Amplifying Silenced Voices Through Micro- and Small-Press Publishing

Abstract

This research uses exploratory, mixed-method case studies to explore the relationship between Australian micro- and small presses (MSPs), their publishing and promotion of writers of difference (WODs), and the relationship to Couldry’s (2010) concept of voice . Through structured interviews with two publishing houses and their WODs, I (a) identified MSPs’ strategies for publishing and promoting silenced and neglected writers, thus facilitating the expression of voice ; and (b) learned how MSPs’ authors respond to their publishers’ efforts to promote voice , and what publishing strategies they suggest for the industry. This research offers a novel contribution to publishing studies and communication for social change.

ICIRAS: Research and reconciliation with indigenous peoples in rural health journals

“…An ICIRAS should reflect on findings of research from the sphere of Australian micro‐ and small presses. Professional Editor Jodie Lea Martire dug deeply into the publishing world: ‘The acquisition and editorial stages of publishing beg the question of who has the privilege and power to edit whom’ 55 . In order to support the voices of under‐represented authors, Martire found that the small presses cemented specific steps into their publishing processes.…”

“…Professional Editor Jodie Lea Martire dug deeply into the publishing world: 'The acquisition and editorial stages of publishing beg the question of who has the privilege and power to edit whom'. 55 In order to support the voices of under-represented authors, Martire found that the small presses cemented specific steps into their publishing processes. Therefore, all the steps of the rural research publication process should be examined to determine the points and pathways through which Indigenous peoples' voices are constrained or enabled.…”

An Ecosystem Model of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Publisher ‘Tiers’: Publisher Size, Sustainability and Cultural Policy

“…Practitioner, scholarly and general accounts of contemporary publishing frequently settle on a normative, and oppositional, account of the literary marketplace. Global conglomerate publishing is perceived as in opposition to small and/ or independent publishing, with the former articulated as both dominating the marketplace and itself dominated by the forces of capital, their shareholders, and 'the market'; whereas independents or small press publishers are constructed as saviours of the uncommercial, the literary, and of 'culture' (examples of scholarly accounts include [22,32]). A practitioner example of this line of argument is articulated by Susan Hawthorne in Bibliodiversity: A Manifesto for Independent Publishing [15], in which she asserts that independent publishers provide 'a way of engagement with society and methods that reflect something important about the locale or niche they inhabit' (xi).…”