Danny O. Snow '78 (Publisher)
By Cristina Slattery '97
Danny O. Snow ’78 is a man who looks to the future as much as the past. He is passionate about giving previously unpublished books a chance as well as resurrecting those out-of-print books that are no longer commercially viable but that have immeasurable value to those seeking them. His revolutionary spirit has cooled since the 1990s when he set out to transform the publishing industry by eradicating the overprinting of books and other wasteful practices through the implementation of “Print on Demand” method of publishing.
Print on Demand is exactly what it sounds like: the customer orders a book and the publisher prints and sends it in response to this “demand.” In fact, the book is created expressly for the individual ordering it. As a result, the expense of an initial print run and the cost of warehouse space for books that have been printed but not purchased become insignificant. The only books created are those that have been ordered and the entire process of producing books is made more efficient. And, as Danny himself notes, a byproduct of Print on Demand is that publishing becomes more egalitarian since authors no longer need to persuade a publishing house that the book will sell lots of copies in order to justify printing. Thus, Print on Demand allows a publisher to take a chance on an unpublished author because the investment is much more limited.
Danny’s love of publishing was encouraged at Culver Military Academy where he attended high school. As co-editor of the school literary journal, he experienced its different facets: acquisition, editorial, printing and design, and, as he describes it, he became “hooked.” In college, Danny studied one-on-one with the acclaimed professor and playwright William Alfred, an opportunity for which he is immensely grateful. He was also involved in theater as an undergraduate and has taken time out from his publishing career to act in plays, films and for television. Although he set out to write the “Great American novel” after graduating from Harvard, in time he came to realize that writing a 50,000-word literary novel was not necessarily “in him.” But a love of writing and of the English language certainly existed and he turned to journalism and later worked in what he terms the “elitist, inefficient, environmentally hostile traditional publishing industry.”
Of course, in order to advocate for change, one must understand exactly what one is trying to modify – and that Snow did. At the company he founded in the year 2000, Unlimited Publishing LLC, the “boss” is not the boss – he is a co-worker. Profit is a goal, but Snow doesn’t see himself as a businessperson as much as a man who is at once “high-tech,” socially progressive and nostalgic about the impact that this technology may have on the quirky, neighborhood bookstore that is struggling to survive.
In addition to his work at Unlimited Publishing, Danny is a fellow at The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) in Palo Alto, California, and there he is able to study and theorize about the impact that new and emerging media will have on society in years to come. Topics such as whether “new media are actually changing the way readers read and writers write at a cognitive or physiological level" are part of the day-to-day discussion and inquiry that takes place at SNCR and Danny enjoys being surrounded by researchers with a similar fascination about the future. He feels that he is no longer a “lone advocate for changing the status quo” as a result of his affiliation with SNCR, and also enjoys that the work there is not driven by profit and findings are not “hoarded as proprietary trade secrets.”
Snow lives in three places, he acknowledges: on the Internet, in Indiana, and in California. In describing his life “online,” Danny explains that he can “appreciate people he has never met for their ideas alone,” while he describes his life in Indiana as one in which he is surrounded by “decent, Midwestern folks.” California and the larger cities he travels to on a regular basis allow him access to “cool, cutting-edge people,” and this variety of experiences seems to enrich his life as well as enable him to get his ideas across to more people, including the “reactionary” publishing industry that has started to embrace Print on Demand.
Snow notes that a sociological trend is taking place in which ordinary people are becoming journalists, authors and publishers and the traditional gatekeepers are being displaced. His company, Unlimited Publishing, has recently formed a collaboration with Harvardwood Books. Authors affiliated with Harvardwood Books will be offered one more channel for getting their material to the public, and readers will get access to writers who may have been overlooked by publishing’s “gatekeepers” who may not see some manuscripts as commercially viable. So, even if Snow didn’t actually write the “Great American Novel” he aspired to create, he remains committed to finding and publishing it – and other deserving material as well.