Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future

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Overview

Jason Epstein has led arguably the most creative career in book publishing during the past half-century. He founded Anchor Books and launched the quality paperback revolution, cofounded the New York Review of Books, and created of the Library of America, the prestigious publisher of American classics, and The Reader's Catalog, the precursor of online bookselling. In this short book he discusses the severe crisis facing the book business today—a crisis that affects writers and readers as well as publishers—and looks ahead to the radically transformed industry that will revolutionize the idea of the book as profoundly as the introduction of movable type did five centuries ago.

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Overview

Jason Epstein has led arguably the most creative career in book publishing during the past half-century. He founded Anchor Books and launched the quality paperback revolution, cofounded the New York Review of Books, and created of the Library of America, the prestigious publisher of American classics, and The Reader's Catalog, the precursor of online bookselling. In this short book he discusses the severe crisis facing the book business today—a crisis that affects writers and readers as well as publishers—and looks ahead to the radically transformed industry that will revolutionize the idea of the book as profoundly as the introduction of movable type did five centuries ago.

Editorial Reviews

E.L. Doctorow
History, memoir, and prophecy ... [by a] man who has been at the creative heart of American publishing for fifty years.
Howard Gardner
A must read for all who love books and publishing and for all who wonder whether either will survive.
More Reviews (12) Fewer Reviews
Laurence J. Kirshbaum
Reading [Epstein's] book is like enjoying a great jazz impresario: there's a wonderful riff coming at any moment. —New York Times Book Review
Michael Dirda
An irresistible book about Grub Street, authorship and the literary marketplace. —Washington Post Book World
Michael Korda
A wise and insightful book on the present state and the future of book publishing.
New York Times Book Review
Reading [Epstein's] book is like enjoying a great jazz impresario: there's a wonderful riff coming at any moment.
Norman Mailer
It is possible, even likely, that no one knows more about the publishing industry than Jason Epstein.
Peter Davison
Epstein is not only thoughtful and experienced, but also a hell of a good writer. —Boston Sunday Globe
Toni Morrison
A brilliant, moving and profoundly insightful rendering of the history, status and future of American publishing.
Washington Post Book World
An irresistible book about Grub Street, authorship and the literary marketplace.
Publishers Weekly
In October 1999, Epstein, former editorial director of Random House, delivered a series of lectures at the New York Public Library that galvanized the publishing world. This book is based on those lectures. A genuine elder statesman of the industry, Epstein has spent about 50 years in publishing, during which he helped create the "paperback revolution," the New York Review of Books and the Library of America. Here, short, magisterial chapters describe the recent past of American publishing through the lens of Epstein's career, and lookDnow fearfully, now hopefullyDat the spirit of book publishing to come. Epstein explains that, in his youth, the book trade was as much vocation as business, bringing to the world the fruits of literary modernism. In more recent decades, by contrast, investors and conglomerates, he says, seeking "name-brand authors" and economies of scale, have treated books as a product like any other. New technologies, however, might reverse these baleful (as seen by Epstein) trends. This forceful if hardly startling analysis introduces Epstein's compact and compelling reminiscences, which form the bulk of the book. Each chapter includes famous names (Auden, Nabokov, Edmund Wilson, Bennett Cerf, cyber-pioneer Norbert Weiner); revealing, amusing anecdotes; and clear accounts of who paid the bills for what, and how, and why. Most strikingly, Epstein looks forward to the "worldwide village green" the digital age might createDone in which books, he says, will keep a place, and publishing will "become once more a cottage industry of diverse, creative, autonomous" work, albeit at the expense of many of the middlemen who stand between author and reader, including today's big publishers. Congenial, erudite, electrifying, this book is a must read for anyone who cares about books and their business. (Jan. 15) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Drawing on his W.W. Norton Lectures at the New York Public Library in October 1999, publishing giant Epstein considers what's wrong with the industry today. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Larry McMurtry
Part of Epstein's book is credo, part of it is history, and part of it is prophecy; the credo is passionate, the history is confident, and the prophecy is hesitant, though I suspect it was chiefly for the prophecy that Epstein was induced to speak.
—The New Republic
Kirshbaum
A charming ode to that past, even as it tries to decipher the technological future . . . The reader is swept up by Epstein's fingertip brilliance as he ranges swiftly across the history of publishing . . .
—New York Times Book Review

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780393322347
  • Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
  • Publication date: 1/28/2002
  • Edition description: Reprint
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 208
  • Sales rank: 431,589
  • Product dimensions: 5.60 (w) x 8.30 (h) x 0.60 (d)

Meet the Author

Jason Epstein, former editorial director of Random House, was the first recipient of the National Book Award for Distinguished Service to American Letters.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition ix
Preface xv
Chapter 1 The Rattle of Pebbles 1
Chapter 2 Young Man from the Provinces 39
Chapter 3 Lost Illusions 69
Chapter 4 Goodbye to All That 93
Chapter 5 Culture Wars 111
Chapter 6 Groves of Academe 125
Chapter 7 Modern Times 143
Afterword 177
Index 193

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
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Sort by: Showing all of 3 Customer Reviews

  • Posted February 26, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    Book Business

    Epstein, former Random House editorial director among other things in his long and illustrious career, treats us to reminiscences about the past and ruminations about the future of book publishing. Especially delicious are recollections of Doubleday's suppression of Drieser's novel Sister Carrie, the first appearance of Nabokov's Lolita, and the genesis of The New York Review of Books.

    For me though, Epstein's long experience in book publishing is most interesting when applied to how the industry changed, and continues to change, over the years. I am reassured by his insistence that bookstores, like cinemas, will not entirely disappear in this new world of digital access. Years ago Epstein did not recommend to his children nor their friends to enter the publishing industry because it was an industry in decline. Today he would have encouraged them because publishing is an industry in the middle of enormous changes. I agree. There are opportunities to be seized.

    A further thought. The book was published in 2001. The book is dedicated to Judith Miller. Epstein tells a little anecdote about his involvement with the CIA in Africa. Somehow it gets the mind whirling...

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 28, 2007

    the shape of books to come

    I read this about two years ago. As a manager in the book business, this material is interesting, frightning, and useful.The brick and mortar book store is almost relegated the the ash-bin of history. Epstein does a great job of explaining why. Epstein was a great editor for the publishing legend Bennett Cerf. This book makes a great companion to Cerf's chronicle AT RANDOM. This is recommended reading for any book enterpreneur or enthusiast.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 1, 2004

    LOVED IT!!!

    i thought that this book was wonderful! it was written with much passion and foresight. it gave a look into the future of publishing, and took you back to the glorious past of it. it was a a nostalgic book and extremely well-written, i could not put it down!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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