Overall Picture of the EM field

How was this field born and how is it evolving?

Book Publishing Industry

• "Dominant Trends Since 1945" (Greco 2007, 10)

What are the main business models?

Book Publishing Industry

• Solitary Authorship + Contractual Relationship
  • "Whatever the motive, the stark reality of writing means that the author toils alone, for writing is a singular, hard profession." (Greco 1997, 1) However, "the author's objective changes. He or she needs a publisher willing to tender a contract to have the novel, biography, or monograph edited, printed, reviewed, publicized, distributed, and, hopefully, read by as many people as possible." (Greco 1997, 1)

Commercial Publishing House

• Modest objectives?: "... to sell enough copies to pay the publishing house's employees, taxes, and other expenses while making a contribution to the world of letters. Hopefully, a profit can be made a royalty paid to the author." (Greco 1997, 1)

University Presses

• Mission?: "to make a contribution to scholarship while trying to pay the bills" (Greco 1997, 2)

What are the innovation dynamics in this field?

Inputs Innovations

• "New capital expenditures" (Greco 1997, 3)
  • Timing: incremental growth, 1967-1987
  • "Computer systems for editing, data management, accounting, royalties, and payroll"
• Commons-based peer production

Outputs Innovations

• e-Books
  • Timing: potentially disruptive technology but still some percentage of sales
  • In 2005, "30,000-50,000 e-book units were in use in the United States" (Greco 2007, 24)
  • In 2005, "total e-book sales were in the $12 million range" (Greco 2007, 24)

• (Computerized) Print on Demand (POD)
  • Timing: incremental innovation "allowed publishers to keep titles 'in print,' effecitvely reaching new audiences for decades" (Greco 2007, 24)

How does knowledge flow in this field?

coming soon

Is this field replicating models from other fields?

coming soon

How many companies?

Book Publishers (not only EM)

• 2006 U.S. Census Data (U.S. Census Bureau, Company Statistics Division & Bowan 2008)
  • # of Firms: 3,042
  • Employees: 83,504
  • Annual Payroll: $4,993,924

• 1967 and 1987 U.S. Census Data (Greco 1997, 2-3)

Year	# of Firms	# of Employees	# Annual Payroll	Shipments Value
1967	1,022	52,000	$390 million	$2.13 billion
1987	2,298	70,100	$1.86 billion	$11.6 billion
2006	3,042	83,504	$5 billion	???

How much money do they make or how much money do they “move” in the American economy?

Book Publishing Industry

• Sales by type of book (Book Industry Study Group 2005 / NOTE: need to get 2008 from library)
  • Professional and scholarly: $4.1 billion (176 million units)
  • University press: $450 million (24 million units)
  • Elhi (elementary and high school texts): $4.7 billion (178 million units)
  • College textbooks (all levels): $3.9 billion (67 million units)

How important is research from universities in this specific field?

coming soon

How important is public funding in this field?

coming soon

How important is private funding / venture capital in this field?

coming soon

Are there any specific public policies (from agencies, federal or state policies) that give incentives for openness or enclosure?

coming soon

What is the cost structure of the field?

coming soon

Who are the producers, the buyers, and the users?

coming soon

What is the structure of power from the production side?

Who has the power to control production?

coming soon

How is the control distributed?

coming soon

What is the structure of power in the demand side?

Who has the power to control demand?

• Book Publishing Industry
  • Book Reviews (Greco et al 2007, 48-51)
  • Oprah Winfrey (Greco et al 2007, 51-53)

How is the control distributed?

coming soon

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