An Eye into the Publishing Business, Jason Epstein
Book Business - Publishing Past Present Future by Jason Epstein, the former editorial director for Random House is a fascinating look at the business side of publishing, revealing much of the history of the behemoth authors fear, respect and love.
One of the most fascinating items (and there were several gems here) I found was Mr. Epstein’s commentary on the practice of “returns”.  Largely due to the depression of the 30’s, smaller booksellers were unwilling to risk their money on unknown authors and so wanted a guarantee that if a book did not sell, then the publisher would take it back. This practice was started by Simon & Schuster and remains a thorn in the sides of authors to this day as they wait several months to receive the earnings owed them.
In fact, the practice, which destroys unsold copies of mass market books, is one that defies logic in this day and age when computers help businessess track sales and can help companies better predict demand and its answering counterpart, demand. Closely on the heels of this antiquated means of doing business, Print on Demand (POD) from companies such as Lightning Source and others will eventually force changes in the publishing business model.Â
Mr. Epstein has gone on to become editorial director of On Demand Books the book company that has the Espresso Book Machine which is the system in use at the New York City library. Several titles are available to its patrons from the vast archives of works now considered a part of the public domain.  Book Business is available there.
The world is changing and faster than a lot of the management at big NY houses would like to admit. In a day when we are encouraging people to recycle and be more earth friendly, its time NY publishers did likewise and didn’t destroy unsold books to add tonage to our overflowing landfills.