This is the definitive social and economic analysis of the current state and future trends of the American book publishing industry, with an emphasis on the trade, college textbook, and scholarly publishing sectors. Drawing on a rich and extensive data, the thoughtful analysis presented in this book will be valuable to leaders in publishing as well as the scholars and analysts who study this industry.

These are turbulent times in the world of book publishing. For nearly five centuries the methods and practices of book publishing remained largely unchanged, but at the dawn of the twenty-first century the industry finds itself faced with perhaps the greatest challenges since Gutenberg. A combination of economic pressures and technological change is forcing publishers to alter their practices and think hard about the future of the books in the digital age. In this book - the first major study of trade publishing for more than 30 years - Thompson situates the current challenges facing the industry in an historical context, analysing the transformation of trade publishing in the United States and Britain since the 1960s. He gives a detailed account of how the world of trade publishing really works, dissecting the roles of publishers, agents and booksellers and showing how their practices are shaped by a field that has a distinctive structure and dynamic. This new paperback edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to take account of the most recent developments, including the dramatic increase in ebook sales and its implications for the publishing industry and its future.

Sibao today is a cluster of impoverished villages in western Fujian. But from the late 17th-early 20th centuries, it was home to a flourishing publishing industry supplying south China through itinerant booksellers. Brokaw describes this rural, low-level operation, tracing how Sibao's socio-geographical character shaped its progress.

This volume provides an innovative and detailed overview of the book publishing industry, including details about the business processes in editorial, marketing and production. The work explores the complex issues that occur everyday in the publishing in

This path-breaking book argues that printing—both with woodblocks and with movable type—exerted a profound influence on Chinese society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Concerned with the cultural and economic roles of independent bookstores, this collection considers how eight shops created during the modernist era exceeded their commercial functions to open the spaces of literary production. Understanding these unique social spaces on the threshold of commerce and culture provides a basis for comprehending how the changes to the physical contexts of the twenty-first century reading experience have affected our relationship to books and reading.

Long after the establishment of printing in England, many writers and composers still preferred to publish their work through handwritten copies. Texts so transmitted included some of the most distinguished poetry and music of the seventeenth century, along with a rich variety of political, scientific, antiquarian, and philosophical writings. While censorship was one reason for this persistence of the older practice, scribal publication remained the norm for texts that were required only in small numbers, or whose authors wished to avoid the "stigma" of print. This is the first book to consider the trade in manuscripts as an important supplement to that in printed books, and to describe the agencies that met the need for rapid duplication of key texts.

This book examines the changes taking place in literary writing and publishing in contemporary China under the influence of the emerging market economy. It focuses on the revival of literary best sellers in the Chinese book market and the establishment of a best-seller production machine. The author examines how writers have become cultural entrepreneurs, how state publishing houses are now motivated by commercial incentives, and how "second-channel,” unofficial publishers and distributors both compete and cooperate with official publishing houses in a dual-track, socialist-capitalist economic system. Taken together, these changes demonstrate how economic development and culture interact in a postsocialist society, in contrast to the way they work in the mature capitalist economies of the West. That economic reforms have affected many aspects of Chinese society is well known, but this is the first comprehensive analysis of market influences in the literary field. This book thus offers a fresh perspective on the inner workings of contemporary Chinese society.

A look at the cultural, or intercultural, exchange that took place in the Silk Roads and the role this has played in the shaping of cultures and civilizations.

How are we to understand the changing role of design and designers in the new age of consumer experience? Drawing on perspectives from cultural studies, design management, marketing, new product development and communications theory, The Design Experience explores the contexts, practices and roles of designers in today's world, providing an accessible introduction to the key issues reshaping design. The book begins by analysing how consumers acquire meaning and identity from product and other experiences made possible by design. It then explores issues of competitiveness, innovation and management in the context of industry and commerce. If designers are creators of human experiences, what does this mean for their future role in culture and commerce? Subsequent chapters look at new ways in which designers conduct user research and how designers should communicate about design and decision-making with key stakeholders. The authors conclude with a discussion of the design 'profession': will that label be a help or hindrance for tomorrow's designer? Written for students of design, design management, cultural and business studies, The Design Experience is also of interest to practitioners of design, marketing and management. Illustrated case study material is integrated into the text, and the book also includes a glossary, and extensive references.