978-1305580985 Chapter 2

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

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.

“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.

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.

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)

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

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.

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

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.

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?