Minnesota Reviews: What Have We Here?

As old familiar publishing houses transmogrify into the diversified corporate structure these days, trade books are being contrived in board rooms with markets in mind, with profits prefigured, and with primary attention to the work's suitability as a product. At the same time, in the last ten to fifteen years, the alternative, independent publishers, often so small as to be called “family operations,” have grown in number and are taking the risks big commerce, oddly enough, cannot afford. With the purchase of small press and alternative works in all media, libraries can acquire value beyond the actual materials costs: new ideas, information ignored by commercial interests, unpublicized exciting artists, works of regional interest, minority press, materials in daring or experimental forms. All of these are likely to be considered unprofitable by large publishers.