chapter 3-books

  • monasteries (til 12 BC)
    • scriptoriums
    • the place where the books would be handwritten
  • improving printing
    • 1884: linotype machine
    • offset lithography- possible to print from photographic plates
  • novel
    • 1900- compulsory education now in most states increased readers/demand for books
    • 1860- irwin and erastus beadle
    • by 1865, beadle and company produced over 4 million volumes
  • paperback books
    • 1935- allen lane founded penguin boos and invented the paperback; sold high quality fiction and serious lit; later the classics
    • publisher is one of ‘big 5’
    • more than 60% of all books sols are paperbacks
  • books and their audiences
    • cult value of books
    • books are considered:
      • agents of cult and social change
      • imp cultural repository
      • insight into the past
      • imp sources of personal development
    • are also considered”:
      • great source of entertainment
      • more indivd, personal activity than consuming advertiser-supported media
      • mirrors of cult
      • concentrated means of sharing info→ can be very powerful (lots of condensed info)
    • censorship
    • books are targeted bc of their influence as cultural repositories and agents of social change
      • the church felt threatened by it bc they’d lose control
    • book publishers’ obligations involve resistance to censorship
  • aliteracy as self-censorship
    • aliteracy: where ppl possess the ability to read but choose not to
  • trends and convergence in book publishing
    • e-publishing
    • e-books → kindle
    • disintermediation (cutting out the middlemen)
    • eg. ebay
    • other companies such as apple, dell
    • print on demand
    • platform agnostic publishing
    • ppl dc what form the book is in, ppl are willing to get the book in a diff form other than paper
    • smartphones, tablets, and e-readers
    • conglomeration
    • cottage industry: term used to describe the publishing industry before conglomeration
    • few big companies that are publishing which are divisions of national and international conglomerates
    • profit company expects profitability at all costs
    • subsidiary rights
      • rights to sell anything that is not the book itself
      • eg. products related to that book
    • tie-in novels
      • eg. comic book based on tv show
    • instant books
      • short prep time
      • market/events driven
    • small presses
    • growth of small presses
      • overcommercialization of book industry is being mitigated somewhat by rise of smaller publishing houses
      • number of bookstores in the US have gotten fewer
      • bc another alt is buying books online