{"product_id":"merchants-of-culture-9780745663616","title":"Merchants of Culture","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The book is written in a style that is both elegant and easy to follow. There is a good balance between, on the one hand, dry numbers and figures and, on the other, colourful anecdote and informative metaphor. (...)Thompson’s own book is a comprehensive and rigorous history of trade publishing, which will lead both scholars, editors or people with a more general interest in publishing to think about books in new and more complex ways.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Kelvingrove Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003ePreface to the Second Edition vi\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePreface to the First Edition viii\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIntroduction 1\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1 The Growth of the Retail Chains 26\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2 The Rise of Literary Agents 59\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3 The Emergence of Publishing Corporations 101\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4 The Polarization of the Field 147\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e5 Big Books 188\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e6 Extreme Publishing 223\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e7 Shrinking Windows 238\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e8 The Wild West 292\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e9 The Digital Revolution 313\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e10 Trouble in the Trade 377\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConclusion: Facing an Uncertain Future 403\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAppendix 1 Selected Imprints of the Main Publishing Corporations 410\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAppendix 2 Note on Research Methods 415\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBibliography 425\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIndex 430\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"John Wiley and Sons Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49404411806039,"sku":"9780745663616","price":45.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780745663616.jpg?v=1730486388","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/merchants-of-culture-9780745663616","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}