Abstract
This paper deals with four cultural and historical features of book industry that still determine the nature of book business. The paper concentrates on how these features impact book industries in linguistic communities with a relatively small number of speakers. The paper also examines the reasons for absence of the publishing education and contemporary publishing research in the world of academia. In its final part, the paper shows the reason why, at least for the time being, e-books will not outperform printed books and stresses that current developments have triggered not only new research on contemporary books, but also created a set of threats and opportunities for book business in small language communities.
Highlights
In this paper, I will discuss four historical and cultural features of the book in the Western world
When we enter the field of contemporary book research, we are immediately faced with a set of paradoxes, the most obvious among them being the fact that research on contemporary book publishing industries was almost nonexistent throughout the 20th century
E-books do not provide a viable business alternative to such problems and are, at least for the time being, not a solution for such problems but an integral part of them. These problems are even bigger in small language communities where one-million-copy print runs are impossible: the long-tail effect and the domination of English will make publishers’ margins even thinner in small communities compared to those in bigger communities
Summary
This paper deals with four cultural and historical features of book industry that still determine the nature of book business. I will discuss four historical and cultural features of the book in the Western world These features have different impacts in small and big language communities and still affect contemporary book culture. As a result, these features have to be dealt with differently throughout Europe. The invention of printing played an important role in the formation of European national communities This still determines the role of the book in contemporary societies. Regardless of the digital revolution, the printed book in codex format remains the most useful information tool for storing complex products of the human mind in written form
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