Futures and Effects of Books 1/26/15 10:03 PM #50. SHELDEN REYNOLDS Future of Books • Books are changing • Format • Retail • BOOKS ON DEMAND- books downloaded and printed at a book store • E-BOOKS- electronic book files • READER- device dedicated to electronic book files • Kindle Why Digital Transition? • Massive cost of paper and printing • No warehouses or middlemen, leading to drop in price • Books no longer available in print can be stored electronically • No need to absorb cost of unsold books Potential of E-Books • Libraries and bookstores replaced by electronic databases • No need to carry heavy hard copies when all is available over a telephone line • Perhaps individuals in countries with few libraries will have access to electronic databases Book Publishing • Types of books • Authors • Agents • Editors • Production staff • Sales staff Types of Books • Trade • Fiction and nonfiction books sold to the general public [Barnes & Noble books]• Educational • Textbooks [passes on culture, knowledge] • Reference • Dictionary, encyclopedia, etc. • Professional • Specialized for occupation [not trade, however] • Specialty • Whatever is left [religious books, yearbooks, comic anthologies, etc.] Authors • Submitting a Manuscript • Editors get a lot of these • Submit a few chapters with a query letter • If interested, editor will get back to you • Contracts and Royalties • ON SPEC- finishing a work without contract guaranteeing it will be bought • ROYALTIES- agreed upon small percentage of the publisher’s earnings from selling the book to retailers • Usually 5-15% & author receives advance • TEXTBOOK AUTHORS- publisher will seek them out; less money • Celebrity Authors • Can sell based on name alone Agents • Help with book ideas • Identifies publisher to work with • Contacts publishers • Presents author in negotiations • Makes about 15% of author’s royalties Editors • Acquisition editors • Generate ideas for books and find willing authors • Developmental editors• Work directly with authors to organize books effectively and efficiently • Copy editors • Proofreads books Production Staff • Those who actually put the book together • Publisher will contact: • Compositors • Freelancers • Printers • Binders Sales Staff • Sales representative • Independent booksellers • chains and megastores • independent bookstores • online booksellers Book Marketing and Promotion • jacket blurbs • brief, laudatory comments that can be placed on the cover of a book • magazine and newspaper reviews • magazines get early copies in order to write reviews • excerpts • to put a fragment of the book in a newspaper, magazine, or website • book tours • authors travel to promote book (includes television talk show appearances) The Book Publisher • major publishers • Random House, Penguin Putman, HarperCollins, Holtzbrinck, Time Warner, Simon & Schuster• Minority/independents • Small publishing companies independent of the large companies, minority specializes in particular audiences • University presses • University-owned, specialized in academic work • Small presses • Few employees and facilities; publish serious works • Vanity presses • Author must pay the full cost of production The Book Reader • Bibliophiles • Heavy readers • Casual readers • Enjoy reading, but only find time for a few books a year • Required readers • Read only what they have to • Alliterate • Can read, but don’t • Illiterate • Cannot read Book Controversies • Censorship • Global censorship • Censorship as unintentional promotion • Is censorship good or bad? • Blockbusters • Publishers seek out what will earn the most money, and therefore ignore spending money on more challenging or literary works • Hoaxes and