The publishing industry nowadays: features, structure, challenges. The publishing chain as value chain: changes. The capitals of the publishing industry. Conglomerates and large publishing companies. Categories of the publishing houses. Organization of the publishing companies: departments. Book promotion. The impact of new information and communication technologies on publishing. The role of the publisher and of the editor. Categories of bookstores: independent, chain bookstores, electronic – traditional. New publishing models. Communities of readers in publishing. The Greek publishing industry. Identity of the Greek publishing companies. Bookselling in Greece.

Aim of the course is to focus and discuss issues of the nowadays publishing industry taking into consideration changes and challenges.

Week # 1: Introduction. The book as unique product. The publishing value chain.

Week # 2: Structure of the publishing industry. Categories of publishing. Changes at the publishing chain during the last decades.

Week #3: Conglomerates, large and small publishing companies. Large and small publishing markets. The impact of new information and communication technologies on book publishing. 

Week #4: Organization / departments of the publishing house. New publishing and business models.

Week #5: The role of the publisher. The rise of the literary agent.

Week #6: Frontlist and backlist. List building. The role of the editorial department. Bestsellers and longsellers. 

Week #7: Book promotion. The role of marketing. The impact of new information and communication technologies on book promotion.

Week #8: Building communities of readers. The role of social media. Reader engagement. Gamification.

Week #9: Categories of bookstores: independent, chain bookstores, electronic – traditional. Changes, challenges, current trends.

Week #10: The Greek publishing activity: features and changes. Setting the scene.

Week #11: Identity of the Greek publishing companies. Large, medium and small publishing houses.

Week #12: Bookstores in Greece. Textbooks. The price of the book.

Week #13: Revision, discussion.

• Banou, Christina (2017), Re-inventing the Book. Challenges from the Past for the Publishing Industry, Foreword by Angus Phillips, Elsevier - Chandos Publishing, Cambridge - Oxford.
• Banou, Christina (2012), Gutenberg’s Next Step: the Publishing Houses in Greece at the Beginning of the 21^st century, Athens: Papazisis Publishers
• Clark, Giles & Phillips, Angus (2014), Inside Book Publishing, fifth edition, London and New York: Routledge.
• Greco, Albert (2013), The Book Publishing Industry, second edition, Mahwah, NJ & London& New York: Routledge
• Thompson, J. B. (2010),Μerchants of Culture. The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Schiffrin, Andre (2012), Εκδόσεις χωρίς εκδότες, μετ. Κίττυ Ξενάκη, Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Αιώρα.
• Schiffrin, Andre (2001), The Business of Books. How International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read, London – New York: Verso
• Striphas, Ted (2009), The Late Age of Print. Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control, New York - Chichester, West Sussex: University of Columbia Press.

Weeks #13ths with ppt presentations and internet use

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Written exam, optional essay