Andre Schiffrin

The business of books

André Schiffrin has been in the publishing business for over half a century. The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read tells his story, and why he thinks that publishing in the USA has taken the wrong direction.

Writing books is a strange business. For most authors it would be the height of folly to rely on it as their main income - they need a 'day job' as well. Small publsihing companies tend to reflect this ethos - that producing meaningful works is more important than maximising profits, and that the occasional bestseller will support the rest. But successful companies tend to be taken over by larger ones, which may have a different ethos. Schiffin tells of this process in the publishing industry. He joined Pantheon, a publishing house which his father had helped to found, in 1962, when it had just been bought by Random House. For many years he was able to build up an impressive list of authors, in particular those from elsewhere in the world an those with a political message. But with further mergers and takeovers, the quest for profitability began to become paramount. Things came to head in 1990, when Schiffren was part of a mass resignation - he set up a new publishing company The New Press. In a way this book can be seen as a way of giving his side of the story - answering claims that he was naive about the business side of publishing. The autobiographical nature of this book means that it gives a fascinating insight into the world of publishing in the last 50 years.

Amazon.com info

Hardcover 208 pages
ISBN: 1859847633
Salesrank: 1085190
Weight:0.81 lbs

Published: 2000 Verso

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Amazon.co.uk info

Hardcover 208 pages
ISBN: 1859847633
Salesrank: 1074711
Weight:0.81 lbs

Published: 2000 Verso Books

Marketplace:New from £15.95:Used from £2.15

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Amazon.ca info

Hardcover 208 pages
ISBN: 1859847633
Salesrank: 579567
Weight:0.81 lbs

Published: 2000 Verso Press USA

Marketplace:New from CDN$ 25.95:Used from CDN$ 4.12

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Product Description
Post-war American publishing has been ruthlessly transformed since Andre 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. Andre 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.

Product Description

Post-war American publishing has been ruthlessly transformed since Andre 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. Andre 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.

The demise of publishing? *****
M. Schiffrin's book is a must-read for anyone who cares about ideas, literature, books, and the First Amendment. From a lifetime spent in the industry, Schiffrin explores the current trends in the publishing industry, where profits are rapidly becoming the only priority. In such a system, Schiffrin shows that not only do ideas and the profession diminish, but paradoxically, so do profits. Over and over, he shows how narrow views of profits actually undermine the profitably of a title, or even of the entire industry. As he describes these things, Schiffrin also gives a microcosmic view of the constant tension, ever present in free democracies: on the one hand, powerful corporations have generated much economic might (and therefore political and military might) to the West; and on the other hand, that power, left unbridled, now undermines the foundations of openness, that protect not only our civic freedoms, but the freedoms of the market as well.

The demise of publishing? *****

M. Schiffrin's book is a must-read for anyone who cares about ideas, literature, books, and the First Amendment.

From a lifetime spent in the industry, Schiffrin explores the current trends in the publishing industry, where profits are rapidly becoming the only priority. In such a system, Schiffrin shows that not only do ideas and the profession diminish, but paradoxically, so do profits. Over and over, he shows how narrow views of profits actually undermine the profitably of a title, or even of the entire industry.

As he describes these things, Schiffrin also gives a microcosmic view of the constant tension, ever present in free democracies: on the one hand, powerful corporations have generated much economic might (and therefore political and military might) to the West; and on the other hand, that power, left unbridled, now undermines the foundations of openness, that protect not only our civic freedoms, but the freedoms of the market as well.

Well written and insightfull *****
I enjoyed the book very much. The story telling was enjoyable. As to the "whine", I work in a completly different industry that suffers from the money only direction of the country. It is sad that no one is allowed to be in any vocation in this country for its own sake. Even if you make money, you have to make the most money, good is not good enough, only best will do.

Well written and insightfull *****

I enjoyed the book very much. The story telling was enjoyable. As to the "whine", I work in a completly different industry that suffers from the money only direction of the country. It is sad that no one is allowed to be in any vocation in this country for its own sake. Even if you make money, you have to make the most money, good is not good enough, only best will do.

Bottom Line: Buy it *****
... At least from a writer's perspective, all of Schiffrin's assertions about the publishing industry are stunningly true. In fact, my agent quit the business some years ago after attending a lecture by a revoltingly wealthy and revoltingly arrogant agent who assured her and the rest of the audience that yes, money is indeed the bottom line. As Mr. Schiffrin points out, publishers are simply not interested in authors anymore, they are interested only in the book being submitted. That is to say, there is no attempt-as in the days of Max Perkins, the legendary Scribner's editor of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe-to invest in an author whose first book may not be a great seller, nor even her second but who will nonetheless write books the house can be proud of and may some day turn produce that most marvelous of beasts, the literary bestseller (a la Gabriel Garcia Marquez, John Updike, Toni Morrison). In a smooth, flowing voice that, while it may lack bells and whistles, is exceptionally lucid, Schiffrin tells the story of how publishing houses went from being, for the most part, "family owned and small, content with the modest profits that came from a business that still saw itself as linked to intellectual and cultural life" to an industry in which some of the executives, such as Alberto Vitale at Random House, freely admit they are too busy to read a book! I was riveted almost from the opening page. Some of the reviewers have accused Schiffrin of being elitist-maybe because he lives on the Upper West Side or because he believes editors should have some say-beyond profitability--in what is being published. They find him distressingly left wing. The fact is, Schiffrin is arguing for all editors, EVERYwhere to get behind authors of their choice. Many small houses will present many diverse voices rather than 5 huge conglomerates chasing the same dollar with their celebrity memoirs and Tom Clancy thrillers. He argues for the freedom for editors and houses to express their tastes and to let the public decide whether that taste suits them or not. But if a book never sees the light of day because corporate executives, who often know nothing about books (Vitale, Schiffrin points out "did eventually agree to read the novels of Judith Krantz" published by his own company), decide it won't sell enough copies, then you have market censorship. When that happens on a large enough scale, it's not the end of democracy, but democracy is certainly weakened by a shrinking pool of ideas and opinions from which to draw. Schiffrin quotes the German publisher, Klaus Wagenbach: "If books with small print runs disappear, the future will die. Kafka's first book was published with a printing of 800 copies. Brecht's first work merited 600. What would have happened if someone had decided that was not worth it?" Somehow, advocating books with tiny print runs like this doesn't strike me as elitist. If you are even slightly connected to the book business, if you are at all interested in books, if you give any thought at all to the future of the free exchange of ideas in this country and abroad, this is a must-read. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Bottom Line: Buy it *****

...

At least from a writer's perspective, all of Schiffrin's assertions about the publishing industry are stunningly true. In fact, my agent quit the business some years ago after attending a lecture by a revoltingly wealthy and revoltingly arrogant agent who assured her and the rest of the audience that yes, money is indeed the bottom line.

As Mr. Schiffrin points out, publishers are simply not interested in authors anymore, they are interested only in the book being submitted. That is to say, there is no attempt-as in the days of Max Perkins, the legendary Scribner's editor of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe-to invest in an author whose first book may not be a great seller, nor even her second but who will nonetheless write books the house can be proud of and may some day turn produce that most marvelous of beasts, the literary bestseller (a la Gabriel Garcia Marquez, John Updike, Toni Morrison).

In a smooth, flowing voice that, while it may lack bells and whistles, is exceptionally lucid, Schiffrin tells the story of how publishing houses went from being, for the most part, "family owned and small, content with the modest profits that came from a business that still saw itself as linked to intellectual and cultural life" to an industry in which some of the executives, such as Alberto Vitale at Random House, freely admit they are too busy to read a book! I was riveted almost from the opening page.

Some of the reviewers have accused Schiffrin of being elitist-maybe because he lives on the Upper West Side or because he believes editors should have some say-beyond profitability--in what is being published. They find him distressingly left wing. The fact is, Schiffrin is arguing for all editors, EVERYwhere to get behind authors of their choice. Many small houses will present many diverse voices rather than 5 huge conglomerates chasing the same dollar with their celebrity memoirs and Tom Clancy thrillers. He argues for the freedom for editors and houses to express their tastes and to let the public decide whether that taste suits them or not. But if a book never sees the light of day because corporate executives, who often know nothing about books (Vitale, Schiffrin points out "did eventually agree to read the novels of Judith Krantz" published by his own company), decide it won't sell enough copies, then you have market censorship. When that happens on a large enough scale, it's not the end of democracy, but democracy is certainly weakened by a shrinking pool of ideas and opinions from which to draw. Schiffrin quotes the German publisher, Klaus Wagenbach: "If books with small print runs disappear, the future will die. Kafka's first book was published with a printing of 800 copies. Brecht's first work merited 600. What would have happened if someone had decided that was not worth it?" Somehow, advocating books with tiny print runs like this doesn't strike me as elitist.

If you are even slightly connected to the book business, if you are at all interested in books, if you give any thought at all to the future of the free exchange of ideas in this country and abroad, this is a must-read. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Strong views on publishing ***
Schiffrin's book is provocative and well written. There is a little too much "And then I published...." along with a lot of name dropping. But there are also eye-opening insights into changes that the last 30 years have brought to publishing, as well as some good behind-the-scenes stories. Schiffrin clearly has an axe to grind, but he also has a point of view worth hearing. Reviewers who suggest this is a "whine" or a leftist diatribe would seem to have axes of their own that they are working on.

Strong views on publishing ***

Schiffrin's book is provocative and well written. There is a little too much "And then I published...." along with a lot of name dropping. But there are also eye-opening insights into changes that the last 30 years have brought to publishing, as well as some good behind-the-scenes stories. Schiffrin clearly has an axe to grind, but he also has a point of view worth hearing. Reviewers who suggest this is a "whine" or a leftist diatribe would seem to have axes of their own that they are working on.

Look to the underground. ***
I think that all reviewers have some points here. The book is a bit whiny. There isn't any documented research. But I think to discount what this book is saying would be denial. The facts that conglomerations own the majority of publishing is bound to inhibit the selection of books they produce or seek out. What this book gave to me is that I should seek out smaller publishers, whether at amazon.com or the library and see what they have to offer instead of assuming that the books in the prime POS spots at the bookstore or on the Best Of Lists are the only books worth seeking out.

Look to the underground. ***

I think that all reviewers have some points here.
The book is a bit whiny. There isn't any documented research. But I think to discount what this book is saying would be denial. The facts that conglomerations own the majority of publishing is bound to inhibit the selection of books they produce or seek out. What this book gave to me is that I should seek out smaller publishers, whether at amazon.com or the library and see what they have to offer instead of assuming that the books in the prime POS spots at the bookstore or on the Best Of Lists are the only books worth seeking out.

BusinessWeek Agrees with Much of this Book ****
Many of the other reviewers have done a fine job pointing out the merits and flaws of this book, so I will only add a quote that I find significant from Hardy Green, Business Week's Books Editor: "Much of Schiffrin's indictment is accurate. Questions of quality are, of course, highly subjective, but to this reviewer, it seems that some publishers have indeed lowered standards without much improving the business picture." With such a pro-business authority as Business Week seconding Schiffrin's concerns, Schriffin's claims appear stronger - and, sadly, those of the publishing industry's to quality and good sense appear that much weaker.

BusinessWeek Agrees with Much of this Book ****

Many of the other reviewers have done a fine job pointing out the merits and flaws of this book, so I will only add a quote that I find significant from Hardy Green, Business Week's Books Editor: "Much of Schiffrin's indictment is accurate. Questions of quality are, of course, highly subjective, but to this reviewer, it seems that some publishers have indeed lowered standards without much improving the business picture." With such a pro-business authority as Business Week seconding Schiffrin's concerns, Schriffin's claims appear stronger - and, sadly, those of the publishing industry's to quality and good sense appear that much weaker.