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D. Translate the following text from Russian into English
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D. Translate the following text from Russian into English.Журнал (от фр. journal) – печатное периодическое издание, имеющее постоянную рубрикацию и содержащее статьи или рефераты по различным общественно-политическим, научным, производственным и др. вопросам, литературно-художественные произведения». Как и газета, журнал является одним из основных средств массовой информации и пропаганды, оказывает влияние на общественное мнение, формируя его в соответствии с интересами определённых идеологических групп, общественных классов, политических партий, организаций. С появлением технологий компьютерной верстки и распространением коммерческих типографий с возможностью полноцветной печати в России конца XX – начала XXI века, журналы стали основным рекламным носителем для товаров класса «премиум» и «лакшери». Как правило, адресованы строго определённым группам читателей и являются либо мировыми и общероссийскими изданиями, либо рекламными каталогами. С появлением интернета, журналы стали появляться и в сети. Сначала на сайтах стали выкладывать архивы печатных изданий, позже стали появляться онлайн-журналы. Они не выходили в печатном виде, а существовали исключительно на просторах всемирной сети интернет. Сейчас некоторые из них имеют аудиторию в несколько раз большую, чем аналогичные печатные издания. Журналы, как и газеты, классифицируются:
Из-за того, что журналы выходят в свет реже, чем газеты, они отличаются низкой оперативностью подачи информации, зато у них больше возможностей для подробного анализа событий, размышлений, подведения итогов и т. д. Интернет-журнал (англ. ezine) – периодическое издание в интернете. Может существовать как независимое издание, или же как онлайн-версия печатного журнала. Статьи, как правило, публикуются на регулярной основе: еженедельно или ежемесячно, и в этом похожи на блоги. Однако на главной странице (как, например, у Ежедневного журнала) обычно размещены лишь заголовки тем, а не напечатан полный текст статей. Обычно выбирается определенная тематика: Экономика, бизнес, строительство, дизайн для людей, интерьер для жизни, декор, флористика, дом и семья, здоровье, наука, сельское хозяйство и т.д. Интернет-журналы могут как существовать на отдельных веб-сайтах, так и рассылаться по электронной почте или на CD-дисках. Некоторые издатели по истечение определенного периода записывают статьи на диск и рассылают по обычной почте. Считается, что первый такой журнал выпускался организацией хакеров Cult of the Dead Cow. Их журнал, выходящий с 1984 года, до сих пор не прекратил своего существования. В 1985 году появился известный журнал Phrack, также посвященный взлому телефонных систем и хакингу.
1. The word "paper" is derived from _____. a. parchment b. papyrus c. codex d. vellum 2. During the Middle Ages, clergymen known as scribes were responsible for advancing _____.
a. atlas b. dictionary c. inspirational d. encyclopedia 8. Who published the first instant book, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: A Memorial? a. Scribner's b. Pocket Books c. Harvard University Press d. none of the above 9. How many copies does a typical university press book usually sell? a. less than one thousand b. ten thousand to fifty thousand c. less than a million d. one hundred thousand to five hundred thousand 10. Why did sales of the Encyclopedia Britannica drop in the mid 1990s? a. it hadn't been updated in several years b. the price was too high c. electronic encyclopedias bundled with home computers created competition d. all of the above 11. An author's royalty is generally between _____ and _____ percent. a. 5 and 15 b. 20 and 50 c. 50 and 75 d. 10 and 25 12. The _____ department fixes specific writing problems and makes decisions about the style and layout of the book. a. marketing and sales b. copyediting, design, and production c. acquisitions and development d. administration and business 13. One of the benefits of a book club is _____. a. it screens new books for consumers b. it sometimes offers incentives such as free books or price reductions c. it allows readers to shop from home d. all of the above 14. Which two bookstore chains dominate book sales? a. Books-A-Million and B. Dalton b. Crown Books and Borders-Walden c. Borders-Walden and Barnes & Noble d. Barnes & Noble and Doubleday 15. Jeff Bezos founded the pioneering online bookseller _____. a. Borders.com b. bn.com c. BookSense.com d. Amazon.com 16. Which of the following is not an electronic publisher? a. Xlibris b. Fatbrain.com c. Bookspan.com d. iUniverse 17. Audio books are popular among _____. a. older readers whose vision is diminished b. readers who do a lot of commuter driving c. readers who want to listen to a book at home while doing something else d. all of the above 18. Older books, particularly those printed during the nineteenth century, deteriorate because _____. a. they are printed on acid-based paper b. they are bound with cloth c. they are printed with water-soluble ink d. none of the above 19. An example of an organization trying to make books available freely is the ____. a. Library of Congress b. International Children's Digital Library c. Federation of Book Lovers d. University of Miami Book Database 20. About _____ percent of the U.S. population reads regularly.
a. Samuel Richardson b. Benjamin Franklin c. Andrew Jackson d. Johannes Gutenberg 22. Papyrus is made from _____. a. clay tablets b. paper c. wood strips d. plant reeds 23. Who was responsible for the advancement of manuscript culture during the Middle Ages? a. Johannes Gutenberg b. the Egyptians c. priests and monks d. none of the above 24. Developed by the Chinese, the technique of applying sheets of paper to a block of inked wood with raised surfaces is called _____. a. block printing b. lithography c. linotype d. all of the above 25. Which advance in the printing process allowed for faster production of books? a. linotype machines b. offset lithography c. high-speed rotary presses d. all of the above 25. The smallest unit of the book publishing industry is the _____. a. reference-book publisher b. religious-book publisher c. university press d. textbook publisher 26. Why did radio and magazines fare better than the book industry during the world wars and the Great Depression? a. they understood marketing better than the book industry b. they were less expensive and could cover topical issues immediately c. none of the above d. both a and b 27. Who sold more than one million copies of his Eclectic Reader to nineteenth-century elementary school children? a. F. Scott Fitzgerald b. Scribner c. William H. McGuffey d. none of the above 28. Which of the following is not an example of an instant book? a. Encyclopedia Britannica b. the Starr report on the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal c. Franklin Delano Roosevelt: A Memorial d. all of the above 29. In the Middle Ages, scribes created glossaries and _____ to help people understand Latin. a. encyclopedias b. dictionaries c. atlases d. hymnals 30. Which of the following is not a responsibility of the marketing and sales department of a publishing house? a. sending advance copies of a book to appropriate magazines and newspapers b. distributing bins to display a book in bulk to many stores c. providing authors with suggestions to improve the book d. buying shelf space from a major bookstore chain to ensure prominent placement of a book 31. The online partnership between the Book-of-the-Month Club, the Literary Guild, and Doubleday is called _____. a. Bookspan b. BookSense c. Borders d. none of the above 32. What is one of the strengths of online bookstores?
33. What is one of the concerns about conglomerates' control over the publishing industry? a. conglomerates can financially support a number of struggling publishers b. several subsidiaries under one corporate umbrella can work to develop different versions of a product c. the distinctive styles of older houses will no longer characterize the industry d. none of the above 34. Which of the following is not a duty of an acquisitions editor? a. signing authors to contracts b. fixing specific problems in writing and length c. handling subsidiary rights for an author d. none of the above 35. In 2000, to compete with new electronic publishers, Time Warner developed the first digital imprint, _____. a. Fatbrain.com b. Xlibris c. iUniverse d. iPublish 36. Interest in books by television celebrities such as Tom Brokaw was enhanced by _____. a. Oprah's Book Club b. network/publisher synergy c. large publishers looking for a blockbuster d. none of the above 37. Projects pioneered by Xerox and Cornell University have produced electronic books through _____. a. retyping b. computer scanning c. Xeroxing d. all of the above 38. Older books, particularly those printed during the nineteenth century, deteriorate because _____. a. they are printed on acid-based paper b. they are bound with cloth c. they are printed with water-soluble ink d. none of the above 39. Author Stephen King requested that readers pay a dollar per downloaded chapter for his serial novel _____, released over the Internet. a. Jurassic Park b. The Stand c. The Plant d. Carrie (http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture/pages/bcs-main.asp ?v= chapter&s=04000&n=00040&i=04040.04&o=|00020|00030 |00040|00050|&ns=19)
The history of books from papyrus to paperbacks The first known "books" were pictorial symbols and letters written on wood strips or clay tablets that were then tied or stacked together. In 2400 B.C., the Egyptians wrote on papyrus (from which the word paper is derived), made from plant reeds and rolled into scrolls. Around 1000 B.C., the Chinese also made book-like objects, and at about the same time the Egyptians began using papyrus, the Babylonians began pressing symbols and marks into small clay tablets to record business transactions, government records, stories, and local history. Eventually, parchment, or treated animal skin, replaced papyrus as it was stronger, more durable, and less expensive. Paper did not replace parchment in Europe until the thirteenth century, though the Chinese developed it as early as A.D. 105. The first modern book was produced around the fourth century by the Romans. Called a codex, it was a type of book cut into sheets of parchment sewn together and bound with a thin piece of wood. Manuscript culture In the Middle Ages (A.D. 400 to 1500), the art of bookmaking, or the manuscript culture, was greatly advanced by priests and monks. Certain clergy known as scribes "wrote" most of the books during this time, becoming the chief caretakers of recorded history and culture and creating copies of philosophical tracts and religious books, particularly the Bible. Scribes also developed punctuation rules, made distinctions between small and capital letters, and put space between words to make reading easier. Many works in the Middle Ages were illuminated manuscripts, which featured decorative designs and illustrations on each page. The oldest printed book still in existence is the Diamond Sutra by Wang Chieh from China in A.D. 868. Early Chinese printers developed block printing to make copies of pages. The technique uses sheets of paper applied to a block of inked wood with raised surfaces — hand—carved letters and sketches. This technique was used in printing throughout much of modern history as it enabled multiple copies to be produced and bound together. It was introduced to Europe in 1295 by the explorer Marco Polo after his excursion to China. The Gutenberg revolution Moveable type was first invented in China around 1000, and featured Chinese characters made from reusable pieces of wood or metal that printers could arrange into various word combinations, speeding up the time it took to print a page. This process developed independently in Europe, and in the 1400s the German Johannes Gutenberg used movable type to develop a printing press. Gutenberg's staff produced the first so-called modern books, including the Latin Bible, printed on fine handmade paper (a treated animal skin called vellum) with hand-decorated pages. Printing presses spread rapidly across Europe. Early books were large, elaborate, and expensive and were usually purchased by aristocrats, royals, religious leaders, and politicians. As printers reduced the size of books and developed less expensive grades of paper, more people could afford them. The social and cultural impact of printing was great. People could learn for themselves by using the writings of others. They were no longer solely dependent on what their leaders told them, and information and knowledge spread outside local jurisdictions, giving individuals access to ideas beyond their isolated experiences and permitting them to challenge the traditional wisdom and customs of their tribes and leaders. Book production in the United States Stephen Daye set up the first print shop in colonial America in the late 1630s, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He printed the first colonial book, The Whole Book of Psalms (known today as The Bay Psalm Book). By the mid-1760s, all thirteen colonies had printing shops. The first novel sold in colonial America was Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson, which was imported by Benjamin Franklin in 1744. Richardson's novels connected with the newly literate middle classes, especially the women, who were still restricted from participation in politics and education and who were drawn to these novels for their glimpses into new social worlds. While Richardson portrayed women in subordinate roles, he also is credited as one of the first popular writers to take the domestic life of women seriously. During the 1800s, with the demand for books growing, several advances in the printing process allowed for faster production. The introduction of the linotype machine enabled printers to set type mechanically using a typewriter-style keyboard. Offset lithography allowed books to be printed from photographic plates instead of metal casts. And the introduction of steam-powered machines and high-speed rotary presses permitted the production of more books at lower costs. Book prices were reduced as machine-made paper supplanted expensive handmade paper and as cloth and paper covers replaced leather covers. In 1860, Erastus and Irwin Beadle pioneered the paperback dime novel, and by 1885 one-third of all books published in the U.S. were paperbacks and dime novels, sometimes called pulp fiction in reference to the cheap pulp paper they were printed on. Print culture and the book offer enduring records of particular authors' words at particular periods in history. Unlike oral culture, which depends on information and values passed through memories of community elders and storytellers, books widely disseminate and preserve culture and knowledge over time. 1. What factor contributed to a reduction in book prices during the 1800s? a. machine-made paper supplanted handmade paper b. cloth and paper covers replaced leather covers c. high-speed rotary presses sped up the production process d. all of the above 2. Women were particularly drawn to the novels of _____ because he was one of the first popular writers to take the domestic life of women seriously. a. Benjamin Franklin b. Samuel Richardson c. Stephen King d. Johannes Gutenberg 3. The Babylonians recorded business transactions, government records, stories, and local history by _____. a. writing on parchment b. writing on wood strips c. pressing marks into clay tablets d. none of the above 4. Moveable type was first invented in _____. a. China b. England c. Germany d. Egypt 5. The printing press was invented by _____. a. the Chinese b. Johannes Gutenberg c. Benjamin Franklin d. Wang Chieh
Modern publishing and the book industry As the middle class grew throughout the 1800s, new professions developed in the social sciences, business management, and journalism. The demand for books also promoted the development of a class of publishing professionals. Publishing gradually became competitive and concerned with sales, driven by the growth of advertising and the rise of a market economy in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The formation of publishing houses Throughout the nineteenth century, prestigious publishing houses were formed. These companies tried to identify and produce the works of good writers. Some of the oldest American publishing houses were established in the 1800s, including J. B. Lippincott; Harper & Bros. (which became Harper & Row, and subsequently HarperCollins); Houghton Mifflin; Little, Brown; G. P. Putnam; Scribner's; E. P. Dutton; Rand McNally; and Macmillan. Scribner's became the most prestigious house, publishing the first novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. As the center of social and economic life shifted from rural to urban culture between 1880 and 1920, the demand for books and bookstores grew. The influx of European immigrants helped this growth as books acclimated newcomers to the English language and to American culture. Another wave of prominent publishers emerged at the turn of the twentieth century as publishers began to understand the marketing potential of books. This group included Doubleday, McGraw-Hill, Prentice-Hall, Alfred A. Knopf, Simon & Schuster, and Random House. Unlike radio and magazines, book industry profits suffered during the two world wars and the Great Depression. Radio and magazines fared better because they were less expensive and could cover topical issues immediately during times of crisis.
In 2004, the modern book industry was a $28.8 billion business in the United States. Many categories of books contribute to this industry, including trade books; professional books; elementary, high school, and college textbooks; mass market paperbacks; religious books; reference books; and university press books. Comic books also constitute a category, but they are not generally acknowledged by conventional publishers. One of the most lucrative parts of the industry is trade books, which include hardbound and paperback books and can be separated into two categories: adult and juvenile. Adult trade books include hardbound fiction, current nonfiction, biographies, literary classics, and books on hobbies, art and travel, popular science, technology, self-help, and cooking. Juvenile books range from preschool picture books to young-adult or young-reader books. Like most of the book industry, trade books have experienced healthy growth in the electronic age. Professional books target various occupational groups and are not intended for the general consumer market. The professional book industry includes law, business, medicine, and technical-scientific works. These books are sold mostly through mail order or by sales representatives with specific knowledge about various subject areas. Ever since William H. McGuffey sold more than one hundred million copies of his Eclectic Reader, a primer for nineteenth-century elementary-school children, textbooks have served to improve literacy rates and public education. Elementary textbooks have been around since the nineteenth century, but college textbooks didn't really boom until the 1950s, when the GI Bill enabled hundreds of thousands of working and middle-class men returning from World War II to attend college. This demand for college textbooks increased in the 1960s when educational opportunities for women and minorities expanded. Textbooks are divided into elementary-high school (known as el-hi), vocational education, and college texts. El-hi texts are subsidized by states and school districts; college texts, however, are paid for by individual students. In the late 1990s, online booksellers began to compete with college bookstores, though these ventures account for less than 6 percent of the college text market. In the past few years, many traditional bookstores have begun to offer online services. Mass market paperbacks are sold off racks in drugstores, supermarkets, and airports as well as in bookstores. While many mass market paperbacks are works by best-selling authors such as Danielle Steele and Stephen King, and while they represent the second-largest segment of the industry in terms of units sold, these books generate less revenue than trade books because they are so low-priced. The popularity of paperbacks hit a peak in 1939 when Robert de Graff established Pocket Books. Pocket Books lowered the standard price of fifty or seventy-five cents to twenty-five cents by cutting bookstore discounts, cutting the book distributor's share, and trimming author royalty rates. In its first three weeks of business, Pocket Books sold one hundred thousand books in New York City alone. Another major innovation of paperback publishers was the instant book, which is a book that is published quickly after a major event occurs. For example, Pocket Books produced the first instant book, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: A Memorial, just six days after FDR's death. Similar instant books capitalize on contemporary events, such as the death of Princess Diana in 1997, or the Starr report on the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal in late 1998. The best-selling book of all time is the Bible, and over the years its success has spawned a large religious-book industry, which can be divided into four categories: Bibles, hymnals, and other materials related to religious observances; spiritual or inspirational books; professional publications focusing on the clergy and theologians; and religious-education textbooks. After World War II, sales of religious books soared, but by the 1960s sales dropped as the impact of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and youth rebellion against authority led to a decline in church membership. During the 1980s, the publication of evangelical literature expanded rapidly when the Republican Party began making political overtures to conservatives and prominent TV evangelists. Another major division of the book industry is reference books, which are typically divided into three categories: reference works for home and office, works for schools and libraries, and works distributed through mail-order marketing. Reference books include dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, and volumes related to particular professions or trades. Although encyclopedic writing is attributed to Aristotle and Pliny the Elder, who wrote the oldest reference work still in existence (Historia Naturalis), it wasn't until the early 1700s that compilers of reference works began organizing articles into alphabetical order and relying on specialists to contribute essays in their areas of interest. The oldest English-language encyclopedia still in production is the Encyclopedia Britannica (EB), first published in Scotland in 1768. In the mid-1990s, sales of the EB have fallen due to competition from electronic encyclopedias being bundled with home computers. Dictionaries also account for a large portion of reference sales. In the Middle Ages, scribes began to create glossaries and dictionaries to help people understand Latin, and in 1604 a British schoolmaster prepared a three-thousand-word English dictionary. Other reference works include atlases and almanacs that are popular in schools, homes, offices, and libraries. Also, some media trade organizations publish their own reference works. The smallest unit in the book industry is the university press, which publishes scholarly works for small groups of readers interested in specialized areas. Among the oldest and most prestigious of the university presses are Yale University Press and Harvard University Press. These types of presses can encourage innovative writers and thinkers because they have not traditionally faced pressure to produce commercially successful books. A university press book typically sells less than a thousand copies, most of which are sold to libraries. Because university presses routinely lose money, some presses are trying to form alliances with commercial houses to help promote and produce academic books that have wider appeal. 1. Which publishing house published the first novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway? a. Simon & Schuster b. Harper & Bros. c. Scribner's d. Rand McNally 2. What type of book targets various occupational groups and is not intended for a general consumer market? a. professional b. reference c. textbook d. none of the above 3. Why did the market for college textbooks boom in the 1950s? a. women and minorities began to attend college b. men returning from World War II went to college on the GI Bill c. colleges began to purchase texts for students d. all of the above 4. Adult trade books include _____. a. biographies b. hardcover fiction c. literary classics d. all of the above 5. Danielle Steele is an example of an author of _____. a. mass market paperbacks b. trade books c. reference books d. university press books Summary 3 Read the summaries of the section of Chapter 10 titled "The organization and ownership of the book industry" and answer the multiple choice questions that follow. The organization and ownership of the book industry The growth of the book industry has been modest compared with the revenues earned by other mass media industries. The definition of a publisher varies widely. A publisher may be a large company occupying an entire office building, or a publisher may be one person working from home on a desktop computer. The structure of book publishing A large publishing house is usually comprised of several divisions, including acquisitions and development; copyediting, design, and production; marketing and sales; and administration and business. Similar to magazines, most publishers contract independent printers to produce books. Acquisitions editors seek out and sign authors to contracts. They also handle subsidiary rights for an author, which entails selling the rights to a book for use in other media forms, such as movies or e-books. Writers sometimes receive advance money, which is an early payment against future royalties. An author's royalty is between five and fifteen percent of the net price of the book, but before the royalty check is paid, advance money is subtracted from royalties earned. While new authors generally receive little or no advance, commercially successful authors can receive millions. For example, Anne Rice, author of Interview with a Vampire, received a $17 million advance for three additional vampire novels. First-time authors who are nationally recognized, such as political leaders or sports figures, may also receive large advances. Senator Hillary Clinton received $8 million from Simon & Schuster to write a book about her years as first lady – one of the largest advances ever. The author's manuscript is reviewed by the acquisitions editor once a contract is signed. In education publishing, the manuscript may be turned over to development editor, who provides feedback and makes suggestions for improving the text. Next, the copyediting, design, and production department enters the picture. Copy editors focus on fixing specific problems in writing or length, while production and design managers make decisions about the type style, paper type, cover design, and layout of the book. Simultaneously, plans are under way to market and sell the book. Publishing houses send advance copies to appropriate magazines and newspapers in the hope that they will receive favorable reviews that can be used in later promotional material. In addition, to help create a best-seller, larger trade houses often distribute dumps, or large cardboard bins to display a book in bulk, to thousands of stores. Sometimes trade houses buy shelf space from a major bookstore chain to ensure prominent placement within the store. The final stage of the process involves businesses and order fulfillment, or getting books to the market. Warehouse inventories are monitored to make sure that enough copies of a book will be available to meet demand, even though it is often difficult to anticipate what the demand for a certain title will be. Publishers do not want to get stuck with extra books because they must also absorb the cost of returned books. Independent bookstores return about 20 percent of books ordered, and mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart and Costco often return up to 40 percent. Book clubs and mail order Book clubs and mail order have been successful strategies for selling books for a number of years. In fact, they have in many cases sustained publishers during the changeover from a print-based to an electronically influenced culture. Also, both tactics helped when bookstores were not as numerous as they are now. Direct-mail services brought books to rural and small-town areas. The Book-of-the-Month Club and the Literary Guild were both founded in 1926 (finding immediate success) and used popular writers and literary experts to recommend new books. Besides screening new books for consumers, clubs also offer incentives such as free books and price reductions, as well as the appeal of shopping from the comfort of one's home. Book clubs experienced declining sales in the 1980s, becoming more susceptible to pressure from major publishers, and critics complained that the clubs were stressing commercially viable authors and ignoring literary merit. Doubleday is the most active publisher in the book-club world, owning and operating both the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club, as well as several specialty clubs for fans of mystery books, military books, science-fiction books, and African American literature. In 2000, the Book-of-the-Month Club, the Literary Guild, and Doubleday formed an online partnership called Bookspan, which offers discussion forums, live chats with authors, bulletin boards, reviews, and book excerpts from upcoming selections. Mail order is used primarily by trade, professional, and university press publishers. Pioneered in the late 1950s by magazine publishers such as Time-Life Books, mail order still appeals to customers who prefer the convenience of mail to the hassle of shopping, or who like the privacy of mail order. Bookstores The media trend of large chain ownership is prevalent in bookstores, even though the book industry remains the most diverse of all mass media. While almost twenty-five thousand outlets sell books in the United States, two large chains dominate book sales: Borders-Walden and Barnes & Noble (which includes B. Dalton stores). The two next largest chains are Books-A-Million and Crown Books. The idea to introduce the book trade to the large retail-store concept began in the 1980s with the development of superstores catering to suburban areas. A typical superstore stocks about 150,000 titles, compared with the twenty thousand or forty thousand titles found in older B. Dalton or Waldenbooks stores. Superstores also expanded to sell recorded music and to feature coffee shops, restaurants, and live performances. To oppose chains, many independent bookstores have formed regional or statewide groups to plan survival tactics, and despite the control that chains have over trade books, the majority of bookstores today remain small and independent. Nearly twenty-five hundred used- and rare-book stores operate nationwide. In 1999, Capitola, California, a small town near San Jose, fought a proposed Borders bookstore, fearing it would drive out independent booksellers and alter the character of the city. Chains do pose a threat to independent bookstores. Before the superstore trend took hold, independent booksellers accounted for fifty-eight percent of the market, but by 2004 that number had dropped to about fifteen percent. Online bookstores Online booksellers have created an entirely new book-distribution system on the Internet. Jeff Bezos founded the pioneering company Amazon.com after realizing that books were an untapped and ideal market for the Internet, with more than three million publications in print and many distributors to fulfill orders. In 1997, Barnes & Noble entered the online market, launching its heavily invested and carefully researched Web site bn.com. A year later, Borders started Borders.com, and in 1999 the American Booksellers Association launched a Web site to help independent bookstores called BookSense.com. The strength of online bookstores is in their convenience, low prices, ability to offer backlist titles and works of less famous authors, and interactive site format where buyers can read and post book reviews and receive book recommendations based upon book searches and past purchases. By 2003, online booksellers controlled about 8.1 percent of the retail book market. Ownership patterns Commercial publishing, like most mass media, is dominated by a handful of major (often international) media conglomerates, such as Viacom/Paramount, Time Warner, and Bertelsmann. In 1998, Bertelsmann became the world's largest publisher of English-language books when it added Random House, the largest U.S. publisher, to its fold. There are some concerns about the conglomerates' control over the publishing industry. Some worry that the distinctive styles of older houses and their associations with certain types of books and literary figures no longer characterize the industry. Another concern is the financial struggle of independent publishers and booksellers. Finally, because large houses favor publishing blockbusters or bestsellers, they might not spend as much time pursuing more modest or unconventional types of books. Book-industry executives argue that large companies are good for publishing because conglomerates can financially support a number of smaller struggling firms. They also tout the advantages of media synergy, or the involvement of several subsidiaries under one corporate umbrella working to develop different versions of a similar product. For example, when Time and Warner merged in 1989, it became possible for a book to be published in hardcover (by Little, Brown, owned by Time Inc.), featured as a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, reviewed by Time magazine, issued in paperback by Warner Books, made into a major motion picture, and turned into a TV series by Warner television. However, authors and critics worry that book ideas that do not play into such synergy might be rejected by publishers within this new industry. 1. Which of the following is not a division of a typical large publishing house? a. copyediting, design, and production b. administration and business c. printing d. marketing and sales 2. An author's advance against royalties can be defined as _____. a. an early payment against future sales of the book b. sending copies of the book to appropriate magazines and newspapers c. subsidiary rights d. none of the above 3. The Book-of-the-Month Club and the Literary Guild use _____ to recommend books. a. acquisitions editors from major publishing houses b. popular writers and literary experts c. avid readers and bookstore owners d. all of the above 4. The most active publisher in the book-club world is _____. a. Simon & Schuster b. Random House c. Doubleday d. Bertlesmann 5. A typical book superstore stocks about _____ titles. a. 40,000 b. 20,000 c. 100,000 d. 150,000
Начало формы Trends in book publishing The book industry has adapted to the digital age, and computers are widely used in publishing, from authors' word-processing programs to printing and distribution. Digitized manuscripts can be downloaded from the Internet as electronic books (e-books), which have transformed the entire industry. Author Stephen King has pushed for this transition to digital books. He experimented with the format in 2000, publishing the novella Riding the Bullet only on the Internet. The book sold for $2.50 and garnered four hundred thousand downloads in the first twenty-four hours of its release. E-books have also allowed authors to sidestep traditional publishers altogether. New electronic publishers such as Xlibris, iUniverse, and Fatbrain.com make e-books available over the Internet, bypassing publishers and bookstores. However, traditional publishers are fighting back, offering similar services or acquiring these new companies. For example, Time Warner developed a digital imprint, iPublish, in 2000, and Barnes & Noble bought Fatbrain.com and acquired major stakes in iUniverse. Similarly, some authors are using the Internet to circumvent both traditional and Internet publishers. The best example of this comes again from Stephen King, who released his serial novel The Plant without his publisher. He requested that readers pay a dollar per downloaded chapter on an honor-code system, and as long as seventy-five percent of the downloads were paid for, he would keep posting new installments. By the fourth and fifth installments, half of the downloads were not paid for, and King suspended the project. Still, the experiment made $500,000 in sales for King. Influences of television and film Books by television news anchors and celebrities have garnered great success in recent years. Tom Brokaw's book The Greatest Generation and Peter Jennings's The Century both ranked as best-sellers throughout much of 1998 and early 1999. Interest in these books was enhanced by network/publisher synergy. A different kind of example of using television to promote books is Oprah Winfrey's Book Club. Even before the book club, authors appearing on Oprah's daily talk show found their book sales soaring; since its inception, each selection for Oprah's Book Club has become an immediate best-seller. Television and film continue to cull many story ideas from books. Recent examples of books that have been turned into blockbuster movies include Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park and John Irving's The Cider House Rules. Even older novels and stories translate to the screen, like Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, which was made into a popular film in 1994, and the Dr. Seuss classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which inspired a television special in 1966 and a feature-length film in 2000. Blockbusters and licenses As in the movie business, large publishers are always looking for a blockbuster. Publishers will often pay for the right to license popular films and television programs – especially in the juvenile book trade, as is evidenced by the many successful books based on Disney animated movies. The thirst for bestsellers also led to overpriced book advances to media figures without much writing talent. For example, Whoopi Goldberg received a $6 million advance for a book that sold poorly, and Paul Reiser received $5.6 million for an underperforming second book. Talking books The merger of sound recording and publishing created another major development in the industry: the audio book. These books generally feature actors or authors reading abridged versions of popular fiction and nonfiction trade books, and they are indispensable to many blind and older readers whose vision is diminished. Audio books are also popular among readers who do a lot of commuter driving or who want to listen to a book at home while doing something else. Book preservation Another trend in the industry is the preservation of older books, especially those printed during the nineteenth century on acid-based paper, which eventually turns brittle and self-destructs. The paper industry, despite knowing about the deterioration of acid-based paper, did not respond to the problem until the early 1990s, and even then the decision was motivated almost entirely by economics rather than by the cultural value of books. Recently, a project in digital technology pioneered by Xerox and Cornell University has produced electronic copies of books through computer scanning. NetLibrary, a Colorado-based company, says scanning produces too many errors. The firm has enlisted armies of typists in China, India, and the Philippines to convert books into electronic form. It digitizes about two hundred books a day and is courting major libraries to invest in its electronic collection, charging the same as for print versions. Alternative voices Though the book industry is dominated by large conglomerates, smaller publishers and specialty publishing houses can still thrive. In addition, efforts to make books freely available exist. Libraries are the clearest example, but a more recent example is the International Children's Digital Library. The ICDL, founded in 2002, set a five-year goal of making ten thousand children's books available online in their original languages. (http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture/pages/bcs-main.asp ?v= chapter&s=04000&n=00040&i=04040.04&o=|00020|00030 |00040|00050|&ns=19) III. Text reviewing
1. Give a brief description of the ways in which priests and monks advanced manuscript culture during the Middle Ages. 2. Describe some of the factors that led to an increased demand for books and bookstores in the U.S. between 1880 and 1920.
4. Briefly discuss why books deteriorate and the measures being taken within the book industry to preserve older books. (http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture/pages/bcs-main.asp ?v= chapter&s=04000&n=00040&i=04040.04&o=|00020|00030 |00040|00050|&ns=19) IV. Focus Questions (1) 1. Why was the advent of the printing press so important? 2. What can you tell about the look of early books from this print and plate? 
Questions 1. What social and cultural transformations were ushered in by the spread of printing? 2. Describe the era before the printing press, i.e., the rise of the manuscript culture.
1. What is the biggest segment of the publishing industry, and what types of books are published within this category? 2. What is the smallest segment of the publishing industry and why? 
Questions 1. Describe some of the innovations in the mass market paperback industry, which is the second-largest segment in the market in terms of units sold (though not in net sales). 2. (http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture/pages/bcs-main.asp ?v= chapter&s=04000&n=00040&i=04040.04&o=|00020|00030 |00040|00050|&ns=19) V. Vocabulary Exercises A. Match the words (1-33) with the definitions (a-gg).
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