Fiction’s New Clothes? Publishing Fiction Electronically : A Qualitative Study Based on Interviews with Nine Swedish Publishers and Four Other Agents in the Literary Field

The main objective of this essay is to present the views of nine Swedish publishers and four other agents in the literary field regarding the possibilities of and obstacles to publishing fiction in an electronic format. Furthermore, whether or not electronic publishing is today actually a viable alternative. A substantial part of the essay functions as background to our interview findings and is based primarily on material originating from the Sociology of Literature field. The introductory chapter expounds the methodological and theoretical basis of the essay and is followed by a chapter placing our study in a larger, international media, context. Chapter three deals with the past decades’ restructuring of the publishing sector, the professional functions involved in traditional publishing and Pierre Bourdieu’s theories on the cultural and economic forces at work in the literary field. The fourth and fifth chapters present the many roles of the traditional printed book, as well as new media for the distribution and consumption of literature, and looks at the kind of partnerships evolving between agents in e-publishing. The main emphasis is, however, placed on the following sections: Chapter six, which exemplifies a few of the existing national and international web publishers; and chapter seven, which presents our examination based on qualitative interviews with publishers and other agents connected with the Swedish book industry. The essay finishes with a discussion of our findings and concludes that, despite new media and textual carriers, the traditional book remains the main player regarding the production, distribution and consumption of serious fiction, as far as the traditional Swedish publishers are concerned.Uppsatsnivå: