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The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read Paperback – November 1, 2001

by Andre Schiffrin (Author)
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Post-war American publishing has been ruthlessly transformed since André 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.

André 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.
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  1. Print length
    208 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Verso
  4. Publication date
    November 1, 2001
  5. Dimensions
    5.1 x 0.4 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    185984362X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1859843628
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Andre Schiffrin is an old-fashioned New York publisher, the sort that loves and believes in books. Not just best-sellers, but little books with big ideas.”—The Times [London]

“André Schiffrin presents a somber portrait of American publishing where the pursuit of profit has strangled all creativity.”—Nouvel Observateur

“Newsworthy and important, eloquent, smart, thoughtful, and well-presented.”—The Nation

“An absorbing account of the revolution in publishing during the last decade.”—Financial Times

“Forceful evidence that corporate insistence on higher profits has been cultural and business folly.”—Business Week

About the Author

André Schiffrin was, for thirty years, the publisher of Pantheon Books. In 1990 Schiffrin left Pantheon to found The New Press. He is the author of The Business of Books, Words and Money, A Political Education, and Dr. Seuss & Co. Go to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of America’s Leading Comic Artists. He divides his time between Paris and New York.

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André Schiffrin

André Schiffrin

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In close to fifty years as an editor, first at Pantheon Books and then as the founding director of The New Press, André Schiffrin was responsible for a great many books on World War II, including Art Speigelman’s Maus and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Embracing Defeat. He is the author of several books himself, among them The Business of Books and A Political Education. He lives in New York City.

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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
21 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

  • Richard A. Ellis
    4.0 out of 5 stars The Mindlessness of the market
    Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2000
    Format: Hardcover
    If you seem to have fond memories of the well-stocked bookstores of twenty or twenty-five years ago, it may not be all false nostalgia or a curmudgeonly disgust with modern "culture." Schiffrin, the former head of Pantheon Books, lays out in detail the sad decline of American publishing. The chief culprits are the mega-mergered conglomerates that have established a virtual stranglehold on the book trade in this country and elsewhere. Schiffrin's experience at Pantheon is used as an example of the disastrous effects of the takeover of small independent publishers by large, bottom-line oriented corporations. One remembers the incredibly interesting books Pantheon itself used to publish, which, if similar offerings were to even see the light of day now, they would be taken on by a university press, if at all. Schiffrin's thesis that the short-term bottom-line oriented outlook of the major publishing conglomerates is the main culprit, and it is hard to dispute this. Although a lot of titles continue to be published in this country, there has been a marginalization of serious "challenging" books from the mainstream publishing houses, and there has been a rightward shift in the politics of those books that deal with social and political issues, to coincide with the politics of their publishers. Schiffrin's accounts of the mendacity of the often near-illiterate businesspeople in charge is funny and sad. Book publishing should not be totally dictated by short-term profits. The intellectual decline of this counrty will only accelerate if this trend is perpetuated. My only gripe with this book is that Schiffrin himself is in need of better editors, as there are some mistakes here that his publisher should have caught.
    16 people found this helpful
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  • Bybliophyle
    5.0 out of 5 stars Bottom Line: Buy it
    Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2002
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    From a writer's perspective at least, 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 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 "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.
    15 people found this helpful
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  • James Schiavone
    3.0 out of 5 stars A Publishing Perspective
    Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2000
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Through this "memoir/history," Andre Schiffrin has not allowed a thirty year career at Pantheon to pass without comment. Largely a critique of the dynamic aspects of the publishing industry, Schiffrin bemoans the emerging, profit driven behemoths geared toward publishing commercially viable works while ignoring "books with new, controversial ideas or challenging literary voices." Not without hubris, the author portrays his nurturing of the likes of Studs Terkel, Noam Chomsky. R.D. Laing, and a host of literary luminaries. He seems to delight in the contrast of Michael Korda's best selling authors, Harold Robbins, Irving Wallace, and Jaqueline Susann. These authors are discussed in Korda's memoir, "Another Life," selected as one of the best hundred books of 1999 by Publisher's Weekly (see my review of this work). Schiffrin's hostility over leaving Pantheon, along with a coterie of editorial honchos, is understandable. However, he was not flexible enough to get with the program of the new owners. Schiffrin's logic is flawed. It does not follow that a profit making mandate precludes the release of worthwhile works. While Schiffrin recognizes the Internet as an avenue for disseminating information, he balks at the vastness of the material on line. "How can we know if what is offered is reliable?" With characteristic arrogance he avers that, "publishers, above all, are people who make a selection, who choose and edit material that will be distributed according to certain criteria, and then market and publish it. By putting their name to writers' work, they provide a guarantee and guide to the reader." Tell this reviewer, gentle reader, when was the last time you bought a book because it was published by Random House, Simon & Schuster, or the dubious Free Press? What Schiffrin has ignored, and what is bringing about iconoclastic changes in publishing, is the new technology, Print on Demand (POD). This technology will bypass the Schiffrin's, and enfranchise tens of thousands of authors who would heretofore remain unpublished (see iUniverse.com) due to the likes of self appointed mavens, who through whatever whims, wield the power to decide who gets published and who doesn't. Even major publishers are now utilizing POD. This means no significant investment by the publisher for questionable initial print runs. The more the public wants, the more they can get from Print on Demand. If they don't want it, it doesn't get printed. Therefore, the 40% returns from booksellers are diminished or virtually eliminated. There is no need to earn out an advance when one may not exist. While this reviewer does not concur with Schiffrin, his book is nonetheless a worthwhile read.
    18 people found this helpful
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  • Vladimir
    5.0 out of 5 stars A sad story
    Reviewed in Germany on August 19, 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    a sombre picture of book publishing in our days and not outdated despite the book being a few years old. Bookshop windows reveal floods of money makers and best sellers of all sorts pushed by ever increasing conglomerates which eventually suffocate smaller enterprises. Luckily a few optimists continue to start their own more demanding publishing houses and one can only wish them to survive, best by buying their produce. The three star valuation below misses the point and first printings of heavily advertised best sellers, or those meant to become such, with tens of thousands copies speak for themselves. Money and gains continue to rule the (book) world. At ever increasing speeed. The dilemma between well meaning publishers with a cultural mission - which does not preclude top sales - and book producers who consider books as any sort of commodity will remain with us. It is of course a delicate balance between sufficient profit to keep going and attempts to maximise earnings.
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  • Westgate1410
    5.0 out of 5 stars Uno sguardo inquietante sul mondo dell'editoria
    Reviewed in Italy on September 5, 2012
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Schiffrin massacra il mondo dell'editoria moderna, che viene descritto come ossessivamente guidato dal profitto a discapito della qualità. Le storie che l'autore racconta sui suoi primi decenni nel settore editoriale sono ricche di passione e trasmettono il senso di una missione: quella di promuovere le idee, contribuendo a immettere nuova linfa nel pensiero collettivo.
    Gli sviluppi recenti, con la logica del profitto che sembrerebbe prevalere su tutto il resto, sono descritti con aneddoti molto concreti (ad esempio la descrizione di Alberto Vitale, capo di Random House dal 1989, un uomo che, per sua stessa ammissione, era troppo impegnato per leggere un libro). Ovviamente sarebbe sempre utile sentire "l'altra campana", ma certamente il libro di Schiffrin aiuta a ragionare su un mondo dell'editoria diviso tra l'esigenza di una gestione finanziariamente profittevole e la missione di diffondere le idee, soprattutto quelle meno "commerciali".
    Da leggere!
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  • Mimix
    3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but lacks numbers to prove his points
    Reviewed in France on June 20, 2014
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This book is interesting because the author tells his personal experience as a professional publisher for several decades. However, I would have appreciated to have statistics to back his arguments.
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