Analysis of the types of author-led publishing activities : Focusing on literary books from the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945)

This study analyzed the phenomenon and cases of “author-led publishing,” such as self-publishing and independent publishing, that emerged prominently in the literary field during the Japanese colonial period. The covers and copyrights of 441 literary publications were analyzed to identify 123 author-led publications. These books, which accounted for 27.9% of the total, can be categorized into three types: “self-publishing not intended for bookstore sales,” “self-publishing with bookstore sales in mind,” “publishing one's own books through the establishment of a publishing company,” “publishing by social activist groups of writers,” and “authors acting as both authors and publishers.” This phenomenon stemmed from a conflictual environment where publishing was established as a crucial activity for writers in a technological environment where anyone with capital could publish, yet profit-driven publishers avoided publishing books that sold poorly. In this context, authors exploited provisions in the Publication Act that allowed them to obtain publishing permits directly, attempting various author-led publishing initiatives, which ultimately shaped the literary publishing landscape.