The Dictionary Market: Getting Your Words' Worth
"I think dictionaries are in a very fraught position," says Katherine Martin, the editorial head of U.S. dictionaries at Oxford University Press, when asked to describe the overall mood pervading the dictionary business today. "Because on the one hand, we're on the cutting edge: We're so open to changes in the nature of publishing. But at the same time, the [public's] notion of the dictionary is sort of as a fusty, tweed-jacketed, bearded preserver of the English language as it has been, and always will be. But the truth of the matter," she adds, "is that there is no English language as it has been and always will be, because it's changing all the time, just as the dictionary is changing."
Dan Eldridge is a journalist and guidebook author based in Philadelphia's historic Old City district, where he and his partner own and operate Kaya Aerial Yoga, the city's only aerial yoga studio. A longtime cultural reporter, Eldridge also writes about small business and entrepreneurship, travel, and the publishing industry. Follow him on Twitter at @YoungPioneers.