Cune
A Journal of Grassroots Publishing

The Last Best Hope for Literature

"When authors producing their own work can compete with mega-publishers, there will be profound consequences for the well-being of our culture."

—Literary Entrepreneurs

Our very best artists and writers are excluded from publication or, if published, can not put their work into bookstores and before the public. As a culture shaken by change, we require new ideas to survive. Yet our largest publishers have cut thoughtful writers to concentrate on bestsellers.

Cune encourages the mega presses to do more spade work, to develop audiences for literature. And yet, we realize, the task is largely left to authors themselves. Against the grim picture in traditional publishing, however, we see promise in the growth of desktop publishing and the Web as a publishing medium.

We propose that artists and writers become utterly realistic about their prospects for publication. Take a few hours, we say, to educate yourselves in book production and marketing. You may conclude, as we have, that the ongoing grassroots publishing revolution is more than a fleeting intoxication with high tech. It’s a movement upon which a larger good depends.

--September, 1995