Mike Shatzkin

Robert Paris Riger

Book Business

Many of us read books every day, either electronically or in print. We remember the books that shaped our ideas about the world as children, go back to favorite books year after year, give or lend books to loved ones and friends to share the stories we've loved especially, and discuss important books with fellow readers in book clubs and online communities. But for all the ways books influence us, teach us, challenge us, and connect us, many of us remain in the dark as to where they come from and how the mysterious world of publishing truly works. How are books created and how do they get to readers? The Book Business: What Everyone Needs to Know® introduces those outside the industry to the world of book publishing. Covering everything from the beginnings of modern book publishing early in the 20th century to the current concerns over the alleged death of print, digital reading, and the rise of Amazon, Mike Shatzkin and Robert Paris Riger provide a succinct and insightful survey of the industry in an easy-to-read question-and-answer format. The authors, veterans of "trade publishing," or the branch of the business that puts books in our hands through libraries or bookstores, answer questions from the basic to the cutting-edge, providing a guide for curious beginners and outsiders. How does book publishing actually work? What challenges is it facing today? How have social media changed the game of book marketing? What does the life cycle of a book look like in 2019? They focus on how practices are changing at a time of great flux in the industry, as digital creation and delivery are altering the commercial realities of the book business. This book will interest not only those with no experience in publishing looking to gain a foothold on the business, but also those working on the inside who crave a bird's eye view of publishing's evolving landscape. This is a moment of dizzyingly rapid change wrought by the emergence of digital publishing, data collection, e-books, audio books, and the rise of self-publishing; these forces make the inherently interesting business of publishing books all the more fascinating.

What Everyone Needs to Know®

The Book Business

Note from the Author I first wrote for publication (and pay) as an 11-year old covering the Little League for a local paper (we’re talking 1958 here...) which was the first tangible payoff for having learned to type properly a year or two before. Taking the physical effort out of writing was a key element enabling me to do a lot of it in all the years since. Perhaps I wasn’t born to blog, but I was sure raised to take great advantage of this communication form which has arisen over the past ten years. I entered the book publishing business a little later, when I was 15 (1962) and, through my father’s connections, got employed for the summer selling books in Brentano’s. With some brief interruptions to get a college education (UCLA 1969) and work on a presidential campaign for two years (McGovern 1971-72), I’ve been working in publishing ever since. I was sired and mentored by Leonard Shatzkin, who made a career out of changing publishing from executive positions in major houses before he created a distribution company, Two Continents, which employed me in the 1970s and where I learned the fundamentals of the business: calling on accounts, working with dozens of diverse publishers who distributed through us, hiring and training sales reps, getting familiar with the annual US trade show (then called the American Booksellers Association convention and now called BookExpo America) and with the Frankfurt Book Fair. Being raised and then employed by Len Shatzkin was a way to get a PhD in publishing with a specialty in “change.” Len’s principal interest was the “supply chain,” although we didn’t call it that in those days. My consulting career began in 1979 primarily selling my expertise in distribution. But when the digital transition began, I found my true calling: synthesizing and articulating how the digital capabilities and the Internet changed publishing. At first that change was mostly about how books got found and sold (Amazon); then Ingram started Lightning Source and almost nothing ever went out of print anymore; and then we got ebooks and it became increasingly clear to everybody in the industry that almost nothing we “knew” to be true couldn’t be overruled by changing circumstances very shortly.

The Shatzkin Files: The Most Powerful Trends in Publishing

Jorge Carrión

Umberto Saba

Manuel Gil

Ana Garralón

Imanol Zubero

Roberto Gómez de la Iglesia

Raquel López

Lluís Agustí

Amadeu Pons

Xavier Vidal

Rafael Arias

Antonio Marcos

Jean-Pierre Castellani

Patricio Zunini

Alejandro Katz

David García Aristegui

Beatriz Celaya

Antonio de Marco

Lizbeth Alvarado Campos

Sumario del número 01_FRUTIGER ▪ Sobre la biblioteca municipal, es decir, sobre la gloria Umberto Saba 02_CASLON ▪ Las benditas librerías del futuro Jorge Carrión ▪ El libro como relación y la librería como nodo en la ciudad posmoderna Imanol Zubero ▪ Hibridaciones para el diálogo Rafael Muñoz ▪ Innovar la librería: retorno a la esencia Roberto Gómez de la Iglesia ▪ La librería infantil en los bordes Raquel López ▪ Una propuesta de formación para los libreros Lluís Agustí & Amadeu Pons ▪ Las ¿nuevas? librerías Xavier Vidal ▪ Para escapar de la voz media: la librería como artefacto cultural Rafael Arias & Antonio Marcos ▪ Las librerías: ¿crónica de una muerte anunciada? Jean-Pierre Castellani 03_BODONI ▪ El último editor del siglo XX. Entrevista a Alejandro Katz Patricio Zunini ▪ Cómo editar libros para niños. El caso del editor suizo Daniel Keel Ana Garralón ▪ Edición de libros y grupos de presión Mike Shatzkin ▪ Repensar el ecosistema del libro Manuel Gil ▪ Sin mono azul. Breve historia del sindicalismo en el trabajo cultural David García Aristegui ▪ El elefante blanco del salón Beatriz Celaya & Antonio de Marco ▪ La edición universitaria: un equilibrio de intereses Doris Elena Aguirre Grisales ▪ El libro electrónico en Perú. Un acercamiento desde el sector editorial universitario Lizbeth Alvarado Campos ▪ El rápido crecimiento de China South Publishing & Media Group (CNS) Gong Shuguang 04_HELVETICA ▪ Libros y webs

Texturas Nº 29

The Shatzkin Files

Mike Shatzkin

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