Rebecca's Thoughts

The idea that books and the publishing industry in the year 2023 are equivalent to fast fashion is an idea that I have thought about for a while but could not find the right words to articulate. This “books are fast fashion” was coined by Jessica Karl in this Bloomberg article and brought to my attention by TikTok user @evan_ludwid in response to the likely rushed, and not fully formed, sequel to the 2023 young adult sensation Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. The sequel Iron Flame was released this November only six months after the first book. This speedy release schedule is not normal in the world of traditional publishing and books are usually released yearly. Books may even take longer depending on the author or the book deal. Not that books cannot or should not be released biannual basis but highlight a trend of the disposable nature of literature and ways in which people consume books.

In this entry, I do not want to discuss the “likeability” or “goodnesss” of a book. I think enjoyment is extremely subjective and I do not want to put people down because of the media they like. People can like problematic or bad things, but there should be a degree of skepticism and questioning that goes into consuming these things. However, I think there are blatant issues with not only this book but also with this new trend in publishing. In Jessica Karl’s article, she says that the publishing industry is “pushing out a steady stream of content because they know readers, influenced by social media reviews, will keep buying despite any glaring ethical concerns.” This is in response to the quality of the book (i.e., spelling mistakes, grammar issues, and printing issues) but also the employment of other languages and cultures with appropriation. In her book Yarros, uses Scottish Gaelic (a minority language) in the book but seemingly does not know their meaning or their pronunciation. This, in my opinion, is capitalizing off of a minority culture without actively or productively interacting with it.

In the class reading The Commodity by Marx, there is a discussion around the value of a commodity and how it disproportionately swayed away from quality and more towards popularity and more towards popularity or quantity. The commodity becomes social and thus its value is determined by its exchange value rather than its quality. This value is determined by the market and the marketers. This relationship commodifies books and other forms of media. The buzz or popularity of a book determines what will get published in the future. I do not think that this is anything new, but I think it has gotten worse and publishers are no longer hiding it. An inferior product with hype and popularity will outsell a ‘good’ product and therefore publishers will go with the former almost always.

The publisher behind the book has also employed common tactics used in the fast fashion industry when it comes to retailing the book. In Jessica Karl’s article, she says, “The formula is similar to that of retail “drops,” where brands release limited-edition fashion lines that sell out in an instant. But instead of clothes, readers are snatching up books. (Perhaps that feels like a relatively guilt-free purchase in comparison.)” The drop in question was an unmarked book without a title, cover, or summary that was sold out within the day it was released. The book in question was a “special” fourth edition of the Fourth Wing, which I am assuming was a book the buyers already had, but the hype around this mysterious book was enough to sell it out. This makes the author’s work a commodity, and because the book is guaranteed to sell, there is less incentive to make the book better than passable.