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The paper is intended to address the transition from national book trades selling books in national languages, into an international market distributing books mainly in English. During the past decade the book sales through the Internet has grown rapidly and the affects on small countries has yet to be discussed. The examples in the paper are from the Swedish book trade, but these are put in a wider perspective. Similar transitions can be seen in many countries and the paper will initiate a discussion of the growing global market and its implications. What happens to the domestic literature? Is there an international market for anything but fiction in the English language? What is the impact of the international best-seller lists? Furthermore, I intend to bring up issues of value, particularly in view of a general fear of "Americanization" of literature. This will be related to the dream of the global, accessible world where we all are connected on the Internet, having the same cultural references. There is an ongoing debate on whether or not the international book trade is becoming increasingly contracted and concentrated, leaving room only for a few multinational corporations. Or does the great diversity created by the Internet finally provide a space for r counterculture? The media in itself is transformative enough to avoid succumbing to the cultural industry. Literature, ideas, and research have been made available and accessible in Sweden to a new degree. But transnational publishing, international distribution, and new methods for marketing books will change culture, whether we like it or not.

Stream: Books, Writing and Reading

Paper: Diversity, or is it all the Same?

Graduate student in literature writing dissertation on the Swedish book trade of the 1970s, mainly on the transition from a sale of books through bookstores to sales of books through book clubs and supermarkets. Book is due in October. Also working on two new research projects and the paper presented here is part of one of them. In this project I am focusing on the modern book trade particularly the changes caused by the Internet and on the changing global market for texts and literature. The second project is a history of the Swedish book trade 1945–1970.