Starting this month, our company will launch a publishing label called “D Shoroku.” It is an operation similar to DIY publishing of an indie label. You write your own manuscript, edit it yourself, put it into the format of a book, and print it on demand. Since you do everything except printing yourself, it is relatively inexpensive, and you can have a high degree of freedom in your writing without worrying about unnecessary regulations.
As the first installment of D Shoroku, we will release “Towards the Age of Plain,” which was serialized in our paper from January 2018 to June 2022 and has been significantly revised and expanded for the book. An overview of the book is written in an advertisement on page 4 of our paper. From now on, we hope to liven up the “D Shoroku” series by repeating various trial and error, including how to sell it.
As is well known, print media including newspapers and publishing have been in a slump for a long time, and people are moving away from print, whether paper or electronic. This trend has accelerated especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, in recent years, “ZINE”, an independent publication issued by individuals or a small number of volunteers, has become a quiet movement, mainly among young people. ZINE is a ray of light that protects Japan’s print culture, and has an atmosphere reminiscent of the dawn of print media in the Meiji and Taisho eras. At least, that’s how it appears to me. In other words, it is a return to the basics, a movement to rebuild print culture from scratch.
As a small company that is somehow at the bottom of print journalism, we would like to be involved in the movement to rebuild print culture from scratch. This is also the thought behind the publishing label “D Shoroku”.
As an aside, over the past few months, we have experienced the pain of birth. Although there is an affinity with newspapers, this was our first time making a book, so there were many difficulties, and it was not until the end of June that we were able to produce a prototype. We made some improvements from there and released the official version, “Towards the Age of Plain” in July, and will begin full-scale development. (Kei Kitajima)

※Translating Japanese articles into English with AI