7 ms·
Cuts in publishing and book reviewing imperil the future of narrative nonfiction
- bryanrasmussen 6mo agothe original title is: Nonfiction Publishing, Under Threat, Is More Important Than Ever which totally fits, did HN's title algorithm cut that off? If so it seems silly. "Than ever" is an important modifier, otherwise someone is apt to think that the subject is more important than some other opposing subject, in this case that Nonfiction publishing is more important than fiction publishing. Anyway I think the "than ever" should be added back in
- Gander5739 6mo agoIt's not a title algorithm, it's a character limit.
- jhbadger 6mo agoThere isn't a technical reason why titles have to be that short, memory isn't in that short supply despite the RAM shortages. A function, therefore an algorithm, is deciding to truncate the title for some reason.
- perching_aix 6mo agoWhich you find to be the reasonable explanation over just OP editorializing the title with their own hands because...?
- jfengel 6mo agoBecause the edited title is incoherent and grammatically incorrect. Until recently that would have marked it as likely done by simplistic automation. These days, it's hard to tell, because humans seem more likely to make simple errors of grammar.
- harshreality 6mo agoFull title, "...than ever": 64 characters Another title currently on the front page has 74 characters: "The Many Roots of Our Suffering: Reflections on Robert Trivers (1943–2026)"
- Gander5739 6mo agoI stand corrected.
- bryanrasmussen 6mo agono, as I indicated the full title is within the character limit, to test it I opened up a submit form and it did not say the title was too long.
- mitchbob 6mo ago> Cuts in publishing and book reviewing imperil the future of narrative nonfiction, and our understanding of the world around us. https://archive.ph/2026.03.23-164808/https://newrepublic.com/article/207659/non-fiction-publishing-threat-important-ever https://archive.ph/2026.03.23-164808/https://newrepublic.com...
- xhkkffbf 6mo agoOh yes, it's the evil publishers and book reviewers who are killing the business. Not the pirates like the people who post these archive links.
- stogot 6mo ago> Nonfiction books are a crucial bulwark against the surging public culture of “alternative facts,” outright lies, and the brazen embrace of ignorance. Do they believe someone cannot lie because it’s written down in a paperback? Authors lie in books and books do nothing to help someone who “embraces” ignorance
- bondarchuk 6mo agoThis was dead, I vouched for it, I think it's a good point. Form does not determine the truthfulness of content.
- jfengel 6mo agoIt does nod in its direction, though. Or at least it used to. Mass production printing was high overhead, and publishers had reputations to protect. That wasn't perfect but they'd usually try to avoid the worst propaganda. (Or at least shove it off onto an imprint with less of a reputation. Or into a category, like Self Help, where people know its shaky relationship to truth.) It was far from perfect. But these days the publishing gatekeepers have largely lost the battle. People prefer the hot takes they get from tv and social media.
- thfuran 6mo agoPrinted propaganda goes back at least as far as the early 1500s, and written propaganda goes back thousands of years.
- qsera 6mo agoThey can lie, but that lie will remain in the books that have gone into circulation. A lie on the internet can be reversed or erased after it has been consumed by millions of human eye balls.
- falcor84 6mo agoWe generally consider it a good thing that written falsehoods can be amended to instead say the truth. That's what we do with book errata and editions too. The bigger issue is the attempt to rewrite history as if the falsehood was never there, which is in my opinion a much bigger lie. As I see it, this can be handled by third party archives and by us as a society actually attaching repercussions to such outright lying.
- throwaway27448 6mo ago[flagged]
- lacunary 6mo agoGoing back to the late 90s I've been able to consistently buy books I want from my local B&N. I got most of the programming books I used to build my skills that led to my career there. My young adult kids buy books there now. They keep great hours and it's a pleasant experience. I recently went on a whim, at 8pm on a weekday, and found the best novel I've read in years. What am I missing?
- soupfordummies 6mo agoWhat’s the novel :)
- lacunary 6mo agoThe Obscene Bird of Night by Donoso
- soupfordummies 6mo agoNever heard of it and I’m very intrigued. Going on the list, thanks for sharing!
- throwaway27448 6mo agoI can't say I've had anything like this experience with technical books, non-fiction, and anything but popular fiction. It's just schlock: self-help, best sellers, expensive notebooks and kitschy crap. Each store is organized differently. There is no rhyme or reason to what books are purchased or why, and from a history nerd's perspective, the selection they choose is actively harmful. I am very happy you had good bookstore experiences! This frustration is earnest and from many failed expectations.
- don_searchcraft 6mo agoI love Tattered Cover but to be fair the folks that bought it in 2020 ran it into the ground. It was barely limping along, you'd go in and because of their debt issues they weren't stocking the shelves so you'd be pressed to find what you were there for.
- diego_moita 6mo agoI am worried. I do agree that the bigger picture of learning non-fiction is richer. We now have other ways to learn non-fiction: Wikipedia, Veritasium, Gemini, etc. But only books can provide you something we may call a "coherent worldview". They are the ones that stitch together different pictures into a coherent whole. I can think of a lot of books that gave me that: E.Gombrich's "Story of Art", Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death", ... honestly, even Julia Childs' "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" or Yuval Harari's "Sapiens" (his other books are crap, b.t.w.). True, we still have universities' textbooks. But they're very narrow in scope. The thing about non-fiction books is that nothing else can provide the same combination of depth and scope.
- aaron695 6mo ago[dead]