A01=Andre Schiffrin
american history
american literature
art
arts
Author_Andre Schiffrin
autobiographies
autobiography
biographies
biographies of famous people
biography
business
business books
Category=DNBB
Category=KNTP1
classic
communication
content
craft
creativity
design
economics
economics books
economy
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_business-finance-law
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
essays
film
history
history books
journalism
language
linguistics
literary criticism
literary gifts
literature
management
marketing
media
money
mystery
political books
politics
pop culture
publishing
sociology
sociology books
strategy
true stories
work
writing
Product details
- ISBN 9781859843628
- Weight: 276g
- Dimensions: 135 x 191mm
- Publication Date: 17 Nov 2001
- Publisher: Verso Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Post-war American publishing has been ruthlessly transformed since André Schiffrin joined its ranks in 1956. Gone is a plethora of small but prestigious houses that often put ideas before profit in their publishing decisions, sometimes even deliberately. Now six behemoths share 80% of the market and profit margin is all.
André Schiffrin can write about these changes with authority because he witnessed them from inside a conglomerate, as head of Pantheon, co-founded by his father, bought (and sold) by Random House. And he can write about them with candor because he is no longer on the inside, having quit corporate publishing in disgust to set up a flourishing independent house, The New Press. Schiffrin's evident affection for his authors sparkles throughout a story woven around publishing the work of those such as Studs Terkel, Noam Chomsky, Gunnar Myrdal, George Kennan, Juliet Mitchell, R. D. Laing, Eric Hobsbawm and E.P.Thompson.
Part-memoir, part-history, here is an account of the collapsing standards of contemporary publishing that is irascible, acute and passionate. An engaging counterpoint to recent, celebratory memoirs of the industry written by those with more stock options and fewer scruples than Schiffrin, The Business of Books warns of the danger to adventurous, intelligent publishing in the bullring of today's marketplace.
André Schiffrin can write about these changes with authority because he witnessed them from inside a conglomerate, as head of Pantheon, co-founded by his father, bought (and sold) by Random House. And he can write about them with candor because he is no longer on the inside, having quit corporate publishing in disgust to set up a flourishing independent house, The New Press. Schiffrin's evident affection for his authors sparkles throughout a story woven around publishing the work of those such as Studs Terkel, Noam Chomsky, Gunnar Myrdal, George Kennan, Juliet Mitchell, R. D. Laing, Eric Hobsbawm and E.P.Thompson.
Part-memoir, part-history, here is an account of the collapsing standards of contemporary publishing that is irascible, acute and passionate. An engaging counterpoint to recent, celebratory memoirs of the industry written by those with more stock options and fewer scruples than Schiffrin, The Business of Books warns of the danger to adventurous, intelligent publishing in the bullring of today's marketplace.
André Schiffrin was, for thirty years, the publisher of Pantheon Books. In 1990 Schiffrin left Pantheon to found The New Press. He is the author of The Business of Books, Words and Money, A Political Education, and Dr. Seuss & Co. Go to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of America's Leading Comic Artists. He divides his time between Paris and New York.
