Merchants of culture: the publishing business in the twenty-first century [book review]

Reeve, K (2010) Merchants of culture: the publishing business in the twenty-first century [book review]. Times Higher Education.

Official URL: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/book-of...

Abstract

Few industries have had their death foretold more frequently than the publishing industry" and yet survived. That is, John Thompson adds, "at least until now". This impressively comprehensive and revealing analysis of the structures and processes of modern publishing is timely as the industry faces its digital future. Thompson, a sociologist, researched academic publishing in Books in the Digital Age: The Transformation of Academic and Higher Education Publishing in Britain and the United States (2005). He now turns his attention to English-language trade publishing in the US and the UK - that is, titles of the sort we see prominently displayed in chain bookstores and featured on Richard & Judy or Oprah, ranging from ghostwritten celebrity autobiographies to serious history, and from genre fiction to literary novels. His project is to map the field of trade publishing - "about which we know very little" - at the point at which it is about to undergo a major transformation. Publishing is at the centre of literary and intellectual culture, so why is this the first book to really tackle it in a sustained and perceptive manner?

Item Type: Other
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism
P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0441 Literary History
Divisions: School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities
Date Deposited: 01 Dec 2017 17:22
Last Modified: 06 Jan 2022 19:50
URI / Page ID: https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/9113
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