Book Business Publishing: Past, Present, And Future

In this book based on his W.W. Norton Lectures given at the New York Public Library in October 1999, Epstein discusses the severe crisis facing the book business today--a crisis that affects writers and readers as well as publishers--and looks ahead to the radically transformed industry that will revolutionize the idea of the book.

Jason Epstein has led arguably the most creative career in book publishing during the past half-century. He founded Anchor Books and launched the quality paperback revolution, cofounded the New York Review of Books, and created of the Library of America, the prestigious publisher of American classics, and The Reader's Catalog, the precursor of online book-selling.

In this short book he discusses the severe crisis facing the book business today -- a crisis that affects writers and readers as well as publishers -- and looks ahead to the radically transformed industry that will revolutionize the idea of the book as profoundly as the introduction of movable type did five centuries ago.