The Economics Of Publishing

Some fifteen years ago I gave a paper, "Economic Trends in Trade Book Publishing," under the auspices of the University of Illinois, as part of the 1952 Windsor Lectures. The over- all subject was Books and the Mass Market* and my two fellow lecturers were the late Harold Guinzburg, founder and president of the Viking Press, and Theodore Waller, now vice-president of Grolier, Inc. The significance of book publishing economics lies not in its impact on the over-all economic life of the nation but on its intellectual, political and artistic life. If I may be permitted the luxury of quoting myself, the following was the opening paragraph of my 1952 Windsor Lecture: The economics of book publishing, and more specifically "trade" or general book publishing is important primarily as it affects the kind of books which are produced and distributed. The industry is so small compared to most others that it has little or no influence on general economic developments. The direct economic value of the industry's products is an infinitesimal fraction of the total annual production of goods and services in this country. In terms of intellectual and artistic content, however, the annual production of general books would rank at the top of the scale. This discussion will deal, therefore, not with the economics per se of a small industry, but with the influence of economic factors on what books are published and how widely they can be distributed.published or submitted for publicatio