---
layout: post
status: publish
published: true
title: ! 'Publication: "Gatekeepers in a digital wasteland", The Author'

wordpress_id: 2895
wordpress_url: https://www.martineve.com/?p=2895
date: !binary |-
  MjAxMy0wOS0xOCAxODo0NzoyNSArMDIwMA==
date_gmt: !binary |-
  MjAxMy0wOS0xOCAxNzo0NzoyNSArMDIwMA==
categories:
- Literature
- Technology
- Open Access
- Academia
- Publications
- Output
tags:
- Open Access
- literary value
comments: []
---
<p>It is already a cliché to announce the demise of the book in the wake of the digital revolution. While it might be unwise to stake our futures on the printed-and-bound codex, it seems doubtful that a shift in the way words are delivered will result in the downfall of long-form writing itself. What does seem questionable, however, is the persistence of the current publishing model in which publishers act as gatekeepers. In the ‘democratised’ digital republic enabled by self-publishing, what threatens to remain is a wasteland in which the inhabitants elect their culture via a ballot of sparsely distributed consumer capital. The ‘book’ looks likely to persist. What may not is the current way in which we decide what is worthwhile between the (digital) covers.</p>
<p>This piece forms a (short) point of intersection between my work on scholarly communications and some thinking on literary value and market-production. It will be available in green open access form at the <a href="http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/11595/">Lincoln institutional repository</a> after a month's embargo period.</p>