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Books

3. Books. Books. A Short History of Books Books and Their Audiences Scope and Structure of the Book Industry Trends and Convergence in Book Publishing Developing Media Literacy Skills Chapter Review. A Short History of Books. Books in Colonial North America

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Books

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  1. 3 Books

  2. Books • A Short History of Books • Books and Their Audiences • Scope and Structure of the Book Industry • Trends and Convergence in Book Publishing • Developing Media Literacy Skills • Chapter Review

  3. A Short History of Books • Books in Colonial North America • 1638 - first printing press arrived on North American shores (18 years after the Plymouth Rock landing) • 1765 - printers went into open revolt against official control in March after passage of the Stamp Act.

  4. A Short History of Books • Books in Colonial . . . (continued) • Anti-British sentiment reached its climax in the mid-1770s, and short books, or pamphlets, motivated and coalesced political dissent. • After the War of Independence, printing became even more central to political, intellectual and cultural life in major cities. • Books were still expensive, often costing the equivalent of a working person’s weekly pay, and literacy remained a luxury.

  5. A Short History of Books • Books in Colonial . . . (continued) • Improving Printing • Continuous roll paper was invented in France at the very beginning of the 19th century. • 1811- German inventor Friedrich Koenig converted the printing press to steam power, speeding production of printed material and reducing its cost. • 1830 - Americans Thomas Gilpin and James Ames perfected a wood-grinding machine that produced enough pulp to make 24 miles of paper daily.

  6. A Short History of Books • Books in Colonial . . . (continued) • Improving Printing • 1884 - German immigrant Ottmar Mergenthaler introduced his linotype machine, a typewriter-like keyboard that enables printers to set type mechanically. • Offset lithography made it possible to print from photographic plates rather than from heavy and relatively fragile metal casts.

  7. A Short History of Books • Books in Colonial . . . (continued) • The Flowering of the Novel • 1860 - Irwin and Erastus Beadle began publishing novels that sold for ten cents, called dime novels. • 1865 - Beadle and company had produced over 4 million volumes of what were also sometimes called pulp novels (Tebbel, 1987). • The Coming of Paperback Books • 1935 - Publisher Allen Lane invented what we now recognize as the paperback—small, inexpensive reissues of books that had already become successful as hardcovers—when he founded Penguin Books.

  8. Books and Their Audiences • The Cultural Value of the Book • Books traditionally have been seen as a powerful cultural force. • Censorship • Because of their influence as cultural repositories and agents of social change, books have often been targeted for censorship. • Book publishers’ obligations to their industry and to themselves demand that they resist censorship.

  9. Books and Their Audiences Most Frequently Banned Books in the Past 10 Years. Shown here are the 50 books most frequently challenged in U.S. schools and public libraries during the past decade

  10. Books and Their Audiences Reasons for Banning Books. Source: American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom (www.ala.org/bbooks/bbwdatabase.html). The American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom tallied the reasons that specific books were banned from 1990 to 2000 in America’s schools and libraries. Of the 6,364 challenges reported to its offices during that decade, these were the reasons given. The number of reasons exceeds 6,364 because books were often challenged for more than one reason.

  11. Scope and Structure of the Book Industry • Categories of Books • Book club editions • El-hi (textbooks produced for elementary and high schools) • Higher education • Mail order books • Mass market paperbacks • Professional books • Religious books

  12. Scope and Structure of the Book Industry • Categories of Books (continued) • Standardized tests • Subscription reference books • Trade books—hard- and softcovers that not only include fiction and most non-fiction, but also cookbooks, biographies, art books, coffee-table books, and how-to books • University press

  13. Scope and Structure of the Book Industry • From Idea to Publication • Acquisitions editor is the person charged with determining which books a publisher will publish. • Bookstores will eventually return unsold copies to the publisher to be sold at great discount as remainders.

  14. Scope and Structure of the Book Industry Book Sales in the United States, 2001. Source: Publishers Weekly, March 4, 2002, p. 16.

  15. Trends and Convergence in Book Publishing • Convergence • E-publishing • The publication of books initially or exclusively online, offers a new way for writers’ ideas to be published. • E-Publishing can take the form of D-books and print on demand (POD), and many D-books are designed to be read on handheld computers called E-books. • D-books are books downloaded in electronic form from the Internet to a computer or handheld device. • A number of companies offer E-book devices that look pretty much like books but have the ability to store thousands of pages of download text.

  16. Trends and Convergence in Book Publishing • Conglomeration • The book industry was dominated by relatively small operations. • Publishing was often described as a cottage industry—publishing houses were small operations, closely identified with their personnel. • Today, the industry is dominated by a few giants.

  17. Trends and Convergence in Book Publishing • Conglomeration (continued) • Demand for Profits and Hypercommercialism • The threat from conglomeration is seen in the parent company’s overemphasis on profitability at all costs. • Publishers attempt to offset large investments through the sale of subsidiary rights—the sale of the book, its contents, and even its characters to filmmakers, paperback publishers, book clubs, foreign publishers, and product producers. • The importance of promotion and publicity has led to an increase in the release of instant books—books based on events currently in newspapers and on television. • A second trend involves the payment by publishers to online booksellers for their recommendations (Amazon.com calls them co-op placements).

  18. Trends and Convergence in Book Publishing • Conglomeration (continued) • Growth of Small Presses • The overcommercialization of the book industry is mitigated somewhat by the rise in the number of smaller publishing houses. • Restructuring of Book Retailing • The number of bookstores in the United States is dwindling as small independent operations find it increasingly difficult to compete with bookstore chains. • Another alternative to the big mall chain store is buying books online.

  19. Developing Media Literacy Skills • The Lessons of Harry Potter • The phenomenal reception of Harry Potter books by readers of all ages suggests these works not only have a broad appeal but are in themselves something very special. • With the publication of each installment, talk about the “rebirth of the book” and a “reverse in the decline of reading by young people” heated up.

  20. Developing Media Literacy Skills • The Lessons of Harry Potter (continued) • Harry banished aliteracy—people who possess the ability to read but are unwilling to do so. • The success (and profitability) of this well-written, thoughtful, high-quality content stands in stark contrast to what critics contend is a steady decline in quality in other media. • Harry Potter shows that an audience that develops heightened expectations can have those expectations met.

  21. Chapter Review • The colonists, due to widespread illiteracy, high cost, and official control, were not a book-oriented population. • The combination of technical advances and increased literacy after the Civil War produced the flowering of the novel in the 1800s.

  22. Chapter Review • The scope and structure of the contemporary book industry is characterized by convergence, conglomeration, hypercommercialism and demand for profits, the growth of small presses, and the restructuring of book retailing. • Digital books, e-publishing, print on demand, and e-books blur the distinction between the Web and the book.

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