Three musicians releasing books: Why Taylor Swift's might upset the publishing industry

Three musicians are set to release books documenting historic moments, both live and in the studio. Released this week, bassist Colin Greenwood has compiled a 136-page book of unseen behind-the-scenes shots of his band Radiohead.

‘How to Disappear’ includes 97 of Greenwood’s photographs, alongside a 10,000 word essay, bringing an intimate look into one of the world’s biggest and secretive bands.

“For years now, I’ve been taking fugitive snaps of my band, Radiohead. I’ve tried to catch out my friends with my small black Yashica T4 Super. They are so lost in their own moment of performance that they don’t see me with the camera,” Greenwood has said of the collection.

While this is the first publishing release for the Radiohead bassist, Icelandic musician Björk has this week announced the release of her ninth book. ‘Cornucopia: The Book’ is a 480-page picture book that chronicles the titular tour that took place between 2019 and 2023.

Featuring 313 images, including photographs by Santiago Felipe and concert designs by Tobias Gremmler, it brings the unique world of Björk’s live experience to the coffee table and will be released on 15 November.

“Throughout this tale, there is a subplot woven in: a second story of an avatar — a modern marionette who alchemically mutates, from puppet to puppet, from the injury of a heart wound to a fully healed state,” Björk wrote of the book. “I hope you enjoy it.”

Also announced this week was a book by Taylor Swift, documenting her recent record-breaking tour. ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Book’ is set for release on 29 November featuring behind the scenes photographs and insights from Swift on the tour.

Swift’s 256-page book is unique from the others in that she’s created her own publishing imprint to release it. While Greenwood is publishing his book through John Murray, a subsidiary of Hachette, and Björk is going through design studio M/M Paris, Swift has created Taylor Swift Publications.

As with almost everything Swift does, from a business perspective this is a canny move. Much like the ‘Taylor’s Version’ re-releases, this ensures that Swift can put out another product into the world and get the maximum profit back from it.

Publish and be damned

And why should she need a publisher? Part of the role of a publishing house is to reduce the risk of an artist going out into the scary world alone. Publishing houses don’t just provide the printing resources, for most artists, their value is in their combination of reputation and marketing capability.

Neither of which is of importance to Swift. Her popularity is so gargantuan and her fandom so rabid that her book is a dead cert to sell out almost immediately. There’s no upside to Swift leaning on a publishing house’s reputation while they skim off a percentage of the profits.

It’s a move that’s been celebrated by most of Swift’s fans, lauding her for bypassing the convoluted and often elitist publishing industry.

But there’s a flipside to this. The publishing industry has long relied on big names like pop stars, actors, and politicians to fund their business model. If you’re wondering why you’re always hearing about a new comedian or actor releasing their latest memoir or novel, it’s because these often sell significantly better to the public than a release from someone only famous for writing.

Much like how Hollywood loves to create a film based on existing IP, it’s easier to sell a book by someone you’ve already heard of. In the literary world, there are only so many Sally Rooneys and R F Kuangs before you enter into the vast array of releases by little-known authors.

Swift doesn’t need these publishers to take a cut of her profits in order to keep their own publications afloat. She’s big enough on her own to forgo any supposed benefits of their industry.

But if all artists with the kind of social media engagement Swift were to followed her lead, publishing would be in a dangerous position. Swifties may applaud their hero’s disengagement with a blood-sucking industry, but it’s the profit share model she’s avoiding that creates opportunities for so many other authors.

Books, ultimately, aren’t a particularly reliable way to make money. Publishing houses would love all the books they sell to fly off the shelves. The unfortunate fact is that’s not the case. So the current model is one that uses the mass profits of white wales such as Rooney’s new release ‘Intermezzo’ to offset the losses of the many other authors releasing work. I don’t have a quote to hand to say for certain, but I’d bet Rooney is okay with this as it creates a literary environment with more published novelists.

While Swift may frame her creation of her own imprint as another self-actualising girlboss achievement, is it actually just another way she’s shutting the door behind her to smaller artists?