Times are tough. Most of the players in the book industry are still stuck with the losses caused by the lockdowns, but the next challenge is already overtaking them with the lack of paper. Not to mention the decline in bookshops that has been noticeable for years. The consequences of these and certainly other shocks can now be clearly seen in the independent publishing segment. Since they have far smaller reserves than the big players, they have an increased urge to concentrate. The latest example: The Zurich-based Kampa publishing house, known above all for its international orientation, which surprisingly secured the rights to the entire works of Georges Simenon in 2019, is taking over the traditional stores Jung und Jung as well as Schöffling & Co.
combine forces
The result is a classic win-win situation. The elderly founders find a successor solution and the still young Swiss publisher Kampa secures locations in Austria and Germany as well as an expanded topic and publication profile overall. It is a matter of “bundling strengths” and creating additional space for what really matters, according to publisher and former Diogenes man Daniel Kampa. “We all need more time to make good books. In our case, this includes maintaining and intensifying the personal aspects of the collaboration with the authors Young and Schöffling & Co.
But what is the added value that small publishers in particular are able to provide? “On the one hand,” says Kampa, “you can discover and develop young talent through direct contact. On the other hand, they are the custodians of the cultural heritage, for example when they re-publish works by old or forgotten authors. “
Kanon-Verlag, which was founded in 2020, is also facing up to this claim. In addition to Bov Bjerg, the trendy label is primarily home to young writers who deal with the phenomena of urban, late-modern society, sometimes hip, sometimes aesthetically radical. The fact that smaller players of this kind act as gatekeepers for artistically advanced texts and talented voices can be seen in the many biographies of today’s famous authors. In the meantime, some are even turning away from the big publishing groups with which they once associated the fulfillment of their dreams. For example, after Clemens Meyer had published for years with S. Fischer, he found his new home at the Leipzig small publishing house Faber & Faber, where his second volume of short stories was published in autumn Dusts. The trip of the box-office hit philosopher Byung-Chul Han to Fischer was also short-lived, as he soon moved back to his journalistic home, Matthes & Seitz.
Certainly the individual reasons behind such decisions may look different. However, you can hear a certain innovation fatigue in some of the market leaders. They rely on tried and tested bestsellers and dare to undertake less aesthetically ambitious projects. Where the pressure to return is high, there is caution when it comes to stocks that may not be very profitable. Above all, poetry, which as a whole genre has been on the sidelines for years, finds hardly any space in the current publisher reviews of Suhrkamp, Hanser, Rowohlt or the Random House group. Where does the joy of experimenting still show? Where is there a willingness to take responsibility for depicting cultural diversity? André Förster, publisher of Quintus Verlag, has been complaining for a long time about a tendency towards the mainstream among the pace makers in the German publishing industry: “In many large houses, certain trends – I am thinking of post-colonial or identity-political books, for example – are practically ridden to death. We are then faced with an overflow through which what is actually a good thing can turn into the opposite and readers may even turn away ”. Smaller, medium-sized publishers, apart from “certain economic waves”, would, however, increasingly play the role of discovering upcoming or not yet seen topics. Undaunted thought leadership is the key here.
Not left to the market
Presumably, therefore, the exquisite talent forges such as Droschl, Matthes & Seitz or the Verbrecher-Verlag will continue to provide the impetus for artistic renewal. In order to achieve this noble ambition, however, it must not be left entirely to the forces of the free market. When this awareness also arose in the last federal government, Monika Grütters, as Minister of State for Culture, brought the German Publishing Award to life. Anyone who has since found themselves among the more than sixty award winners announced each year could count on at least 24,000 euros. Without a doubt, this award is a step in the right direction. However, a funding practice that is based on consistency should prove to be far more sensible. If there were more extensive financial support from the states and the federal government, publishers could plan with more foresight. The more resilient they become, to use a new German non-word, the more the willingness to include exciting, complex and perhaps even difficult titles in the program should increase.
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