Entrepreneurial Identity in US Book Publishing in the Twenty-First Century PDF
Preview Entrepreneurial Identity in US Book Publishing in the Twenty-First Century
Entrepreneurship underpins many roles within the publishing N Entrepreneurial Identity o industry, from freelancing to bookselling. Entrepreneurs are o R shaped by the contexts in which their entrepreneurship is d A in US Book Publishing situated (social, political, economic, and national). Additionally, entrepreneurship is integral to occupational identity for in the Twenty-First book publishing entrepreneurs. This Element examines entrepreneurship through the lens of identity and narrative based on interview data with book publishing entrepreneurs Century in the US. Book publishing entrepreneurship narratives of independence, culture over commerce, accidental profession, place, risk, (in)stability, busyness, and freedom are examined in this Element. E ntrepreneurial Identity in U Cambridge Elements in Publishing and Book Culture S B Series Editor: ook P UnAiSvseasrmsoiatcyni atChtoeal lREegdaeyi tLnoeorrn:don ublishing in the T Leah Tether w University of Bristol enty-F irst C entury Publishing and Book Culture The Business of Publishing ISSN 2514-8524 (online) ISSN 2514-8516 (print) Rachel Noorda https://www.cambridge.org/core. , on 17 :39, https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core. , on 17 :39, https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. ElementsinPublishingandBookCulture editedby SamanthaRayner UniversityCollegeLondon LeahTether UniversityofBristol ENTREPRENEURIAL IDENTITY IN US BOOK PUBLISHING IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY Rachel Noorda Portland State University https://www.cambridge.org/core. , on 17 :39, https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 103PenangRoad,#05–06/07,VisioncrestCommercial,Singapore238467 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108819510 DOI:10.1017/9781108875974 ©RachelNoorda2021 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2021 AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN978-1-108-81951-0Paperback ISSN2514-8524(online) ISSN2514-8516(print) CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. https://www.cambridge.org/core. , on 17 :39, https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. Entrepreneurial Identity in US Book Publishing in the Twenty-First Century Elements in Publishing and Book Culture DOI:10.1017/9781108875974 Firstpublishedonline:September2021 RachelNoorda PortlandStateUniversity Authorforcorrespondence:RachelNoorda,[email protected] Abstract:Entrepreneurshipunderpinsmanyroleswithinthe publishingindustry,fromfreelancingtobookselling. Entrepreneursareshapedbythecontextsinwhichtheir entrepreneurshipissituated(social,political,economic, andnational).Additionally,entrepreneurshipisintegralto occupationalidentityforbookpublishingentrepreneurs. ThisElementexaminesentrepreneurshipthroughthelens ofidentityandnarrativebasedoninterviewdatawithbook publishingentrepreneursintheUS.Bookpublishing entrepreneurshipnarrativesofindependence,cultureover commerce,accidentalprofession,place,risk,(in)stability, busyness,andfreedomareexaminedinthisElement. KEYWORDS:entrepreneurship,freelancing,narrative,bookselling, occupationalidentity ©RachelNoorda2021 ISBNs:9781108819510(PB),9781108875974(OC) ISSNs:2514-8524(online),2514-8516(print) https://www.cambridge.org/core. , on 17 :39, https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. Contents Introduction 1 1 Independence amidst Consolidation: Independent Publishers and Bookstores 27 2 Freelancers: Flexibility andUncertainty asa Contractor 52 3 Intersectionality and Entrepreneurial Identity 67 Conclusion and COVID-19 79 Bibliography 85 https://www.cambridge.org/core. , on 17 :39, https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. EntrepreneurialIdentityinUSBookPublishing 1 Introduction Entrepreneurship in the United States InthegraduateprogrammeinbookpublishingthatIleadatPortlandState University, students enter the programme with a variety of aspirational endeavours: many of them want to be editors and dream of working for alargepublishinghouseinNewYorkCityasanin-houseeditorwiththeir own list of award-winning titles. There are still individuals who live this dream,buta‘traditional’pathsuchasthisinthebookindustryisfarfrom traditionalnowadays.Thosewhosucceedbestinthebookindustryexercise flexibilityandagilitythroughinnovativeentrepreneurship:startingtheirown publishinghouses,freelancing,andcarvingoutnewrolesandcareerstofit changingindustryneedsanddynamics.Down(2006)hasgonesofarastosay thatentrepreneurshipis‘acontemporaryeconomicnecessity’inthetwenty- firstcenturyforthoseestablishingtheircareersandoccupationalidentities.1 AccordingtotheUSSmallBusinessAdministration,in2020therewere 31.7 million small businesses in the United States, which represent 99 per cent of all US businesses and employ 60.6 million people – 47.1 per cent of all US employees.2 In other words, small businesses – upheld as a pinnacle of entrepreneurship – are the foundation of the US economy.Itisestimatedthatforthecreativeindustries(whichincludesthe book industry), self-employment is even higher than for the average American: for example, artists are ‘highly entrepreneurial’ and 3.6 times more likely to be self-employed than the general US workforce.3 Thus, entrepreneurship (at least in the self-employment sense) is high in the UnitedStates,andevenhigherwithinthecreativeindustries. 1 S.Down,NarrativesofEnterprise:CraftingEntrepreneurialSelf-IdentityinaSmall Firm(Cheltenham/Northampton,MA:ElgarPublishing,2006),p.114. 2 USSmallBusinessAdministrationOfficeofAdvocacy,‘2020SmallBusinessProfile’, 2020,https://cdn.advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/04144224/2020- Small-Business-Economic-Profile-US.pdf 3 NationalAssemblyofStateArtsAgencies,‘FactsandFiguresontheCreative Economy’,2020,https://nasaa-arts.org/nasaa_research/facts-figures-on-the- creative-economy/ https://www.cambridge.org/core. , on 17 :39, https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. 2 PublishingandBookCulture Juxtaposedwiththisentrepreneurialenvironmentisthecurrentdisruption oftraditionalemployment,mostrecentlybecauseoftheCOVID-19pandemic. FloridaandSeman4estimatethattherewere252,820joblossesinthepublishing industry from April to July 2020, representing 9.1 per cent of jobs in the industry. In terms of occupations within or adjacent to the book industry, FloridaandSemanestimatethat176,416jobsforwriters/authors,46,813jobs foreditors,76,838jobsforgraphicdesigners,and26,339jobsforotherdesigners were lost between April and July 2020 due to the pandemic. The loss of traditionalbookindustryjobsdrivesworkerstowardsotheroptions,including entrepreneurshipthroughself-employmentintheindustry.Thebookindustry isstillthriving–withstrongbooksalesduringthepandemic,up8.2percentin 20205–butwhatoccupationslooklikeinthebookindustrycontinuestoshift towardsentrepreneurshipandawayfrom‘traditional’careerpaths. Down (2006) argues that the individualization and privatization of Westernsocietyinthetwentiethandtwenty-firstcenturieshavecontributed toageneralriseinentrepreneurshipintheWesternworld: Westernsocietyismoreindividualisedandprivatised;indi- vidualschooseormustacceptmoreriskandresponsibility intheirlives.Evenasconsumerswearetargetedindividu- ally. Work has become more transient and enterprising in orientation.Weareexpectedtobemoreflexible,self-reliant and entrepreneurial at work. Our organizations are chan- gingandbecominglessinterestedinlookingafterus.6 Thus,theCOVID-19pandemicisonlythemostrecentexacerbationof an already growing, entrepreneurially oriented system of employment in 4 R.FloridaandM.Seman,‘LostArt:MeasuringCOVID-19’sDevastatingImpact onAmerica’sCreativeEconomy’(2020),www.brookings.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2020/08/20200810_Brookingsmetro_Covid19-and-creative- economy_Final.pdf. 5 J.Milliot,‘PrintBookSalesRose8.2%in2020’,PublishersWeekly (7January2021). 6 Down,NarrativesofEnterprise,p.5. https://www.cambridge.org/core. , on 17 :39, https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. EntrepreneurialIdentityinUSBookPublishing 3 theUnitedStatesinthetwenty-firstcentury.Entrepreneurshipisimportant to consider in the US book publishing industry for several reasons: book publishing is rarely the focus of academic research into entrepreneurship, therapidrateofchangeinthebookindustrynecessitatesentrepreneurship moresothaninotherindustries,andtheUnitedStatesfostersaparticularly strong entrepreneurial national narrative to foreground self-employment behaviourwithinitsborders.Thisisthebestplacetobegin,withoneofthe keynarrativesthatcontextualisesandencouragesentrepreneurshipwithin UnitedStatesculture:theAmericanDream. Entrepreneurial Narratives in the United States: The American Dream TheAmericanDreamisapervasivenationalnarrative,onethatshapesnational identity but also other identities – occupational identity and class identity amongthem.ThenationalnarrativeoftheAmericanDreamcentresentrepre- neurship at its core. This narrative shapes the perception of entrepreneurs, acceptabilityofentrepreneurship,andmotivationsforentrepreneurship.Inthe culturalhistoryoftheAmericanDream,Samuelassertsthattheentrepreneurial spiritisembeddedintheAmericanDream,alongwithother‘familiartropesof theAmericanideaandexperience’,includingthat‘tomorrowwillbebetterthan today’,andtheemphasisonwealth,success,hope,andchangein‘thebeliefthat anythingispossible’.7TheAmericanDreamisoneofthekeynationalnarratives thathasshapedAmericanidentity,culture,politics,andbusinesspractices. Despite the promiseof the American Dream to offersocial mobility to anyonewhoworkshardenough,thedatatellsadifferentstory–forexample, intermsofabsoluteeconomicmobility(whetherornotchildrenmakemore moneythantheirparents).InapaperfromtheNationalBureauofEconomic Research,Chettyetal.comparedchildren’shouseholdincomeatagethirtyto thatoftheirparentsatthesameage.Whentrackedovertime,thisdatareveals thatwhile90percentofchildrenbornin1940mademoremoneythantheir parents, only 50 percent of children born in 1980 made more moneythan theirparents.Inotherwords,absoluteeconomicmobilityhasbeensteadily 7 L.R.Samuel,TheAmericanDream:ACulturalHistory(Syracuse:Syracuse UniversityPress,2019),p.5. https://www.cambridge.org/core. , on 17 :39, https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. 4 PublishingandBookCulture decliningintheUnitedStatessincethe1940s.Theauthorscallthisphenom- enon‘thefadingAmericanDream’.8Intergenerationaleconomicmobilityis particularly limited for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) people in the United States, especially Black communities. Here is an example: In US counties ‘with a majority black population, a black child borntoparentsinthe25thincomepercentileonlyachievesameanincome rankof32,barelyanymovementuptheincomeladder,whilewhitechildren from the same counties achieve a mean income rank of 43’.9 Inequalities aboundintheUnitedStates,regardlessofhowtheAmericanDreampresents thecountryasaplaceofequalopportunity. However,thepurposeofthisdiscussionoftheAmericanDreamnarra- tiveistoconsideritassimplythat–anarrative.Mypurposeisnottoprove or disprove this narrative, but to rather explore how it (and other narra- tives) influence entrepreneurship in the United States. Because of the centrality of the narrative of the American Dream to American national identity and American life, entrepreneurship – particularly as manifested throughsmallbusiness–isuniversallyembracedbypoliticiansacrossthe political spectrum in the US.10 Being anti-small business or anti- entrepreneurshipis simplysomethingyoudo notseein USpolitics.This isillustratedsimplyandpowerfullyinUSpresidentialspeeches: (cid:129) In1946,PresidentTrumansaid,‘Itisobviousnationalpolicytofosterthe sounddevelopmentofsmallbusiness.’ (cid:129) In 1956, President Eisenhower said, ‘We shall continue to help small businessconcernstoobtainaccesstoadequatefinancingandtocompe- tentcounselonmanagement,production,andmarketingproblems.’ 8 R.Chetty,D.Grusky,M.Hell,N.Hendren,R.Manduca,andJ.Narang,‘The FadingAmericanDream:TrendsinAbsoluteIncomeMobilitySince1940’,National BureauofEconomicResearchWorkingPaperSeries(2016),https://opportunityin sights.org/paper/the-fading-american-dream/ 9 EquitableGrowth,‘RaceandtheLackofIntergenerationalEconomicMobilityin theUnitedStates’,inVision2020:EvidenceforaStrongerEconomy (18February2020),www.equitablegrowth.org/race-and-the-lack-of-intergen erational-economic-mobility-in-the-united-states/ 10 Samuel,TheAmericanDream. https://www.cambridge.org/core. , on 17 :39, https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
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