Understanding Media and Culture
By Jack Lule
© 2012, published by Flat World Knowledge
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Chapter 3
Books
© 2012, published by Flat World Knowledge
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Chapter 3
Section 1:
History of Books
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Ancient and Medieval Books
• Papyrus scrolls were earliest book forms
• The codex was more portable, sturdier form
• In the Middle Ages, books were written on
parchment and decorated by hand – illuminated
manuscripts
• Chinese invented block printing around 700CE
• Papyrusparchmentpaper
• Until invention of movable type, books were
expensive and not widely available
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The Impact of Movable Type
• With access to movable type on a Gutenberg press, a
step up from block printing, books became cheaper
and quicker to produce
• Political, intellectual, religious, scientific and cultural
Ideas began to spread more quickly
• Access to texts led to higher literacy rates for women
• Catholic Church felt threatened, wanted to prescreen
any book before printing
• Popular literature in vernacular emerged from the
millions of circulating books
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Gutenberg Bible
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Copyright Law Evolution
• Copyright law originally intended to protect the work
of authors from being copied by anyone else
• Queen Anne (1710) 14 years; Constitution 14+14 if author
still alive; 1909 28 +28; 1976 life of author+50; 1998 life of
author+70
• Copyright law also allowed authors to profit from
their work
• The copyright laws continue to evolve today as the
demand for protection increases
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Copyright Law Evolution
• Works not covered by copyright or for which the
copyright has expired are part of the public domain
• May be used freely without permission or payment but
the author must still be credited (e.g., works of
Shakespeare)
• Fair use – copyrighted material may be used by
someone other than the author for “purposes such
as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching
(multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or
research”
• Remixing, linking and other uses of original material
on the Internet have led to many legal challenges 10
Copyright Law Evolution
• Other exceptions to copyright laws:
• Facts that are common knowledge (e.g., George
Washington was the first US President.)
• US Government publications (e.g., the Constitution)
• Author waives copyright
• Some programmers provide "freeware" or
"shareware“
• Some authors make their books available freely
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Publishing Industry Evolution
• Early book printers acted as publishers,
producing the pages and then selling them
• During the 19th century, technologies made
publishing simpler and more profitable
• In the 20th century, paperbacks thrived
• As the 21st century started, book publishing
was dominated by six companies
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Chapter 3
Section 3:
Major Book Formats
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Hardcover & Paperback Books
• Developed from early codices
– First cloth bindings in 1820
– Dust jackets arrived in 1830s, allowing for distinctive
covers
• Durability makes them attractive
– More expensive to produce and to buy
• Paperbacks are more popular because they are less
expensive and more portable than hardcovers
• Some publishers are simultaneously releasing hardcover
and paperback versions of some titles to gain the widest
readership right from the start.
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E-books
• No physical production, transportation, or storing costs
so they are cheaper to buy
• Can be read on the screen of various electronic devices
– Started out as digitized versions of print titles
– Now original digital versions are being created
• Some concerns with e-books include the prevalence of
piracy and the potential for digital decay.
• The New Yorker cites a projection that e-books will
someday account for between 25% and 50% of all book
sales
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Chapter 3
Section 4:
Current Publishing Trends
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Blockbuster Syndrome
• Large media corporations are beholden to
stockholders to turn a profit
– Publishers bank on books expected to sell millions by
giving authors big advances and doing a lot of publicity
– Books looked at for revenue potential rather than
literary value
• New authors’ possibilities are limited because of
time, effort, and money going to blockbusters
• Overall book sales have been realtively flat over
the past 8 years
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Superstores and Price Wars
• In the 1990s, many independent bookstores
closed due to the rise of superstores
– Superstores now losing market share to large retailers
and to online retailers
• Stores that sell large volumes can offer deep
discounts to customers
– Companies like Walmart and Target don’t have much
shelf room for books and so sell only a select number
of the best sellers, fueling the blockbuster situation.
• Online retailers drop book prices very low in
order gain sales in other areas
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Chapter 3
Section 5:
The Influence of New Technology
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E-Books
• Poor reception of early e-books due to short battery
life and difficulty in reading text on early e-book
readers
• iPad and iPhone gave e-books a big boost
– Oprah Winfrey praised Kindle and it became popular
– In first few months of the release of the iPad in 2010,
more than 1.5M books were downloaded
– Price wars have lowered book costs to $9.99, way below
cost, which is a concern to traditional publishers
– In 2010, more than half of the Kindle books were public
domain and free
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Amazon vs Macmillan
• Amazon bought Macmillan books at wholesale
and set their own retail price
– Low prices to increase Kindle sales
• In 2010, Macmillan wanted to change to rules so
that they set the price and took 70% of the
profit
– If Amazon stayed at wholesale price, Macmillan
would not release e-books for 7 months
– Eventually Amazon caved in and charged $12.99$14.99 for most new books except best sellers
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Apple e-books lawsuit
• In July 2013, the Justice Department won its antitrust lawsuit that
accused Apple of conspiring with publishers to raise the prices of
e-books.
• The guidelines suggest that Apple should be forced to terminate its
existing agreements with five major publishers and also avoid
entering similar agreements in the future with providers of music,
movies and TV shows and games.
• The guidelines would put rules in place to prevent Apple from
facilitating price-fixing among publishers, or from retaliating
against publishers that refuse to bend to its terms.
• The Justice Department also suggested that Apple allow Amazon
and Barnes & Noble to insert links inside their e-book apps to their
e-bookstores, so that consumers can easily compare prices of ebooks.
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http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/u-s-proposes-solutions-for-apples-e-book-price-fixing/
Digital Libraries
• Began with Project Gutenberg in 1971
• Advocates believe access to millions of volumes for free
will increase literacy rates
– Digitized versions preserve fragile originals and allow
instant access
• Concerns over copyright issues and antitrust violations
led to formation of the Open Book Alliance
– Google Books, the largest online library, ran into trouble
when it tried to digitize as many titles as possible
without regard to copyright. They were sued and paid a
$125 million settlement to publishers.
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Print on Demand and Self-Publishing
• Self-publishing is an option for authors who
aren’t able to get a deal with a publisher
– There was originally a stigma with selfpublishing, based on the thought that those
authors just wanted to see their own name in
print.
• Authors retain more control of their work
but might pay the vanity press a fee and
not sell many copies
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Print on Demand and Self-Publishing
• Now printing on demand means books don’t
have to be printed until they are ordered,
saving costs (Lulu, CreateSpace)
• The self-publishing success stories involve
writers who sold well enough to be offered a
deal with one of the traditional publishing
houses
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Aptara 2012 e-book survey of publishers
• 31% of eBook publishers produce enhanced eBooks,
though only 12% correlate the enhancements with a
positive impact on sales
• Amazon.com is the most popular sales channel, used
by 68% of eBook publishers. Apple’s iBookstore comes
in second at 58%.
• Amazon is also the most lucrative eBook sales
channel. Publishers’ own websites come in a distant
second place for generating the most eBook sales.
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Aptara 2012 e-book survey of publishers
• 4 out of 5 publishers now produce eBooks, a 30% increase
in three years.
• 36% of eBook publishers are realizing double-digit annual
eBook revenues—that’s a 100% increase (in publishers)
since last year.
• 60% of eBook publishers still employ print-based editorial
and production workflows that add time and cost to each
eBook.
• More than half of publishers’ content is going to “digital
waste”: 65% of eBook publishers have converted less than
half of their legacy titles (backlist) into eBooks.
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More Info on e-books
• eBook & eReader Stats and Charts
– http://pinterest.com/bwmbooks/ebook-ereaderstats-and-charts/
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