Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century [Paperback]

All you need to know about the industry at a time of momentous change.
-Drake McFeely, chairman and president, W.W. Norton & Company

For nearly five centuries, the world of book publishing remained largely static. But at the dawn of the twenty-first century, the industry faces a combination of economic pressures and technological change that is forcing publishers to alter their practices and think hard about the future of the book.

John Thompson's riveting account dissects the roles of publishers, agents, and booksellers in the United States and Britain, charting their transformation since the 1960s. Offering an in-depth analysis of how the digital revolution is changing the game today,Merchants of Cultureis the one book that anyone with a stake in the industry needs to read.

A fine-grained snapshot... of the terminal struggle of traditional publishers. [Thompson's] mordant picture of an industry in crisis gives publishers, writers and readers much to think about. —Jason Epstein, The New York Review of Books

[Thompson] draws on valuable interviews and the mass of statistics that the field itself devours in search of success. He offers a calm, relatively sanguine account of contemporary publishing, a world dominated by the $6 million advance, the blockbuster and the buzz. —Times Literary Supplement

Thompson bring forensic keeneness, acuity, breadth, depth and wit to this page-turning study of the book trade, its denizens, demons and deities. [Merchants of Culture] ought to be prescribed reading for publishers, booksellers, writers, authors, reporters, reviewers and critics. —Mail & Guardian, South Africa

John B. Thompson's research has produced an excellent history and analysis; it's a wonderful book, highly recommended. —Australian Book Review

The single most impressive fact to drive home about this remarklÓ.