Literature, "In-House" Writers, and Processes of Success in Publishing

Frank de Glas discusses in his article, "Literature, 'In-House' Writers, and Processes of Success in Publishing," the fact that too many studies of twentieth-century publishing practices concentrate on individual case studies while neglecting more general patterns and that too little use is made of theoretical concepts developed in the sociology of cultural production. He argues that one of the contributing elements in the economic and artistic success of a publishing house is the bringing together of a productive group of "in-house authors." To build up and to maintain such a group, publishers steadily launch new authors who they hope will become productive writers associated with their publishing house. There is little systemic and empirical knowledge, however, of the extent of how and to what degree such publishers succeed. The present article presents empirical research -based on explicit theoretical and methodological argumentation -into the literary careers of Dutch-language writers of literary fiction in the period of 1961 to 1965. The results of the study increase our insight into general tendencies in the productivity of authors and their commitment, or lack of it, to particular publishers in The Netherlands. Frank de Glas, "Literature, 'In-House' Writers, and Processes of Success in Publishing" page 2 of 10 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 1.4 (1999):