A number of converging trends are focusing attention on the intersection between book authorship and digital technologies (The Economist 2014). Steadily dropping prices and new high-resolution screens on devices like Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad have made publishing digitally without seeking to print in book form appear more feasible. At the same time print on demand services (POD) are growing rapidly, lowering the cost to authors and publishers of printing and distributing works that would previously have only been feasible to distribute online (The Economist 2010). As a result, organizations like Toronto-based Wattpad, Amazon’s CreateSpace and Lulu have sprung up to help would-be authors take advantage of these new opportunities. Traditional publishers have also started to take an interest in authors like E. L. James and Hugh Howey who started by writing online (Hardwick 2014). Pierre Bourdieu mapped the complex and symbiotic relationship between literary authors, publishers, agents and the reading public (Bourdieu 1996 [1992]). He noted then that, “one of the central stakes in literary (etc) rivalries is the monopoly of literary legitimacy, that is, among other things, the monopoly of the power to say who is a writer.” (Bourdieu 1996 [1992], p. 219) He suggested that the artist is made by “the whole ensemble of those who help to ‘discover’ him and to consecrate him as an artist who is ‘known’ and recognized (Bourdieu 1996 [1992], p. 167). In the last few years, new technologies may be undermining the power of agents, publishers and booksellers to act as “gatekeepers”. Existing scholarly studies of literary publishing in the US and UK (Thompson 2010) and in Canada (Lorimer 2012) have been published too early to analyse whether such a shift is occurring and how it is playing out. This paper will provide a preliminary overview of the changing nature of the literary field in Canada. It will be based on in-depth qualitative interviews with Canadian authors who are taking advantage of these new opportunities on one side and with both traditional book publishers and the new ‘on demand’ publishers on the other. Drawing on digital divide literatures and insights from these initial interviews I hope to initiate a more nuanced debate around the much-heralded potentials of digital technology to provide new outlets for Canadian cultural products. Bibliography Bourdieu, P 1996 [1992], The rules of art: genesis and structure of the literary field, Polity Press, Cambridge. Hardwick, C 2014, 10 Best Selling Self-Published Authors, viewed Dec 21 2014, <http://www.therichest.com/expensive-lifestyle/money/10-best-selling-self-published-authors/?view=all%3E. Lorimer, R 2012, Ultra libris : policy, technology, and the creative economy of book publishing in Canada, ECW Press, Toronto, ON. Thompson, JB 2010, Merchants of culture : the publishing business in the twenty-first century, Polity,

1. Canadian Authorship, Digital
Media and the Field of Literary
Publishing
By David Brake
http://davidbrake.org/

2. Outline
• Theoretical orientation (Digital divide,
Bourdieu, Public sphere)
• Barriers to authorship and the “new
authorship”
• Approaches to study
• CanLit policy implications
2

3. Mutual recognition and the
Public Sphere
3

4. Pathways to mutual
recognition
Interpersonal encounters
Education
Journalism
Arts and Entertainment
4

5. Contemporary pathways to
mutual recognition
Interpersonal encounters
• Social media
Education
Journalism
• Citizen journalism
Arts and Entertainment
• ‘New Authorship’
5

6. Democratic Potentials
Interpersonal
• The Internet "expands the range of voices that can be
heard in a national debate, ensuring that no one
voice can speak with unquestioned authority”
(Jenkins & Thorburn, 2003 p. 2)
Journalism
• Beckett “offers a chance to replace professional
exclusivity with a participatory inclusiveness that
might lead to a greater variety among the people who
can enter and even run the news media” (Beckett,
2008 p. 149)
6

7. Democratic Potentials
Arts & Entertainment
• The author as “community champion”?
• "One result of the development of books along a
trajectory of interactivity appears to be the
emergence of authors […] as voices of communities
of interest, concern, aesthetics, location or
knowledge. […] It may lead to authors as community
champions as well as creative heroes, or an
amalgam of the two roles.” (Lorimer, 2012 p. 275)
• To some extent authors are always representatives
of their communities… but which communities?
• To what extent is it true that “anyone can become
a writer”? 7

8. Digital divides
• Motivational - desire for what digital tools can
enable and a willingness to use them
• Material - whether and under what conditions
people have access
• Skills - the extent to which people are able to
use digital tools effectively
• Usage - the breadth and depth of people’s
use of digital tools (van Dijk, 2005)
8

9. Who can be a writer?
• “The propensity to move towards the
economically most risky positions, and above
all the capacity to persist in them (a condition
for all avant-garde undertakings which
precede the demands of the market), even
when they secure no short-term economic
profit, seem to depend to a large extent on
possession of substantial economic and
cultural capital.” (Bourdieu, 1993 p. 67)
9

10. Writers’ incomes demonstrate this
10
(The Writer's Union of Canada 2015)

11. Other prerequisites
• Literacy
• Technical literacy
• Free time
• “Access to legitimate language”
11

12. • "In fact, access to legitimate language is quite
unequal, and the theoretically universal competence
liberally granted to all by linguists is in reality
monopolized by some. Certain categories of locutors
are deprived of the capacity to speak in certain
situations and often acknowledge this deprivation in
the manner of the farmer who explained that he
never thought of running for mayor of his small
township by saying: ''But I don't know how to speak!'’
(Bourdieu 1992 p. 146)
12

13. Authorial gatekeepers
“The artist who makes this work is himself
made, at the core of the field of
production, by the whole ensemble of
those who help to ‘discover’ him and to
consecrate him as an artist who is ‘known’
and recognized” (Bourdieu 1996 p. 167)
13

14. Which helps explain
14
(The Writer's Union of Canada 2015)

15. What defines a “writer”? Output?
Book-length
with advance
Book-length self-
published
Serialised/shorter “product”
(Wattpad/Kindle Singles)
Writes on Blog/Twitter?
15

16. What defines a “writer”?
Engagement?
Earns primary
income from
writing
Earns some income
from writing
Has and interacts with a
readership
Expresses themselves in written form in
public
16

17. Writer’s Union says
Would-be members should:
• have had a trade book published by a
commercial or university press
• have self-published a book that
successfully demonstrates commercial
intent and professionalism (emphasis
mine)
17

18. New authorships might
address this
• Lack of gatekeepers
• Low initial temporal investment
required (shorter/serialised forms)
• Supportive online audiences
18

19. “New Authorship”
“All the way through Uni I got firsts for anything that
involved writing anything… I loved the [assignments]
where I was writing – I was obviously in the wrong
degree… the blog came along and I thought ‘this is a
great opportunity for me to actually do more of the
writing and find out if I really really do like it’. As it turns
out I actually still do.” (Brake, 2009 p. 113)
“I didn’t start it [a blog containing short stories] really for
anybody else and even saying things like ‘I want people
to read this – I want people to comment’ – that’s for me
– it’s selfish in that sense.” (ibid. p. 114)
19

20. Research questions - Bourdieu
inspired
1. What are the fields of new authorship?
2. What are the ‘rules’ and capitals in each
field and the power relations between
actors? What are relationships between
these fields and traditional authorship?
3. What habituses do‘new authors’have? Are
they different from traditional authors? (more
stats for the latter needed!)
4. Are there clear capital prerequisites to
success in these fields?

21. Tentative hypotheses
• Fields include conventional writers dabbling with
online, online writers angling for print success,
writers aiming at online audiences (for profit? for
esteem?), writers writing principally for
themselves alone (as thesis found)
• Writers who want to be conventionally published
are dependent on various authorities. Not clear to
what extent writers who write online are beholden
to/responsive to audiences or wish to be published
commercially

22. Tentative hypotheses
• Successful writers online and offline
are older, highly educated, middle
class but online might open
participation to people with lower
cultural but higher ‘technological’
capital.

23. Projected research methods
• Surveys of author groups (Writer’s Union,
Canadian Author’s Association)
• Surveys of “new authors” via Wattpad, other
Canadian writing support groups
• Interviews with a range of authors with
forms of engagement with the field based on
survey responses
• Interviews with conventional publishers,
online writing platforms, writer support
groups
23

24. CanLit policy
• "Canada leads the world in direct financial
support of book publishing and other cultural
industries” (Lorimer, 2012 p. 13) but…
• Support goes primarily to publishers,
secondarily to a few authors with existing
cultural capital (academics, prize-winners)
24

25. Reasons to support CanLit
• “The inarticulate nature of the average Canadian's
patriotism results from the lack of a native literature
commensurate with Canada's physical, industrial,
scientific and academic stature” Canadian Authors
Association in (Massey, 1952 p.224)
• Represent Canada on the world stage
• Help Canadians achieve mutual recognition
• Support a Canadian industry (publishing)
• Contribute to Canada’s cultural heritage
• Cultural production/self expression as an inherent
good
25

26. Reasons to support “new
authorships”
• “The inarticulate nature of the average Canadian's
patriotism results from the lack of a native literature
commensurate with Canada's physical, industrial,
scientific and academic stature” Canadian Authors
Association in (Massey, 1952 p.224)
• Represent Canada on the world stage
• Help Canadians achieve mutual recognition
• Support a Canadian industry (publishing)
• Contribute to Canada’s cultural heritage
• Cultural production/self expression as an inherent
good
26

27. • “Narrative is a fundamental capacity of
human beings, and its exercise crucial
to living” (Couldry, 2010 p. 124)
27

28. Recommendations
• Research and recognise the value of
“new authorship(s)”
• Research and institutionally support
pathways from “new authorship” to
conventional authorship
28

29. Supporting new voices
• “An attention to voice means paying
attention, as importantly, to the
conditions of for effective voice, that is,
the conditions under which people's
practices of voice are sustained and the
outcomes of those practices validated”
(Couldry 2010, p. 113)
29

30. Questions
• Am I missing sources of official
funding/surveys/reports?
• Can you suggest additional Canadian
“new authorship” platforms to examine?
30

31. Your Questions? Comments?
Contact details:
David Brake
david@davidbrake.org
http://davidbrake.org/
289 400 4525
Thank you for your attention!

32. Bibliography
• Beckett, C. (2008). SuperMedia: saving journalism so it can save the world. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
• Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. J. D. (1992). The Purpose of Reflexive Sociology (The Chicago Workshop). In P.
Bourdieu & L. J. D. Wacquant (Eds.), An invitation to reflexive sociology (pp. 62-215). Chicago: University of
Chicago Press
• Bourdieu, P. (1993). The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed (R. Johnson, Trans.)
The field of cultural production: essays on art and literature (pp. 29-73). Cambridge: Polity Press
• Bourdieu, P. (1996 [1992]). The rules of art: genesis and structure of the literary field (S. Emanuel, Trans.).
Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Brake, D. R. (2009). ‘As if nobody’s reading’?: The imagined audience and socio-technical biases in personal
blogging practice in the UK. PhD, The London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
Retrieved from http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/4/
• Couldry, N. (2010). Why voice matters : culture and politics after neoliberalism. London: SAGE.
• Jenkins, H., & Thorburn, D. (2004). Democracy and new media: MIT Press.
• Lorimer, R. (2012). Ultra libris : policy, technology, and the creative economy of book publishing in Canada.
Toronto, ON: ECW Press.
• Massey, V. (1951). Report [of The] Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and
Sciences, 1949-1951: E. Cloutier, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty. Retrieved from
https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/massey/
• The Writer's Union of Canada. (2015). Devaluing Creators, Endangering Creativity. Doing More and Making
Less: Writers’ Incomes Today. Retrieved from http://www.writersunion.ca/news/canadian-writers-working-harder-
while-earning-less
• van Dijk, J. A. G. M. (2005). The deepening divide : inequality in the information society. Thousand Oaks, Calif. ;
London: Sage Pub.
32