CH2

1. MEDIA/IMPACT
12TH EDITION
Chapter 2 – Books: Rearranging the Page

2. PUBLISHERS NURTURE IDEAS AND
TRY TO MAKE A PROFIT
1. Fickle and uncertain market for books
2. Industry decentralized in sectors with diverse operations
3. Operations mix mass production and artistic craft
4. Poised between requirements of commerce and obligations of preserving symbolic
culture
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

3. HOW AMERICAN BOOK PUBLISHING GREW
 1620 – Imported books arrive in the colonies on the Mayflower
 1640 – America’s first book, The Bay Psalm Book, is printed at Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
 1731 – Benjamin Franklin creates the first lending library.
 1776 – Thomas Paine publishes the revolutionary pamphlet Common Sense.
 1891 – Congress passes the International Copyright Law of 1891, which requires
all publishing houses to pay royalties to all authors.
 1900 – Elementary education becomes compulsory, which means increased
literacy and more demand for textbooks.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

4. HOW AMERICAN BOOK PUBLISHING GREW
 Political Pamphlets - Colonial presses
published 100,000 copies of Paine’s
Common Sense—one copy for every 25
people in the colonies.
 Novels and Poetry - Dime novels often
featured serial characters, like many of
today’s mystery novels. One-third of
early American novels were written by
women.
 Humor – Mark Twain became a one-
man publishing enterprise. One reason
his books sold well was that he was the
first American author to recognize the
importance of advance publicity.
 International Copyright Law 1891 – All
authors—foreign and American—had to
give permission for their works to be
published. American authors cost
publishing houses the same amount as
foreign authors.
 Publishing Houses - These companies
housed all aspects of publishing under
one roof: sought out authors, reviewed &
edited copy, printed & sold books.
 Compulsory Education - Schools bought
more books; textbook and children’s
publishing flourished. Expanded public
support for education.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

5. CHEAPER BOOKS CREATE A MASS MARKET
 Book Clubs - Book clubs replaced door-to-door sales agents as a way to reach
people who otherwise wouldn’t buy books. 1926: Book-of-the-Month Club founded.
 Paperbacks - In 1939, Robert de Graff introduced America’s first series of paperback
best-sellers, called Pocket Books, which issued titles that had already succeeded as
hardbound books. They were inexpensive (25 cents), they fit in a pocket or purse.
 Grove Press Tests Censorship - In 1959, Grove published the sexually explicit Lady
Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence (originally published in Italy in 1928); in 1961,
the company published Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (originally published in Paris
in 1934). Both books had been banned from the United States as obscene.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

6. INVESTORS BUY UP PUBLISHING COMPANIES
 Before the 1960s - Independent publishing houses dominate industry
 Post World War II College Boom - Publishing becomes attractive
investment as college enrollment increases
 1960 to Present - Widespread publishing mergers, acquisitions by
non-publishing corporations
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

7. BOOK PUBLISHING’S SIX GLOBAL GIANTS
1. Pearson (UK) - Largest educational publishing company in the world
2. Reed Elsevier (UK, Netherlands, U.S.) – Produces leading medical
journal Lancet, classic medical reference Gray’s Anatomy, and primary
legal reference service, Lexis-Nexis. Only one of top six publishers with a
corporate presence in the U.S.
3. Thomson-Reuters (Canada)
4. Wolters Kluwer (Netherlands)
5. Random House (Germany)
6. Hachette Livre (France)
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

8. BOOK PUBLISHING AT WORK
 To Buy or Not to Buy? - Successful publishers are able to anticipate
their competitors and the consumer market when making publishing
decisions.
 The Process – After books are written, they must be printed, promoted
and distributed in print and digital formats. This process takes at least
a year from the time a project is signed by an editor until the book is
published.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

9. BOOKS BEGIN WITH AUTHORS AND AGENTS
 Publishers acquire books in many ways.
 Some authors submit manuscripts “over the transom”- they send an unsolicited
manuscript to a publishing house, hoping the publisher will be interested.
 However, many of the nation’s larger publishers refuse to read unsolicited manuscripts
and accept only books that agents submit.
 Royalty – an amount the publisher pays an author, based on an established
percentage of the book’s price; royalties run anywhere from 6 to 15 percent of a
book’s cover price.
 Advance – An amount the publisher pays the author before the book is published.
 Subsidiary Rights – The rights to market a book for other uses—to make a movie or
print a character from the book on T-shirts, for example.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

10. HOW DO BOOKS GET PUBLISHED?
Acquisitions Editor Looks for potential authors and projects and works out an agreement with
the author.
Media Editor Works with the author to create electronic materials to enhance the book.
Designer Decides what a book will look like, inside and out.
Production Editor Manages all the steps that turn a double-spaced typewritten manuscript
into a book.
Manufacturing Supervisor Buys the typesetting, paper and printing for the book.
Marketing Is handled by several departments, Advertising and Promotion.
Advertising Designs ads for the book.
Promotion Sends the book to reviewers. Sales reps visit bookstores and college
campuses to tell book buyers about the book.
Fulfillment Makes sure that the books get to the bookstores on time. Watches
inventory so publisher can order more books if needed.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

11. HOW DO BOOK PUBLISHERS MAKE MONEY?
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Today, one publishing house often produces several kinds of books, which are
organized as separate divisions of the same company.
 Adult and Juvenile Trade Books (55 percent of market) – Usually sold through
bookstores and to libraries. Designed for the general public.
 Textbooks (32 percent) – Published for elementary, secondary and college students.
 Professional and Scholarly Books (13 percent) – University presses publish a small
number of scholarly books each year. Professional books are designed for a specific
profession. They are often reference books.

12. AUDIOBOOKS AND E-BOOKS MULTIPLY THEIR AUDIENCE
Audiobooks – Abridged or complete versions of classic books and popular new titles
available on CDs and as Internet downloads.
Electronic Books (e-book) - The introduction of e-books is a promising way for
publishers to expand the market for their products. With the introduction of e-readers
such as the Amazon Kindle and Apple’s iPad, e-books have become a very popular
and portable way to read a book. Some books are produced only as e-books.
• E-books account for 11 percent of all book sales in the U.S. today.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

13. CORPORATIONS DEMAND HIGHER PROFITS
 Subsidiary and International Rights – Trade and mass-market publishers are
especially interested in, and will pay more for, books with the potential for
subsidiary- and international-rights sales. The rights to make a video game version
of a book, for example, are subsidiary rights.
 Blockbusters – Publishers are attracted to best-selling authors because usually they
are easy to market. Brand loyalty draws loyal readers to buy every book by a
favorite author, so publishers try to capitalize on an author’s media visibility.
Example: Tina Fey’s Bossypants: $5 million deal
 Chain Bookstores and Internet Retailers Compete – Online booksellers such as
Amazon are rapidly stealing business from chains and independent booksellers.
Internet retailers can buy in huge volume, and they buy books only from publishers
that give them big discounts, so they’re able to sell most books cheaper and carry a
bigger inventory than retail booksellers.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

14. NEW TECHNOLOGIES AFFECT PRODUCTION
AND DELIVERY
1. Computers monitor inventories which
helps booksellers and publishers keep
high-demand books in stock.
2. Book publishing process can be
completed online.
3. Electronic graphics and online content
enhance book’s marketability.
4. Websites and social media help
publishers promote their books and
advertise blockbusters.
5. Large publishers are continuing to
consolidate. The number of small
publishers is decreasing.
6. Many aspects of the publishing
process are contracted to freelancers.
This means that publishers have fewer
in-house employees.
7. Publishers are exploring all aspects of
digital delivery for e-books so that
books can be made available on
mobile devices as well as in printed
form.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

15. BOOK PUBLISHING IS COMPETITIVE AND COMPLEX
 Print vs. Electronic – On August 2, 2010, online book retailer Amazon.com
announced that the company hold sold more e-books in the previous 3 months than
hardcover books—143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books.
 More storage means more sales – Today, e-books are even more portable than 5
years ago. An electronic tablet can hold 1,000 digital books. This increased storage
size, reduced cost and easy accessibility makes schools and libraries a huge
potential market for publishers.
 Russ Grandinetti, Amazon executive on the future of the industry:
“The real competition [at Amazon.com] is not…between the hardcover book and the
e-book. TV, movies, Web browsing, video games are all competing for people’s
valuable time. And if the book doesn’t compete we think over time the industry will
suffer.” – The New Yorker
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.