Plot Summary of Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future
"In this part-memoir, part-homily on the changing state of publishing, Epstein recounts his career with Doubleday and Random House, describes the terrible decline of publishers and bookstores in the 1970s and 1980s, and offers words of hope concerning new technologies, such as print-on-demand and the World Wide Web. He believes that such technologies will eliminate the need for retailers and other middle-men and will allow publishing companies to become smaller.
Epstein lovingly evokes a past era of smaller presses as he tells the tale of his career as editor at two major publishing companies, and also recounts his central role in starting the paperback revolution in the United States, and in helping to found the New York Review of Books and the Library of America. "
Dusk Peterson, Resident Scholar
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Review Analysis of Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future
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Plot
job/profession:
- writer
Job/profession/poverty story
Yes
Period of greatest activity?
- 1950+
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- business executive
Age:
- long lived adults
Nationality
- American (!)
How sensitive is this person?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 3 (some)
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Century:
- 1960's-1970's
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Book makes you feel?
- challenged
Writer's slant towards subject:
- somewhat unfavorable
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of nearly entire life
Autobiography?
Yes
How much dialogue in bio?
- significantly more descript than dialog
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life?
- 51%-75% of book
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