紙媒体か、電子かはさておき、多くの人が本を読みます。こどもの頃に世界観を形成してくれた本を思い出したり、お気に入りを読み返したり、良かったものを家族や友人に貸したり贈ったり、読書仲間やオンライン・コミュニティで感想を共有し意見交換するなどしています。本書は、私たちに多くの影響を与え、知識を授け、課題を与え、他者と結びつけてくれる本についてとりあげます。
20世紀初頭の近代的な出版事業の始まりから、無くなってしまうのではと懸念されている紙媒体の書籍、電子媒体での読書、アマゾンの台頭まで、書籍・出版業界をすみずみまで網羅し、簡潔ながら洞察に富んだ概括になっています。出版の仕組み、現在の課題、本のマーケティングはSNSによってどう変化したか、今現在の本のライフサイクルなど、書籍の業界に関する基本から最新の事情までを網羅しています。また、デジタルでの制作・配信が書籍・出版業の実態を変え、大きく転換しつつある中において、実務がどのように変化しているのかにも焦点を当てています。デジタル出版、データ収集、電子書籍、オーディオブック、自己出版の台頭など、目まぐるしい変化によって、書籍・出版はますます魅力あるものになっています。出版業界志望者にとどまらず、進化する出版を俯瞰することに関心をお持ちの読者に広くお楽しみいただける内容です。
  

• Provides an authoritative overview of the business of book publishing: its history, its present-day practices, and where it's going, in an accessible question-and-answer format
• Explains the digital changes taking place and their consequences, both in producing hybrid print-and-digital products, and in books' promotion on social media and across digital platforms
• Challenges basic industry practices and assumptions in ways just as important to longtime industry veterans as to people eager to understand the complex business that delivered their latest bestselling read

 
Many of us read books every day, either electronically or in print. We remember the books that shaped our ideas about the world as children, go back to favorite books year after year, give or lend books to loved ones and friends to share the stories we've loved especially, and discuss important books with fellow readers in book clubs and online communities. But for all the ways books influence us, teach us, challenge us, and connect us, many of us remain in the dark as to where they come from and how the mysterious world of publishing truly works. How are books created and how do they get to readers? 
  
The Book Business: What Everyone Needs to Know® introduces those outside the industry to the world of book publishing. Covering everything from the beginnings of modern book publishing early in the 20th century to the current concerns over the alleged death of print, digital reading, and the rise of Amazon, Mike Shatzkin and Robert Paris Riger provide a succinct and insightful survey of the industry in an easy-to-read question-and-answer format. The authors, veterans of "trade publishing," or the branch of the business that puts books in our hands through libraries or bookstores, answer questions from the basic to the cutting-edge, providing a guide for curious beginners and outsiders. How does book publishing actually work? What challenges is it facing today? How have social media changed the game of book marketing? What does the life cycle of a book look like in 2019? They focus on how practices are changing at a time of great flux in the industry, as digital creation and delivery are altering the commercial realities of the book business. 
  
This book will interest not only those with no experience in publishing looking to gain a foothold on the business, but also those working on the inside who crave a bird's eye view of publishing's evolving landscape. This is a moment of dizzyingly rapid change wrought by the emergence of digital publishing, data collection, e-books, audio books, and the rise of self-publishing; these forces make the inherently interesting business of publishing books all the more fascinating.