Transcript Books - Prof Bob

Books and the Power of Print
Chapter 10
“In 50 years today’s children will not
remember who survived Survivor…but
they will remember Harry [Potter].”
—Anna Quindlen
Our Oldest Mass Medium
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Growing in numbers of titles
Large numbers of presses
Conglomerates moving in
Has met cultural challenges:
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Television
Hollywood
Newspapers and magazines
Unlike television, highly portable
History of Print
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Papyrus, circa 2400 B.C.
Parchment
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Codex
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Bound materials
A.D. 1000 Chinese invent
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Treated animal skin
Gradually replaced papyrus
Movable type
Paper-making technology (earlier, A.D.100)
1453 Gutenberg
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Printing press
Inestimable influence on Western culture
History (cont.)
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Manuscript culture: medieval church
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Development of popular literature
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Illuminated manuscripts
Book as reverential artifact
Grammar rules developed
Franklin and Pamela (1744)
The Bay Psalm Book (1640)
Paperbacks by mid-1800s
Offset Lithography
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Developed in the early 1900s
Anything you can take a picture of, you can
print.
Led to computerized typesetting
Book Types
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Trade books
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Professional books
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Fiction
Other popular writing
Adult and juvenile divisions
Law
Business
Medicine
Technical-scientific
Textbooks
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McGuffey reader (mid-1800s)
el-hi, vocational, and college
Other Types
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Mass market paperbacks
Instant books
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Religious titles
Reference books
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Topical books published quickly after an event occurs
Encyclopedias
Dictionaries
Atlases
University press titles
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Scholarly works
Publishing Business
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Acquisitions editor
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Development editor
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Handles feedback to author
Coordinates outside judges of the work
Copy editors
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Identifies talent
Handles subsidiary rights
Problems in writing or length
Design managers
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Layout and cover design
Selling Books
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Book clubs and mail order
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Bookstores: Independents vs. Chains
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Bookspan
Chains: Barnes & Noble, Borders
Indies: Maintain 15% of market share
Online Bookstores
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Amazon.com, 1995, leader of online sales
Barnes & Noble, bn.com, 1997
Ownership in Publishing
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Like most mass media, commercial publishing is
dominated by a handful of major corporations with
ties to international media conglomerates:
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Random House
HarperCollins
Penguin Group
Simon & Schuster
Time Warner Book Group
Media Giant
E-books
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Will the public ever warm up to e-books?
2006: Sony Reader
Print-on-demand services
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Blurb.com
Anyone can be a published author.
Internet-based publishing houses
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Xlibris, iUniverse, BookSurg, AuthorHouse
Audio Books
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By 2006, audio books were being heavily
downloaded on iPods.
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The four hundred-plus new audio books
available annually generate more than $800
million in sales.
Future of Book Publishing
“Traditional publishers are cautiously preparing for
an uncharted future, digitizing thousands of old
backlist titles in preparation for an e-new world
where books can live forever because they will never
go out of print.”
— Doreen Carvajal