Digital Mugs and Musings Episode 01

Power in the Publishing Industry with Dr Alexandra Dane

In this episode, I am joined by Dr Alexandra Dane as we discuss what it means to have access and power in the publishing industry while navigating the ever-evolving digital landscape.

---

Transcript

Voiceover:

[Background music] Hi there! And welcome to the first episode of “Digital Mugs and Musings” where I interview industry professionals and expert researchers to explore the role digital media plays in the arts. Today I am joined by Dr. Alexandra Dane, a lecturer in Media and Communications and Publishing and Communications at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Dane:

I research the publishing industry, contemporary publishing industry. And I’m interested in the way that power is generated, the way that power circulates, and who has access to that power.

Voiceover:

In talking to Dr Dane, I was especially interested in how the publishing industry has reacted to changes in technology and modern media communications.

Bella:

I feel like, especially when we talk about digital media, people, I guess sort of see as the landscape is changing of, like, who gets power, but as you mentioned in your article for Kill Your Darlings, that might not be shifting as much as we think?

Dr. Dane:

Digital media, the internet, like, was this exciting opportunity to increase participation. But that doesn’t happen naturally, that has to happen with effort. And so, what you see in the publishing industry, and one of the reasons I find it so fascinating is that unless you consciously transform systems, systems don’t transform, we just replicate the same power structures in one space as we did in another.

Bella:

Sort of going off of that idea of power and like who gets a say, when we look at things like self-publishing, is that a way for people to get around those barriers to access? Or are the same power dynamics present even in self-publishing formats?

Dr. Dane:

It’s a really good question. And I think it really depends on the sector you’re talking about. But yeah, they kind of still are. So if you think about the authors who have self-published and been really successful at it. Margaret Atwood is an example of that. Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian, another example, that was a self-published title, they got picked up and became very popular. And I’ve given you two examples, which is not representative, but like they’re two white people from Canada and the United States.

So like, when people are publishing on publishing online and distributing via Amazon, there are these entrenched racist algorithms that structure that practice and that reception, so at every level, it exists. Just being able to self-publish doesn’t really circumvent these systems. That doesn’t mean that self-publishing isn’t brilliant or worthwhile or exciting. And maybe this will change. And I think that self-publishing is the place where it can change. Because it’s not the self-publishing practice itself that is at issue. It’s the fact that it’s dependent on these platforms that have all of the same problems that say, Penguin or HarperCollins, or whatever, also have.

Voiceover:

Where large platforms seem to be the driving issue of accessibility and power in the publishing industry, fan-made platforms like Archive of Our Own may be the light at the end of the tunnel.

Dr Dane:

Publishing can change, but it changes when the structural stuff changes, not when, so that other things can change. And I think fanfiction is one of the most interesting parts of the publishing industry, because it’s so rogue, and it’s doing its own thing, big authors hate that and that makes me love it. But yeah, you see that, like, the communities can flourish and be, you know, interesting and diverse and reflect readers when the platform itself is working really hard to ensure that, you know, the algorithms that structure the platform exists in, like, equitable ways.

Voiceover:

[Background music] Thank you so much for listening. That was Dr. Alexandra Dane on digital media and the publishing industry. ‘Til next time!

---

Dr Alexandra Dane is a Lecturer in Media and Communications and Publishing and Communications at the University of Melbourne. Her research explores the ways that power and value are generated and understood in the contemporary publishing sector, and how power and value intersect with gender, race and identity. She is the author of “Gender and Prestige in Literature: Contemporary Australian Book Culture” (Palgrave Macmillan 2020) and “White Literary Taste Production in Contemporary Book Culture” (Cambridge UP 2023).

---

^{Featured image: A collection of books at the German National Library in Frankfurt. Photo by Stephan Jockel at Business World Education. Used with a CC BY 4.0 International license.}