Trade Publishing: A Report from the Front

Abstract

Academic librarians and scholars must be aware of issues and new developments affecting trade publishing in order to play a role in shaping its future. This article reports on the current condition of trade publishing and its future prospects based on interviews with editors, publishers, agents, and others involved in the industry.

Digital Publishing from the Library: A New Core Competency

“…Publishers' fundamental work classically falls in four categories: agency, editorial, design and marketing, and sales (Fister 2001 …”

Convergence and Divergence Among Digital Libraries and the Publishing Industry

“…Ellison & Eatman (2008), who wrote a major policy document about the American tenure system, identify a "continuum of scholarship" that encompasses not only the faculty but every contributor to the knowledge creation process. Fister (2001) undertook a study of trade publishing to explore the changing roles of all of the industry's contributors on a continuum of actions, seen with an information professional's perspective. As the continuum (or spiral) evolves, zones of added value may collapse into one another.…”

“…These skills and roles are typically boiled down to four principal functions, although they can vary in name. These roles are Agents; Editors; Design and Marketing; and Sales staff (Fister, 2001). Publishing work begins with authors via agency, and proceeds to add value by editing and preparing an author's work for sale.…”

“…This awareness led to greater strategic knowledge about the marketplace. (Fister, 2001;Katz, 2010;Hane, 2010;Howard, 2008).…”

The Devil in the Details: Media Representation of “Ritual Abuse” and Evaluation of Sources

“…In general, books as a medium can be more tailored to niche markets than other media, so can offer diverse approaches to a topic with a wide standard deviation from a centrist position. On the other hand, though a profit can be made even in appealing to a niche audience, potential bestsellers are always in high demand and finding a manuscript that will sell well depends on editors developing a sense of what interests contemporary readers (Fister, 2001). [19] Michelle Remembers, although it now reads as a bizarre and confusing psycho-religious melodrama, was evidently considered a good match for concerns of the times.…”