If we look at what that means in biodiversity we see the extremely simple idea that if you have several species but some are present in huge numbers while others are very scarce, the ones with many units are likely to eat or prevail over the others.
This is what is happening in the book world where it is a matter for concern that the dominance of blockbusters on supermarket shelves and above all in bookstore displays is pushing out other offerings which are more difficult to promote".
In order to guarantee margins acceptable to shareholders who may be very distant from the publishing house (both physically and culturally), production is recalibrated to enhance its commercial potential.
In some cases, the result is a huge imbalance, with commercial logic vastly prevailing over intellectual adventurousness: here, the publisher unreservedly espouses demand-based economics to the detriment of its role of stimulating and purveying new ideas (offering texts which may be challenging, original, non-standard).
This makes them the key players in bibliodiversity terms: they are genuine discoverers of talents, they are cultural risk-takers, they facilitate the existence and dissemination of the authors and texts of the future.
This socially important role is clearly acknowledged by the major publishing groups – who frequently cherry-pick for themselves those authors who begin to gain public recognition.
Moreover, the digital revolution currently transforming the entire book world – from the creation of texts through to their marketing – could have significant impacts in terms of bibliodiversity.
On the other hand, the capturing of this emerging marketplace (as yet unproven in economic terms) by new players – online sales platforms, designers and manufacturers of IT equipment (readers in particular), etc.
[6] In 2006, following a letter addressed to the candidates in the French presidential election, the newspaper Le Monde picked up several of the concrete measures proposed to promote bibliodiversity.
Françoise Rivière, Assistant Director-General for Culture at UNESCO, in her speech opening the Assises Internationales de l'Édition Indépendante (International Assembly on Independent Publishing – Paris, July 2007): "Just as it seeks to highlight the complementary nature of the aims of biodiversity and cultural diversity on the global scene, UNESCO is also closely monitoring the issue of diversity of expression and content in the international book market.