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Jim Cox Report: February 2025
Dear Publisher Folk, Friends & Family:
This month's subject is 'Publishing' and the 'Publishing Industry -- courtesy of Wikipedia!.
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software, and other content available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, comic books, newspapers, and magazines. With the advent of digital information systems, the scope has expanded to include digital publishing such as e-books, digital magazines, websites, social media, music, and video game publishing.
The commercial publishing industry ranges from large multinational conglomerates such as News Corp, Pearson, Penguin Random House, and Thomson Reuters to major retail brands and thousands of small independent publishers. It has various divisions such as trade/retail publishing of fiction and non-fiction, educational publishing, and academic and scientific publishing. Publishing is also undertaken by governments, civil society, and private companies for administrative or compliance requirements, business, research, advocacy, or public interest objectives. This can include annual reports, research reports, market research, policy briefings, and technical reports. Self-publishing has become very common.
Publishing has evolved from a small, ancient form limited by law or religion to a modern, large-scale industry disseminating all types of information.
"Publisher" can refer to a publishing company, organization, or an individual who leads a publishing company, imprint, periodical, or newspaper. (Wikipedia)
Now with respect to Ranking Publishers:
There are a number of approaches to ranking academic publishing groups and publishers. Rankings rely on subjective impressions by the scholarly community, on analyses of prize winners of scientific associations, discipline, a publisher's reputation, and its impact factor (particularly in the sciences).
Publications are often judged by venue, rather than merit. This has been criticized in the Leiden Manifesto and the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment. According to the manifesto, "Science and technology indicators are prone to conceptual ambiguity and uncertainty and require strong assumptions that are not universally accepted. The meaning of citation counts, for example, has long been debated. Thus, best practice uses multiple indicators to provide a more robust and pluralistic picture."
Moreover, studies of methodological quality and reliability have found that "reliability of published research works in several fields may be decreasing with increasing journal rank", contrary to widespread expectations.
In a study assessing an increasingly-diversified array of publishers and their service to the academic community, Janice S. Lewis concluded that college and university librarians ranked university presses higher and commercial publishers lower than did members of the American Political Science Association.
According to Colin Steele, a librarian at the Australian National Library in Canberra, "Listings of publishers by title also fail to take into account that some university presses are strong in certain disciplines, but not across the whole spectrum." Rankings can vary widely by discipline. (Wikipedia)
For more on the subject of the Ranking of Publishers check out:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Top+Rank+publisher&t=ffab&atb=v200-1&ia=web
Quote of the Month
"The Internet obviously changes things; we've seen that in the music industry above all else. As an author, I'm now having to deal with the fact that it's happening in the publishing industry as well. And publishing is going through a very difficult time. Some view it as positive, some negative, but nobody really knows how to deal with it. If you're an author it looks very challenging because your work can be pirated so easily and there's very little you can do about it." -- Misha Glenny
Website of the Month
Publishing Quotes
https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/publishing.html
"The Midwest Book Review Postage Stamp Hall Of Fame & Appreciation" is a monthly roster of well-wishers and supporters. These are the generous folk who decided to say 'thank you' and 'support the cause' that is the Midwest Book Review by donating to our postage stamp fund.
Mary Sebesta
Michael Mears
John Lauricella
Diana Striedieck
Ann Braithwaite
Joanne Meredith
Christina M Hom
Joseph McCormack
Christopher P. Ryan
Ryan Freerksen -- "Somewhere"
Eric Barr -- "A September Elegy"
Brigitte Gawenda -- "Play Smart"
Diane Wald -- "The Bayrose Files"
Mike Cooper -- "The Prepared Home"
Rebecca Inch-Partridge -- "Abby's Fire"
Lynette M Burrows -- "My Soul to Keep"
Kenneth Wyche -- "Get Your Mind Right"
Sherri Dodd -- "Moonset on Desert Sands"
David Horn -- "Admins: Simulation's End"
Greco Michael -- "33 Frivolous Pricks: (of time)"
Steven M. Stroum -- "Success and Self-Discovery"
Eric Miller -- "Whatever Happened To Uncle Ed?"
Catherine Hamrick -- "The Tears of Things: Poems"
Anthony John Holliday -- "Mission to China: 2nd Edition"
Carolyn C. Shadle -- "From Religion to Reason: My Journey"
Kay Smith-Blum -- "Tangles: A Cold War Love Story and Mystery"
Reiner Prochaska -- "Bergthora's Saga: A Heathen Revenge in a Christian Iceland"
Nabeela Alidina -- "Aqua's Adventure: From the Deep Blue Sea to the Rolling River"
Golden Antelope Press
Kate the Earthling LLC
Mark Weiman -- Regent Press
Avery Goodman -- Planetary Books
Keith Burton -- Grayson Emmett Partners
James Khaudary -- Commonwealth Publishing
Elizabeth Frazier -- Waldmania! PR
In lieu of (or in addition to!) postage stamp donations, we also accept PayPal gifts of support to our postage stamp fund for what we try to accomplish in behalf of the small press community.
Simply log onto your PayPal account and direct your kindness (in any amount and at your discretion) to the Midwest Book Review at: SupportMBR [at] aol.com (The @ is replaced by "[at]" in the above email address, in an attempt to avoid email-harvesting spambots.)
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So until next time -- goodbye, good luck, and good reading!
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
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James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
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Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
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