Member Review
Review by
Book Trade Professional 311727
As someone who's been in publishing for more than 30 years and as a bibliophile, I gravitate toward books on the history of the industry, and this one is really good. It gave me the same shiver I felt when, at an antiquarian bookstore in Cambridge, Mass., I was encouraged to pick up and leaf through the first edition of Spencer's FAERIE QUEEN I'd been gawking at. The shopkeeper said I shouldn't worry about hurting the book, it was built to last, and was he ever right. They made a book well back then, and THE BOOK-MAKERS celebrates this craft by showing how that proceeded through nearly a dozen fascinating milestones. While Smyth's book is a bit overpacked at times, perhaps because there aren't that many facts to pack in so nothing was left to waste, and a bit dry here and there, I nonetheless ended the book wanting to buy a handpress and start churning out pages.
And there's much of current relevance. Former head of Macmillan Don Weisberg said during the DOJ's case against the PRH merger with S&S that a subscription book service, a Netflix for books, would destroy publishing. Setting aside that he seems to have forgotten about the existence of libraries--which is fitting because Macmillan largely ignores this market, despite it being the same size as the indies--I was fascinated by the history of the subscription libraries that preceded civic ones and how they not only didn't put publishers out of business, they bought a ton of books. I was also amused by the literary writer getting shut out of the biggest subscription service for a reason that echoes the Trump trial about election interference; the author's novel being too louche for their subscribers just as David Pecker said that a story on Stormy Daniels wouldn't work for the National Enquirer because it would upset shoppers at their biggest customer, Walmart.
What I appreciated most, though, was being inspired by the artistic approaches of these bookmakers. I recently went to a performance of several experimental plays at the Cut Edge Collective in NYC, which made me want to try my hand at writing some experimental plays too, and there was a lot in this book to prompt approaches and ideas, especially the Harmonies of LIttle Gidding. I found myself highlighting much more than I normally do.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the early look.
And there's much of current relevance. Former head of Macmillan Don Weisberg said during the DOJ's case against the PRH merger with S&S that a subscription book service, a Netflix for books, would destroy publishing. Setting aside that he seems to have forgotten about the existence of libraries--which is fitting because Macmillan largely ignores this market, despite it being the same size as the indies--I was fascinated by the history of the subscription libraries that preceded civic ones and how they not only didn't put publishers out of business, they bought a ton of books. I was also amused by the literary writer getting shut out of the biggest subscription service for a reason that echoes the Trump trial about election interference; the author's novel being too louche for their subscribers just as David Pecker said that a story on Stormy Daniels wouldn't work for the National Enquirer because it would upset shoppers at their biggest customer, Walmart.
What I appreciated most, though, was being inspired by the artistic approaches of these bookmakers. I recently went to a performance of several experimental plays at the Cut Edge Collective in NYC, which made me want to try my hand at writing some experimental plays too, and there was a lot in this book to prompt approaches and ideas, especially the Harmonies of LIttle Gidding. I found myself highlighting much more than I normally do.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the early look.
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