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More reviews by Peter Gordon
Readers may purchase reviewed books from Paddyfield.com, Asia's online bookseller.North American readers may prefer to buy US editions from Powells.com.
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Book Business by Jason Epstein
"The rumors of my death," wrote Mark Twain in a letter to a paper that had published his obituary, "have been greatly exaggerated."
To those who have pronounced both books and publishing dead due the combined advance of technology and the influence of conglomerates, long-time editor JASON EPSTEIN has a similar response. He argues that far from killing publishing, technology will save it by liberating it from the suffocating grasp of international media conglomerates.
But for those who open BOOK BUSINESS expecting a detailed guide to the industry (after all, the subtitle is Publishing Past Present and Future), the book will resemble an ice cream sandwich: a light center covered by thin crusts of solid substance. Most of the book is well-written and entertaining personal memoir, filled with fascinating anecdotes of the movers and shakers of the American publishing industry for the past half-century.
But like all the good writers Epstein has edited over the years, he leaves the best for the end: Epstein has seen the future and its name isn't Amazon.com.
Books in Asia
Does technology spell boom or doom for the book business in Asia? Certainly, technology has lowered the cost of printing and distributing books, and these are lowering the prices of international books in Asia (Paddyfield.com was the first company to sell books in Hong Kong at the original list prices), making locally published books that much more expensive in comparison.
Internet bookstores, whether local or international, put pressure on local booksellers by, in general, providing wider selection at lower prices.
Should e-publishing become a reality -- as Epstein argues it will -- then the above trends will accelerate.
However, Epstein argues that the opposite is in fact true, that publishing is by nature a sort of cottage industry not well suited for international entertainment conglomerates. By lowering production and distribution costs -- almost to zero in many cases -- technology can allow the small guys to make a go of it.
Peter Gordon
15/03/2001
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Peter Gordon is editor of The Asian Review of Books. |
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