The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read

by André Schiffrin

Overview

Post-war American publishing has been ruthlessly transformed since André Schiffrin joined its ranks in 1956. Gone is a plethora of small but prestigious houses that often put ideas before profit in their publishing decisions, sometimes even deliberately. Now six behemoths share 80% of the market and profit margin is all.

André Schiffrin can write about these changes with authority because he witnessed them from inside a conglomerate, as head of Pantheon, co-founded by his father, bought (and sold) by Random House. And he can write about them with candor because he is no longer on the inside, having quit corporate publishing in disgust to set up a flourishing independent house, The New Press. Schiffrin’s evident affection for his authors sparkles throughout a story woven around publishing the work of those such as Studs Terkel, Noam Chomsky, Gunnar Myrdal, George Kennan, Juliet Mitchell, R. D. Laing, Eric Hobsbawm and E.P.Thompson.

Part-memoir, part-history, here is an account of the collapsing standards of contemporary publishing that is irascible, acute and passionate. An engaging counterpoint to recent, celebratory memoirs of the industry written by those with more stock options and fewer scruples than Schiffrin, The Business of Books warns of the danger to adventurous, intelligent publishing in the bullring of today’s marketplace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781859843628
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	11/17/2001
Pages:	194
Sales rank:	743,329
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

André Schiffrin was, for thirty years, the publisher of Pantheon Books. In 1990 Schiffrin left Pantheon to found The New Press. He is the author of The Business of Books, Words and Money, A Political Education, and Dr. Seuss & Co. Go to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of America’s Leading Comic Artists. He divides his time between Paris and New York.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	vii
	Preface to the Paperback Edition	ix
	Introduction	1
1	Good Reading for the Few and for the Millions	15
2	Pantheon's Second Generation	33
3	Fixing the Bottom Line	73
4	Market Censorship	103
5	Self-Censorship and the Alternatives	129
6	The New Press	155
	Notes	173
	Index	175

Editorial Reviews

Andre Schiffrin is an old-fashioned New York publisher, the sort that loves and believes in books. Not just best-sellers, but little books with big ideas.”—The Times [London]

“André Schiffrin presents a somber portrait of American publishing where the pursuit of profit has strangled all creativity.”—Nouvel Observateur

“Newsworthy and important, eloquent, smart, thoughtful, and well-presented.”—The Nation

“An absorbing account of the revolution in publishing during the last decade.”—Financial Times

“Forceful evidence that corporate insistence on higher profits has been cultural and business folly.”—Business Week

From the Publisher

Andre Schiffrin is an old-fashioned New York publisher, the sort that loves and believes in books. Not just best-sellers, but little books with big ideas.

The Times [London]

André Schiffrin presents a somber portrait of American publishing where the pursuit of profit has strangled all creativity.

Nouvel Observateur

An absorbing account of the revolution in publishing during the last decade.

Financial Times

Newsworthy and important, eloquent, smart, thoughtful, and well-presented.

The Nation

Forceful evidence that corporate insistence on higher profits has been cultural and business folly.

Business Week

Schiffrin is an old-fashioned New York publisher; the sort that loves and believes in books.

Times [London]

An elegantly written and not over-rancorous account of one man's career as a publisher.

Sunday Telegraph

In this slim and gutsy book, the esteemed publishing veteran tracks the grim trajectory of publishing.

Time Out New York

The descendant of a distinguished publishing family, Schiffrin has been the gadfly of American publishing ever since he quit his post as head of Random House's Pantheon imprint in a blaze of publicity 10 years ago, complaining that the publisher's new management wanted to trim his list severely, removing from it many of the socially conscious titles he was proud to publish. He went on to found and run the New Press, which, with strong foundation support, has continued to do many of the kinds of books that Schiffrin insists should be published, but which he claims have increasingly been abandoned by big commercial houses. In this brief but pithy treatise, some of which has already appeared in Europe, Schiffrin forcefully argues that publishing only for immediate commercial return is not only economically shortsighted but culturally disastrous. Without being unduly nostalgic for the "good old days," he insists that big American publishers used to offer lists that were much better balanced between popular entertainment and necessary social and political commentary than they are today. He further argues that the attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator of taste, which has, he says, led network television and movies in such depressing directions, has dumbed down publishing to an alarming degree, robbing it of much of its standing as a vehicle for the expression of significant ideas and outlooks that may not have instant appeal. Whether the increasing use of the Internet for publishing will prove to expand this more enlightened mission remains to be seen, but based on past experience with the urgencies of the profit motive, Schiffrin is not optimistic. His book is a salutary and sensibly written reminder of the ideals that drew so many into publishing, and that, if he is right, are so seldom reflected in it today. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Schiffrin's well-written memoir of his 44-year publishing career is a testament to the vitality of independent houses and a powerful indictment of the oligopolies that have swallowed them up. In 1961, the author joined Pantheon Books, which his father had cofounded in 1942 and which had just been purchased by Random House. Schiffrin cultivated a stable of authors, including Michel Foucault, Studs Turkel, Noam Chomsky, and E.P. Thompson, whose work, though unlikely to yield immediate financial returns, was bold and, ultimately, influential. Pantheon's reputation grew with that of its authors, yet with the sales of Random House (in 1965 to RCA and in 1980 to S.I. Newhouse) the "logic of the profit center" became paramount. Five media conglomerates currently account for 80 percent of U.S. book sales, and the author, who left Pantheon to found the nonprofit New Press in 1992, details how they sacrifice editorial diversity for profit margins. Less anecdotal than Simon & Schuster editor-in-chief Michael Korda's Another Life (LJ 5/1/99), Schiffrin's memoir is far more pessimistic about the future of commercial publishing and its impact on American intellectual life. Highly recommended for academic, business, and literary collections. (Index not seen.)--Richard Koss, "Library Journal" Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal

The Business of Books provides an absorbing memoir of Schiffrin's fascinating life.
—Business Week

Green

A brief, incisive social history of post-war publishing in America ... a riveting chronicle of the rise and fall of the American reader.

Village Voice