Most of us browse books each day, either electronically or on the net. We remember the books that shaped our ideas about the globe as children, get back to favorite books year after year, provide or provide books to loved ones and friends to share the tales we’ve loved especially, and discuss important books with fellow readers in book night clubs and social network. But for all the ways books influence us, instruct us, challenge us, and connect us, most of us stay in the dark as to where they come from about The Book Business: What Everyone Needs to Know and the way the mysterious world of publishing truly functions. How are books produced and just how do they get to visitors?

The Book Business: What Everyone Needs to Know® introduces those beyond your industry to the world of book publishing. Covering everything from the beginnings of modern publication publishing early in the twentieth century to the present concerns on the alleged loss of life of printing, digital reading, and the rise of Amazon, Mike Shatzkin and Robert Paris Riger give a succinct and insightful study of the market in an accessible question-and-answer format. The authors, veterans of ‘trade submitting,’ or the branch of the business that places books inside our hands through libraries or bookstores, response questions from the basic to the cutting-edge, providing a guide for curious newbies and outsiders.