ABSTRACT
Academics and other scholars take the outcome of the publishing process very seriously. One’s own books, articles, offprints, reviews-all of these are the scholar’s life blood, the source of professional connection, economic security, status, even identity. The published works of others are also important, providing information, inspiration, contact, andmore practically-a basis for teaching one’s courses. Until very recently, however, few academics considered the process itself worthy of study. Publishing apparently held no mysteries, especially for the successful. Nor have publishers themselves studied the field. As Irving Horowitz has noted, “professional publishing is a strangely anti-intellectual environment dominated by individuals often remote from the publishing product” (Horowitz, 1991:xiv-xv). Publishers either do not believe that their work has social, cultural, and political implications, or they do not care to investigate these implications very closely.
