Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century

One of the best books about books.

If you’re looking to learn more about books and the publishing industry, this book gives a very detailed overview of how it all works. It goes through a lot of history and also gives you a good idea of how the whole supply chain around books works. Because it’s successful in this is why I rated it a 4.On the other hand, the book is very dry and lengthy. I’d only recommend it for people who are particularly motivated to learn about publishing, not for fun.The author is coming very much from the perspective as an academic, someone who is an outsider to the business world. At times, this is great because he describes a lot of detail that an insider may not notice. On the other hand, the detail can get a little excessive. For example, at one point he remarks how it’s important that book marketing people now need to know that Flash video isn’t indexed in search engines.Overall a useful read. It only goes up until 2011 - I’d love to see an update for all the change that’s happened since then.

This is a long tedious read and I'm actually still only at the halfway point, but as someone who has worked at a few independent presses and currently hoping to drive greater success for my company, I find this incredibly informative. It's like the collegiate education in publishing I never got, and as I did happen to get a collegiate education in economics, it is very interesting from that aspect as well. It gives macro and micro perspectives on the industry. I especially appreciated some of the background information on the roles of agents and editors as well as university presses and how they infiltrated the trade market, plus the section on the rise and fall of big box bookstores, which was on the fall just as I entered this industry. I imagine anyone with an interest in the profession of publishing, whether from a creative, marketing, sales, financial, or cultural perspective, will find this book to be a tremendous resource. I've been reading it intermittently between other books and find that I am always inspired to go into the office and do something amazing after having taken in a new chapter. Highly recommended, despite the concentration required to get through.

What I liked: I've been studying publishing for several years now and I managed to learn something new. (The chapter on "Extreme Publishing" was illuminating.) And even the most jaded observer of the field will find a few juicy (and jaw-dropping) revelations here about how the sausage of CorpFic gets made.What I didn't like: A lengthy chapter on the digital revolution is, by this point, a bit out of date. Yes, some of the general principles still apply, but there's no commentary on the current resurgence of print or even the self-publishing movement and its role in putting price pressure on traditional publishers. The writing style is awkward at times, and the author sometimes repeats himself where such repetition isn't needed. Also, Thompson clearly has to make efforts to avoid biting the hand that feeds him. The edition I read was published by Plume (which is owned by Penguin). So it makes perfect sense that he pulls his punches. Any severe criticism of big publishing or its corporate owners is offset by several caveats. For example, Thompson dismisses André Schiffrin's THE BUSINESS OF BOOKS as extreme, but doesn't engage with Schiffrin's arguments or even acknowledge that Schiffrin's perspective was based on decades of first hand experience.Summary: Read it for the juicy stories, feel free to skim past the passages that are outdated or reek of academic pseudo-theory. If you're interested in books like this, maybe also check out the more up-to-date LITERARY PUBLISHING IN THE 21ST CENTURY or the aforementioned THE BUSINESS OF BOOKS.

This is a book for TODAY, because in another five years, the publishing industry will have changed so much that the contents will be history. As such, if you want an excellent look at what is happening in print publishing, this is the book for you. I learned much about how publishing works, doesn't work, and the challenges facing the industry including the rise of self-publishing which is gaining legitimacy in spite of the bad reputation it has had due to a lot of really-bad writers. More and more serious authors are using self-publishing as this seems to be the only way to get their works to the public in a timely fashion. If you are one of the serious authors, you will definitely want to read this book to find out what you are up against.

A serious book that, if read, would be found enjoyable by people employed in the publishing industry, those interested generally in fast-changing business sectors, writers, and all others with an eye to cultural shifts.John B. Thompson's effort explains much of the mystery of how books get published, what goes into marketing titles, and why some authors make millions. More important, Professor Thompson clearly explains, with little use of academic jargon, the epic changes (computers, business consolidation, the Internet, Kindle, etc.) of the last few decades in book publishing---from the corner independent bookstore to Amazon.com. Wisely, he sticks with the New York and London centers of serious print publishing instead of trying to cover India, China, and the rest of the known world.I, for one, will be interested to read in about five-years time Professor Thompson's then thinking on the full range of changes to publishers and writers as wrought by Kindle and other such apparently transformational products.

I set out wanting to learn more about the publishing industry, and thanks to this highly informative book, I did. I particularly enjoyed the anonymous professionals and their uncensored comments about where publishing has gone in the 21st century. My only caveat is that the book tended to repeat itself on occasion; other than that, the prose, though written by a Cambridge don, is clear and really describes a complex subject in terms the layman can understand. I now know about The Gap and paying for display place in bookstores which I had no idea existed. A job very well done!

we liked it too much

Very good book. Swift delivery. Recommended by daughter and university

Needs updating every year but only because it is so good.

An articulate, well-focused review proving expertly informed insight into the publishing industry. Essential reading for anyone studying this area. A foundational book!

I'm reading this book for my Master's thesis and I must say it is a gold mine! The book covers all aspects of the book market (concentration, distribution, rise of the digital business, etc.)