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© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Chapter 2 – Books: Rearranging the Page
Chapter Outline
• Publishers Nurture Ideas and Try to Make a Profit
• How American Book Publishing Grew
Political Pamphlets
Novels and Poetry
Humor
International Copyright Law of 1891
Publishing Houses
Compulsory Education
• Cheaper Books Create a Mass Market
Book Clubs
Paperbacks
• Grove Press Tests Censorship
• Investors Buy Up Publishing Companies
• Book Publishing at Work
• Books Begin with Authors and Agents
• How Do Books Get Published?
• Book Industry Has Three Major Markets
Adult and Juvenile Trade Books
Textbooks
Professional and Scholarly Books
• Audiobooks and E-Books Multiply the Audience
Audiobooks
Electronic Books
• Corporations Demand Higher Profits
Subsidiary and International Rights
Blockbusters
Chain Bookstores and Internet Retailers Compete
• Small Presses Seek Specialized Audiences
• New Technologies Affect Production and Consumption
• Book Publishing Today Is a Competitive, Complex Business
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Suggested Activities, Discussions, and Exercises
1. Show students examples of small-press books, audio books, digital books,
and traditional large press paperback and hardcover books. Discuss
similarities and differences between them.
2. Invite a local publisher, author or librarian to discuss recent changes in the
book publishing industry and describe the way a book is published.
3. Organize the students in small groups and have them work as a team to
develop a book proposal. Have each group present its book proposal to
the class, and have the class vote on the book they think would be the
most successful publishing project. (See worksheets in activity pages)
4. Show the students a segment of C-Span Book TV in class. Afterwards,
assign students to visit the CSPAN Book TV website. Have each student
select a different Book TV episode and afterward discuss with the class
online what they learned about the book-publishing field from the program.
5. Have students search the U.S. Copyright Office website
(www.copyright.gov) for information about the “fair use” provisions of the
current copyright law. Have students discover what is specified in the 4-
part test of fair use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the
U.S. Code). Ask students to write a brief paper outlining what they found
about fair use on the Copyright Office website.
Activity Pages
Use the following activity pages as class handouts for exercises and to
accompany some of the classroom Ideas described above.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
“High Fives” Book List
Provide answers to the following questions. Take this home with you and look at
your bookshelves, or go online to recall the names of books. When finished, bring
the list back to class, and be prepared to share the information.
List the “top five” books you have read in your life.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
List the “top five” books you plan to read within the next two years.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
List the “top five” books you think you should read over the next two years.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Book Proposal Checklist
Congratulations! You and a group of your classmates have just formed a
publishing house. You’ll need to give your house a name and brainstorm ideas for
your first book. You may develop any type of book you wish—fiction, nonfiction,
textbook—and you may have anyone you want, real or fictional, write it. Complete
the checklist and cost worksheet after determining your book proposal project
with your group. Note that you will have to do a bit of library or Internet research
to complete it.
1. What will you title your book?
2. Which books will compete with your
book? (Check Amazon.com, Paperback
Books in Print, Forthcoming Books in Print,
and Books in Print.)
3. Why will your book outsell others like it?
4. What will be the format of your book
(academic with footnotes, informal in
language or style, a coffee-table photo
book)?
5. How many chapters and pages will your
book have?
6. Will your book be hardbound, softcover,
or both? When will you release each type, if
you choose both?
7. Will the book have illustrations? If yes,
what type of illustrations (cartoons,
photographs, charts, sketches) will it have
and how many?
8. What qualifications and experience does
your author have that makes that person a
valuable author for this book?
9. How will you promote this book?
10. When will you publish the book? (Allow
at least six months from the time you sign
the author till the time you put the book into
production, and another nine months from
that date until the book is issued. Books are
issued in either fall or spring.)
Figuring Your Book Budget
Please use the following calculations to
estimate the cost of publishing your book.
1. The base cost to publish the book will be
40% of the retail price you set. Softcover
trade and mass-market books can be priced
from $4.95 to $10.95. Softcover textbooks
can be priced no less than $59.95.
Hardcover books can be priced no less than
$24.95.
2. The price you will charge the bookstores
that carry your book (also called the net
price) will be 80% of the cover price for a
textbook or 60% of the cover price for a
trade book or mass-market paperback.
3. The author’s royalty for a trade book or a
mass-market paperback will be calculated at
10% of the net price up to 10,000 copies
sold and 12% of the net price above that.
The author’s royalty for a textbook will be
calculated at 12% of the net price for each
copy.
4. An author’s tour to promote the book will
be calculated at $2,000 per tour stop, added
to the base cost (40% of the retail price) for
the book.
5. Illustrations for the book will be calculated
at $150 per illustration added to the base
cost (40% of the retail price) for the book.
6. Marketing costs for the book will be
calculated at 2% of the book’s retail price
per book, multiplied by the number of books
you expect to sell.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Book Proposal Cost Worksheet
1. The name of your publishing house is:
2. The names of the directors of your
publishing house are:
3. The title of your book is:
4. You plan to publish the book in (check,
as appropriate):
____ hardcover _____ softcover
5. The retail price of your book is:
_____ hardcover _____ softcover
6. The net price of your book is:
_____ hardcover _____ softcover
7. How many copies do you estimate the
book will sell?
_____ hardcover _____ softcover
8. Estimated income from book sales:
$ __________
(net price multiplied by estimated sales)
9. Your costs will include:
Production costs:
Author royalties:
Author tour costs:
Illustration/photo costs:
Marketing costs:
10. Total cost of publishing the book:
$ __________
11. Net profit to your publishing company:
$ __________
(estimated income minus total cost of
publishing the book)
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Internet Book Shopping
Visit an Internet bookstore and browse for a while in areas that interest you. You
might try some of the following or others of your choice:
Next, select at least six books you might like to purchase (you don’t actually have
to buy them). List them below, including proper title, author’s name and publisher,
and the price, including shipping. Write a couple of lines about why you selected
each book.
Book title, author, publisher Price Why I chose it
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Bring the information back to class, and be prepared to share your choices with
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Chapter 2 Quiz
Multiple Choice
1. Who launched the Pocket Book series?
a. J.D. Salinger
b. Benjamin Franklin
c. Robert de Graff
d. Thomas Paine
2. Benjamin Franklin started:
a. the first circulating library in America.
b. the first American book printing press.
c. the first bookstore.
d. the first American publishing house.
ANS: A
3. The International Copyright Law of 1891 required:
a. that only American authors had to be paid for their works.
b. that all authors had to give permission to publish their work.
c. that foreign authors be paid less for their work.
d. that publishers did not have to pay royalties to any author.
4. Grove Press in the late 1950s and early 1960s:
a. sold the first paperback books.
b. outraged consumers by publishing gay-themed books.
c. challenged censorship laws by publishing Lady Chatterley's Lover and The
Autobiography of Malcolm X.
d. lost its fight against censorship in the Supreme Court.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
5. Using the contents of a book to create related products, such as movies
and t-shirts, is called:
a. subsidiary rights.
b. a blockbuster.
c. acquisitions.
d. online book sales.
e. a best seller.
6. Who is responsible for setting up a schedule for the publishing of a
book?
a.
the production editor
b.
the media editor
c.
the acquisitions editor
d.
the manufacturing supervisor
7. A royalty is:
a. a percentage of the selling price of each copy of a book.
b. a bonus paid when a book sells more copies than expected.
c. usually around between 20 and 25 percent.
d. rarely awarded by American publishers.
e. None of the above.
8. New American Library (NAL) was:
a. the first mass market publisher to issue books sympathetic to Native
Americans.
b. an early publisher of children’s books.
c. the first American publisher to develop electronic books.
d. the first mass market publisher to issue serious books by and about African
Americans.
9. The biggest selling work published by colonial presses in the 1700s was:
a. the Bible
b. Pamela by Benjamin Franklin
c. The Bay Psalm Book
d. Common Sense by Thomas Paine
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
10. According to the Impact/Money box, “How Do Book Publishers Make
Their Money?” what percentage of book sales are e-books?
a. 8%
b. 11%
c. 22%
d. 37%
True/False
1. Most novels published in colonial America were purchased by women.
ANS: T
2. Agents typically collect 50 percent or more of authors’ royalties.
3. Compulsory elementary education by 1900 meant more demand for textbooks.
4. It takes six months from the time a book deal is signed by an editor until it is
published.
ANS: F
5. The number of new books published has remained stable, but the per-copy
price is rising fast.
Essay Questions
1. List and explain 3 technological advances in the past 20 years that have
changed book publishing.
2. Essay: Discuss how blockbusters and the blockbuster complex have affected
publishing houses both positively and negatively. Do you read more books that fit
the blockbuster category or those that are geared more to a specific audience?
3. Discuss the role of chain bookstores and Internet retailers in the book
publishing business.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
4. Discuss the beginnings and development of paperback books and their role in
the democratization of reading in America.
5. Discuss censorship issues, from the Grove Press battles over freedom of
speech to more current examples today. How have newer technologies changed
the debate?
