Revised edition of: The publishing business: from p-books to e-books / Kelvin Smith.

Part-memoir, part-history, The Business of Books is an irascible, acute and often passionate account of the collapsing standards of contemporary book publishing. It has appeared throughout the world in seventeen different editions. Book jacket.

"An irresistible book about Grub Street, authorship and the literary marketplace."—Washington Post Book World Jason Epstein has led arguably the most creative career in book publishing during the past half-century. He founded Anchor Books and launched the quality paperback revolution, cofounded the New York Review of Books, and created of the Library of America, the prestigious publisher of American classics, and The Reader's Catalog, the precursor of online bookselling. In this short book he discusses the severe crisis facing the book business today—a crisis that affects writers and readers as well as publishers—and looks ahead to the radically transformed industry that will revolutionize the idea of the book as profoundly as the introduction of movable type did five centuries ago.

This volume provides an innovative and detailed overview of the book publishing industry, including details about the business processes in editorial, marketing and production. The work explores the complex issues that occur everyday in the publishing in

Essays from twenty-seven leading book editors: “Honest and unflinching accounts from publishing insiders . . . a valuable primer on the field.” —Publishers Weekly Editing is an invisible art in which the very best work goes undetected. Editors strive to create books that are enlightening, seamless, and pleasurable to read, all while giving credit to the author. This makes it all the more difficult to truly understand the range of roles they inhabit while shepherding a project from concept to publication. What Editors Do gathers essays from twenty-seven leading figures in book publishing about their work. Representing both large houses and small, and encompassing trade, textbook, academic, and children’s publishing, the contributors make the case for why editing remains a vital function to writers—and readers—everywhere. Ironically for an industry built on words, there has been a scarcity of written guidance on how to approach the work of editing. Serving as a compendium of professional advice and a portrait of what goes on behind the scenes, this book sheds light on how editors acquire books, what constitutes a strong author-editor relationship, and the editor’s vital role at each stage of the publishing process—a role that extends far beyond marking up the author’s text. This collection treats editing as both art and craft, and also as a career. It explores how editors balance passion against the economic realities of publishing—and shows why, in the face of a rapidly changing publishing landscape, editors are more important than ever. “Authoritative, entertaining, and informative.” —Copyediting

Ready to write your book? So why haven’t you done it yet? If you’re like most nonfiction authors, fears are holding you back. Sound familiar? Is my idea good enough? How do I structure a book? What exactly are the steps to write it? How do I stay motivated? What if I actually finish it, and it’s bad? Worst of all: what if I publish it, and no one cares? How do I know if I’m even doing the right things? The truth is, writing a book can be scary and overwhelming—but it doesn’t have to be. There’s a way to know you’re on the right path and taking the right steps. How? By using a method that’s been validated with thousands of other Authors just like you. In fact, it’s the same exact process used to produce dozens of big bestsellers–including David Goggins’s Can’t Hurt Me, Tiffany Haddish’s The Last Black Unicorn, and Joey Coleman’s Never Lose a Customer Again. The Scribe Method is the tested and proven process that will help you navigate the entire book-writing process from start to finish–the right way. Written by 4x New York Times Bestselling Author Tucker Max and publishing expert Zach Obront, you’ll learn the step-by-step method that has helped over 1,500 authors write and publish their books. Now a Wall Street Journal Bestseller itself, The Scribe Method is specifically designed for business leaders, personal development gurus, entrepreneurs, and any expert in their field who has accumulated years of hard-won knowledge and wants to put it out into the world. Forget the rest of the books written by pretenders. This is the ultimate resource for anyone who wants to professionally write a great nonfiction book.

Responding to the growth of digital products and the commercial imperative to build new digital businesses, The Business of Digital Publishing offers a comprehensive introduction to the development of digital products in the book and journal industries. This textbook provides background to the main technological development that have influenced the growth of digital publishing, introducing students to the key terms and concepts that make digital publishing possible. Exploring four key publishing sectors: professional reference, academic, education and consumer, this book explains the context for the digital developments in each area and looks at the growth of new business models and the future challenges faced by each sector. It also addresses the key issues that face the industry as a whole, outlining current debates, such as pricing and copyright, and exploring their impact on the industry through relevant case studies. The Business of Digital Publishing is an invaluable resource for any publishing student looking for a starting point from which to explore the world of digital publishing.