John B. Thompson - Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century

A PLUME BOOK

MERCHANTS OF CULTURE

JOHN B. THOMPSON is a professor of sociology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. His previous publications include Books in the Digital Age.

Praise for Merchants of Culture

Merchants of Culture is an eye-opening tour of both American and British trade publishing. Veterans in the publishing world will learn a lot, and novices will feel welcome, in this behind-the-scenes examination of how book publishing works in an age of mass marketing and digitization. Thompson knows more about contemporary publishing than any other scholar and he asks just the right questions of his sources. Theoretically sophisticated but not burdened by academic apparatus, this is a landmark work.

Michael Schudson, Columbia University

Thompsons groundbreaking research into the world of consumer book publishing provides a fascinating insight into the high-risk culture on both sides of the Atlantic. Revealed is the world of agents and scouts, of auctions and deals, often with large sums of money paid out to authors, as publishers gamble in the hope of signing the next Harry Potter or Dan Brown. Thompsons work is of the highest quality and should be read by all those concerned about our literary culture and its future.

Angus Phillips, director of Oxford International
Centre for Publishing Studies

For the uninitiated, Merchants of Culture provides a very perceptive, thorough, and in-depth view of how trade publishing really works in the English-speaking world today. For those of us in the business or for writers who are mystified by their publishers behavior, it offers a penetrating account of our business by a very shrewd, analytical observer. This book is the only thing Ive ever read about our industry that has really got it.

William Shinker, president and publisher of Gotham Books and Avery Books, Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Thompsons analysis of UK and U.S. trade publishing is extraordinarily acute and insightful. It should be required reading for new entrants to the industrybut it will also illuminate many things for old publishing hands.

Helen Fraser, former managing director of Penguin Books Ltd.

This uncommonly perceptive and thorough study tells you all you need to know about the publishing industry at a time of momentous change.

Drake McFeely, chairman and
president of W. W. Norton & Company

Merchants of Culture is one of the most intelligent and accessible accounts of the curious business of trade book publishing I have read. Anyone interested in knowing more about how our industry worksand where it might be headedwill find this book invaluable.

Morgan Entrekin, CEO and publisher of Grove Atlantic

A must-read piece on publishing history The only history of publishing well need.

Richard Nash, former publisher of
Soft Skull Press and founder of Cursor

The single most impressive fact to drive home about this remarkable book is that Thompson displays a rare gift, that of presenting a world of the most heart-stopping complexity in short, simple, interrelated steps a tour de force this is a book to buy and use and keep on your shelf.

Tribune magazine

[Thompson] draws on valuable interviews and the mass of statistics that the field itself devours in search of success. He offers a calm, relatively sanguine account of contemporary publishing, a world dominated by the $6 million advance, the blockbuster, and the buzz.

Times Literary Supplement

Merchants ofCulturein-depth, perceptive, profoundwill remain the industry benchmark for years to come.

Publishing Research Quarterly

Professor Thompson has written a seriously good, almost monumental work, one that will quickly become required reading for seasoned practitioners and newcomers alike, whatever segment of the book trade they find themselves in or are about to commit to. Its a highly readable, absorbing account of a culturally important industry in the throes of transition.

Logos

Thompson is prudent in his method, generous with generalization, and sympathetic to his subject. [His] attention to different segments of the trade offers something new for everyone.

Journal of Scholarly Publishing

Thompsons work, well-researched and documented should be required reading for anyone interested in books, publishing, and their impact on popular culture.

Journal of Electronic Publishing

Excellent a gift for those of us working to publish books that will matter to readers and to posterity, regardless of where in the field we practice our craft.

The Exchange: The Newsletter of
the Association of American University Presses

Anyone fascinated with publishing will find no end of insight in this meticulously researched volume. I went so far as telling a friend of mine who chairs a graduate program in publishing and editing that if the students in his program arent reading this book, theyre not getting the education theyve paid for. I cant recommend it highly enough. If you want to understand the publishing industry, read this book.

Small Press Reviews

Merchants of Culture offers the best account I know of how the drive to produce big bookstitles selling in large quantities during narrow windows of marketabilityhas had effects even on portions of the field far from immediate competition with the big presses. For some time to come, this is bound to be the definitive thing to read for anyone trying to understand the infrastructure of book cultureespecially as it has taken shape over the past two or three decades.

The National

A thorough and thoughtful analysis of publishing as a relatively self-contained worlda field obeying rules that are ultimately economic, but in ways refracted through maneuvers and conflicts that defy simple cost-benefit analysis. Anyone interested in publishing will want to read it.

Inside Higher Ed

Superbly researched and presented, Merchants of Culture is a seminal addition for academic library collections and essential reading for members of the publishing industry (including authors and book reviewers!) seeking to adapt to the constantly changing influences of modern technologies upon the art and economics of trade publishing.

Midwest Book Review

Read this in one afternoon, was so riveted by it. One of the most intelligent and accurate discussions of the publishing world Ive read. As an author, I think its so necessary to try to understand the world I work in. This book not only debunks a number of myths about publishing, but provides a real insiders view. It is a must-read for anyone hoping to become a published writer, or who already is one.

Jean Kwok, author of the New York Times bestseller Girl in Translation

As soon as I tore open the box, I had to start reading. Its frank, comprehensive, well-researched, with lots of interviews with people who knowand it pulls no punches. Want to know about the rise of the literary agent or why your midlist books arent marketed properly or what the digital revolution means for the author in the street? Then buy this book.

Karen Ball, author of Starring Me as
Third Donkey and other childrens books

Just completed a first-class degree course in trade publishing and the making of a bestsellerat least I feel like I have after reading Merchants of Culture by John B. Thompson From now on whenever anyone asks me how they can get published or get a job in publishing Im going to tell them to buy this book because it is simply perfect at summing up how the whole messy business works and explaining why it very frequently doesnt work.