Inequalities of Platform Publishing: The Promise and Peril of Self-Publishing in the Digital Book Era

Has self-publishing enabled a greater number of writers from marginalized groups to find an audience for their work, or is it perpetuating the publishing industry’s historical inequities? Parnell, a lecturer in digital publishing at Melbourne University, makes the case for the latter in this incisive debut study. Through data analysis and interviews with writers of color who self-publish on Wattpad and Amazon, she shows how systematic inequalities have emerged on these platforms. Among her troubling examples are Amazon’s system for flagging adult material in self-published books, which seems to have an implicit bias against cover art featuring Black people, as well as Wattpad’s relationship with its “Stars Program” authors, who are contracted to write serial novels on the site, but get little support from Wattpad when they become targets of harassment in the comments section. Parnell also spotlights age-old systemic biases being perpetuated in new ways, like Amazon’s complex “browse categories” classification system, which replicates the BISAC system’s long-standing, much criticized practice of designating books by and about marginalized people separately from “General” categories. (Parnell argues that Amazon’s system is even worse in this regard, since new categories proliferate unchecked.) Throughout, Parnell offers intriguing insights that may even surprise publishing insiders, such as when she explores Wattpad’s large footprint in the Philippines, Brazil, and Turkey. Book industry professionals will be engrossed. (Oct.)