Whence Quaker Publishing?

Since I entered the realm of Quaker publishing in 1987 there has been lots of change, some of it very positive, some of it constricting the ministry of the written word.

On the positive side, technological improvements have democratized publishing. When I began work in a Friendly Woman collective (an all volunteer Quaker woman’s journal that went from meeting to meeting for about 20 years) we were still getting text typeset and pasting up columns and graphics by hand. By the end of our two years editing the journal a friendly woman had procured a MAC and learned to use a desktop publishing program. As I remember it, she still printed columns of text that we then pasted up but it was so much more in our control.

By the time I took the publishers position at Friends General Conference in 1989, we were using computers to set up most curriculum and some books. It wasn’t long before we hired a desktop production person who also was a designer. That was before print on demand was introduced. That had come in by the time I left FGC in 1998.

At the same time, Quaker publishers were becoming aware of the need to distribute more broadly. They standardized the terms of discounts and looked into promotion and marketing methods. Several publishers were doing multiple books each season and the quality of covers, design and presentation was increasing. However, when budgets began to be sliced in Quaker organizations in the 2000s, publishing was often first to go. Many houses are presently doing only reprints and only a one or two books a year. The future of book publishing seems in grave doubt. Several of the journals have been laid down and others are publishing fewer issues a year.

One bright spot is a proposal at Friends General Conference for three tracks of publishing which includes digital publishing. More about that soon.

The good news is that Quaker blogs flourish and much material from traditional tracts to universalist and nontheist materials are posted on the internet. Some curriculum is available online as well.

At the recent Quakers Uniting in Publications conference, Brent Bill, Quaker author, exhorted us to “Go boldly” into the world of digital publishing while remembering that it’s our truth that counts, not the old or new media we use to deliver it. (see his power point presentation at http://brentbill.com/files/QUIP2010Truthtellers.pdf and his Quaker e-Book video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjrdJpjWXL0&NR=1.)

What do I think? I will miss the idea of Sessions of York, UK, the life work of Bill Sessions, founding member of QUIP, printing labels and books in the same plant. The most recent news from the Quaker publishing world says the label part of the business is “in administration”. But the Sessions Book Trust survives at Quacks Printing of York, in the capable hands of Bill Sessions’ son, Michael, who will keep up the family tradition of publishing Quaker books. I wish him well for the sake of his business and for the sake of Quaker publishing.

But I agree with Brent Bill. We have to look to the digital world and begin figuring out how best to deliver the ministry of the word while still funding our publishing efforts and maintaining our quality. Others may be way ahead of us but as we make this change we need to keep our testimonies in mind, remembering that not everyone has access to online content and that discernment and testing need to take place in the online world to maintain integrity and quality in our work. Perhaps we need to develop queries and advices for this new realm of communication to help us refrain from rushing ahead of our Guide.

We are the people of the Light, committed to spreading a message that there is some of the Divine in each of us. Print we will, whether on the page or on the screen, God willing, the ministry of the printed word will get out.