Overpublishing

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The act of releasing more written or printed material than the market can absorb, leading to saturation and diminished value of the content
2. Producing and issuing an excessive quantity of publications beyond demand, causing widespread availability that may reduce individual significance
3. Creating and distributing a surplus of literary or informational works, overwhelming consumers and potentially lessening the impact of each publication

Etymology: Overpublishing is a plain compound: the prefix "over-" (meaning excess, too much) attached to "publishing," the act of issuing books and other printed works for sale. The prefix has been used in English this way since Old English, so the newer part of the word is simply "publish," which came into English from Old French "publier," itself from Latin "publicare," meaning to make public or to give to the people. The word's usefulness is in the way it names a problem of the book trade rather than a single action: a market flooded with more titles than readers can buy, review, or shelve. The noun and verb forms share the same history, with the noun naming the state or result and the verb naming the act of producing too many books. Both are modern formations built from ordinary English parts, so there is no older sense to recover.

Synonyms: oversharing, overprinting, overreleasing

Antonyms: underpublishing, underprinting, withholding