Women’s Voice for Peace, Truth & Equal Justice for All
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Privishing: Dirty Little Secret
Until recently, I never knew the word for it, but I know it happens -- a lot.
According to Charlotte Dennett, chair of the Vermont Local National Writers Union (NWU):
“Privishing is a practice little known to authors. It happens when publishers kill off troublesome books ...”
Not wanting to be accused of censorship, editors will publish controversial books which attack political issues or blow the whistle on corporations. At the same time, the publishers shy away from the possibility of book banning or lawsuits. To play it safe, they kill the book. But politics and whistle blowing aren’t the only things that can get a book privished.
For example, a writer pens the first book in a publisher series which is written by several authors. The writer’s book sells well, but the next book in the series by a different author doesn’t sell as well. The publisher will then stop printing the writer’s book, creating a shortage on orders from booksellers, then fill the shortage with the new book in the series that isn’t selling as well.
Privishing happens. It’s been a publishing practice for decades. Yet it’s still not widely known among writers. Writers usually blame themselves if their books don’t sell well. There isn’t much we can do about it except be aware. An author who writes a controversial book, especially non-fiction, would be well advised to consider self-publishing.
For more information read “Privishing: Publishing’s Dirty Little Secret,” by Charlotte Dennet in the Summer issue of American Writer, quarterly magazine of the National Writers Union.
More Dirty Privishing Secrets
According to the sworn testimony in federal court of a twenty-year Viking Press editor, William Decker, the term was used in the industry to describe how publishers killed off books without authors’ awareness or consent. Privishing is a portmanteau meaning to privately publish, as opposed to true publishing that is open to the public. It is usually employed in the following context: “We privished the book so that it sank without a trace.”
The former National Vice President and present Co-Chair of the National Book Division of the National Writers Union, Gerard Colby relates the self-imposed censorship to privishing, a phenomenon that marked its début in the 1970s, and is now a symbol of “wise” publishing. It is illustrative of the way the publishers “kill” book without the authorial knowledge or consent. This particularly refers to writers whose books contain truths unpalatable to the dominant ideological or marketing trends. Unlike publishing, open to the public eye, privishing is utterly dominated by private interests, even at the cost of financial failure. The publishers release a book that is not going to be read: “We privished the book so that it sank without a trace.”
Excerpt from “The Price of Liberty” by Gerard Colby in the National Press Club award-winning Into the Buzzsaw: Leading