower, except that:
1. It reminds me that the imprints are generally now part of larger publishing firms, large media conglomerates, with all the likely consequences of that.
2. It suggests, possibly correctly, that Dickens had trouble finding a market for his "A Tale show more of Two Cities", because it was about revolution, and that was an unpopular subject with publishers.
3. It mentions Sir Walter Scott's self-publishing activities, which I really hadn't thought about very much. show less

A fascinating topic, and one which thoroughly deserves a good solid book devoted to it. Unfortunately, this volume, while interesting and packed with detail, does not do it justice. Although it is presented as a 'study' of the subject, the author's complete lack of objectivity, clear hatred of the publishing industry, constant meandering into topics unrelated to the title, penchant for wild leaps of logic and frequent descents into downright speculation make it less of a study and more of a rant--and unfortunately make it difficult to sort out the facts and useful information that the book doubtless contains.

If this book has a value, I suppose it's the unexplored topic but it is so poorly written, and so rife with the author's opinions that even that was lost. In her view authors who self publish are either poisoned to death or killed by malicious doctors. The final absurdity was her claim that Alice Walker's book "The Color Purple" was to blame for the incarceration rate of African Americans.

"The History of British and American Author-Publishers" by Anna Faktorovich offers an interesting (if not a little one-sided) look at the history of authors who have self published, and the parallel independent publishing industry.

The PDF copy I received didn't work well on my Kindle and I was unable to correct the formatting through Calibre. I would have expected a better formatted copy from someone in the publishing industry. Indie publishing shouldn't mean second-rate. I thought that was one of the points of the work.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

An engrossing examination of.classical American and British authors and their contentious relationships between publishers, governments and church policies. They ran afoul of these entities who charged them with blasphemy, libel, and immorality. They championed political causes and created revolutions. Publishers manipulated contracts so that they were mostly in debt. To get books printed they had to resort to financing or manipulating the publication of books and journals. The author delves into the suspicious deaths of many of these radical authors. I recommend this as a must read.