Book chain

Creation

The author writes the text. If there is a collaborative work, there may be several authors.

The author gives or not the rights for use of his work to a publishing house which is in charge of the broadcast, depending on the jurisdiction.

Production

(The European book production increased from 500 to 1800, a factor greater than 70,000)

The editor has three functions: intellectual, economic and technical.

He selects from the many manuscripts he receives those he deems worthy of publication, possibly after modification or adaptation. This judgment is based on the qualities he finds in the text, but also on the success it assumes that know the book and therefore the profitability of the editorial operation. When the editor think there is a market for a certain type of book, it is he who can find an author whom he spent a write command.

The publisher, on behalf of his publishing house, took most of the financial risk of publishing (layout and model, if necessary translation, printing and distribution) and profit sharing between the author, distributor and bookseller.

With the production manager, he coordinates all the players to the completion of the book: the author, corrector, the printer and the jobber or industrial binder.

Now, books can be sent directly to publishing houses on the internet as a digital book. Some are free and others with a fixed or variable price.

Marketing

Once the book is done (printed, bound …), it is put on the market by the distributor and the bookstore. Meanwhile, his promotion comes from various media reports. Book marketing is governed by the law in many states.

Other forms of secondary spread

In recent years, the book had a second life in the form of reading aloud. This is called public readings of published works, with the assistance of professional readers (often known actors) and in close collaboration with writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, leaders of the literary world and artists.

Many individual or collective practices exist to increase the number of readers of a book. Among them:

• abandonment of books in public places, coupled or not with the use of the Internet, known as the bookcrossing;
• provision of free books in third places like bars or cafes;
• itinerant or temporary libraries;
• free public libraries in the area.

Evolution of the book industry

This form of the book chain has hardly changed since the eighteenth century, and has not always been this way. Thus, the author has asserted gradually with time, and the copyright dates only from the nineteenth century. For many centuries, especially before the invention of printing, each freely copied out books that passed through his hands, adding if necessary his own comments. Similarly, bookseller and publisher jobs have emerged with the invention of printing, which made the book an industrial product, requiring structures of production and marketing.

The invention of the Internet, e-readers, tablets, and projects like Wikipedia and Gutenberg, are likely to strongly change the book industry in the years to come.

PDF: https://www.telework.ro/en/e-books/the-book-chain/