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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused uncertainties about the book publishing business with publishers experiencing decline in book sales. Although sales via online platforms and the distribution of educational digital content accelerated substantially, it was still unable to obscure the negative impact experienced by publishers. As a result, they faced challenges to sustain and survive, and that led to the question of where the industry was heading in the future. Overall, this study explores its condition in Malaysia. The idea is to gain insight into how far the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted local publishers and what their views are on the future direction of the industry. In doing so, interviews with key personnel of local publishers in trade and school-oriented publishing sectors were conducted. Based on the findings, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected negatively on their business. The trend of online bookselling, however, has shown significant growth, and the majority of publishers concentrated on enhancing online channels through their own e-commerce websites or other e-commerce platforms. For schoolbook publishers, efforts have been made to increase the supply of digital materials for the purpose of teaching and learning at home. Apart from that, some interviewees also highlighted being more cautious in their publication planning. About their views on where the industry is heading in the future, some realized that it would be rather challenging for the industry to grow exponentially but remain optimistic. However, in order for them to survive, some observed that it is necessary for them to change by considering expanding toward other business opportunities as a content provider rather than solely as a publisher who depends on books publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2020, a wave of academic and trade books has brought unprecedented attention to queer nightlife. Whereas this special issue of TSQ advances queer nightlife as a site for continued study in sociology, this forum opens a conversation between ten leading scholars who have often carried out their work in distinct social science and humanities fields, including sociology, geography, ethnomusicology, performance studies, religion, and media studies. In a spirit of academic generosity, they become interlocutors who exchange stories, analytical frameworks, and investments with the goal that they might learn from each other; they bond over shared nightlife and research experiences, including ethnographic methods and attention to affect. This forum poses questions and insights that will enrich how future scholarship can build toward more rigorous, capacious, and imaginative queer methods – within and beyond sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines a case study of the partnership between Polish public libraries and Legimi, a commercial distributor of digital books operating on both the trade book and library markets. Legimi and representatives of the libraries were interviewed in order to examine the reasons why libraries contract with commercial actors, the extent to which these services are used, the rationale for selecting the billing models, and which funding sources support libraries in this regard. Arrangements for Legimi's services are negotiated mainly through library consortia. Currently, approximately 42% of all libraries in Poland provide digital books through Legimi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT This content analysis explored children's fictional storybooks and informational science books to determine their differences in high‐quality text features that support oral language (OL) development. We also explored the opportunities for OL development in curricular books compared to trade books. Using systematic coding procedures, we evaluated the genre, vocabulary, syntactic variety, supportive visuals and cultural sensitivity in books from three kindergarten and Grade 1 reading curricula (n = 521) as well as a sample of commercially‐available trade books (n = 48). Descriptive information was averaged to determine the percentage of high‐quality text features included in each book type and genre. Results indicated that informational science trade books offered more opportunities for rich language experiences than their curricular counterparts or any of the fictional books. Thus, there is reason to believe that informational science trade books with high‐quality text features may promote OL development and enhance the learning of young students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, researchers examined the math-related expository books found in 23 first-grade classroom libraries to determine specific mathematical concepts related to counting and cardinality and operations and algebraic thinking addressed in each. In addition, they examined how these concepts aligned with the first-grade Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Results indicate that most of these texts contained concepts related to counting and cardinality but were better aligned with kindergarten standards than the first-grade standards. Very few of the books contained content related to operations and algebraic thinking and again, those that did focused on content more appropriate for kindergarten students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that a cohort of London booksellers who visited colonial New England fashioned readers as unsophisticated provincials. It focuses on the English bookseller John Dunton, who visited Boston in the 1680s. on marginalia in colonial books, and on the circumstances which undermined the publication of Magnalia Christi Americana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

AbstractThis practitioner paper describes an inquiry-based approach applying the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) framework to facilitate instruction of September 11, 2001 history, and its impact on post-9/11 society. An upper elementary level inquiry teaches the Boatlift Rescue from Manhattan Island, and a secondary level inquiry addresses the concepts of loss and persistence. Enduring issues are humanity and resiliency. The featured sources are children’s and youth literature related to 9/11 history and post-9/11 society. Children’s and youth trade books offer educators a valuable starting point to teach about 9/11 and post-9/11 history. For each inquiry instructional strategies are highlighted that encourage students to make their thinking visible when reading trade books and using primary sources from 9/11 repositories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research defines main direction of book publishing houses reengineering based on the analysis of successful cases of AI use in publishing business. The timeline of the research started in August 2023 and was summarised in the beginning of January 2024. The main methods were expert interview, monitoring of international and Ukrainian internet platforms, and document analysis. The study showed that the main aspects of business processes reengineering in publishing houses, based on the use of AI, are: (1) development of business strategies and plans; (2) development of digital spaces in publishing houses; (3) emerging of new professions; (4) discussions and their summaries; (5) received manuscripts check; (6) finding plagiarism; (7) preparation of creative, advertising, and presentation materials; (8) working with numbers and databases. The recommendations on the use of AI in business processes are extracted from the policies of the organisations connected with the book publishing industry. They are presented in the convenient table for further use. One of the study results showed that Ukrainian publishing houses discuss the capabilities of AI for generating different types and formats of content, and based on that, AI capabilities for reengineering are considered. One of the biggest challenges, created by AI, is that the technology develops faster than people can perceive so they struggle to describe the technology itself and its impact. It means that we should adjust to the changes, caused by exponential development of AI, finding resources to overcome unequal access to AI capabilities in the process of specialists’ preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: We study product digitization as an impetus for firm strategy change. Product digitization can erode a firm's ability to differentiate through physical product attributes and prompts them to increase emphasis on nonphysical product attributes to sustain their competitive advantage. We expect this effect is pronounced among firms that have pursued a physical differentiation strategy prior to the digital age. However, we expect that countervailing forces exist such that the internal supply cost of and the external market demand for the nonphysical differentiator mitigate this effect. Evidence from publishers in the Amazon Kindle e‐book ecosystem supports our hypotheses. This study bridges the growing digital strategy literature and the classical competitive strategy literature. We discuss how our findings are relevant to a range of industries. Managerial Summary: Many companies invest in superior physical product attributes to increase a customer's willingness‐to‐pay and entice purchase. However, when products become digitized—such as music streaming displacing CDs or e‐books replacing printed books—the effectiveness of physical product differentiation is diminished. We examine how book publishers manage this challenge at the advent of Amazon's Kindle e‐book technology. We find that publishers that have emphasized physical product attributes turn to emphasizing nonphysical product differentiation, namely, through offering more content. Yet, the extent of the strategy change is limited by the internal development cost of and the external demand for the nonphysical differentiator. We discuss how our findings are relevant to a range of settings, including both product and service companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guardian critic Hadley Freeman stated in 2014 that the "book publishing world has, for some time now, become wholly memoirified." This article will analyze the book industry's penchant for memoir, focusing on memoirs published by female comedians or comedic actors since Tina Fey's record-breaking bestseller Bossypants (2011). The article offers a book studies-centered perspective, drawing on quantitative as well as qualitative data. Including a brief case study of the Goodreads Choice Awards in the category "Humor," this article contributes to a greater understanding of the position of the popular memoir in the book industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay outlines methodologies for identifying and understanding discourse within and across historical communities. It uses social network analysis and quantitative text analysis to demonstrate, first, how communities of actors with a shared context can be extracted from social networks, and second, that the written works tied to those communities hold distinct linguistic features. To do this, it develops a case study around early modern Quakers within the London book trade. The aim is to use existing historical knowledge and expertise to both validate the methods and offer insights into their future uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this research is to quantify for the first time the phenomenon of books authored by ChatGPT for sale through Amazon. To do this and with the help of a quantitative descriptive methodology, this work analyzes the evolution of books written by ChatGPT, and the characteristics of these works—typology, language, price, extension and type of edition—are determined. Also, this research studies those authors using ChatGPT and discusses the scope of this phenomenon, proposing measures and actions that promote transparency and good practices in the publishing industry regarding books written by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Finally, this work concludes that ChatGPT is having a significant impact on the publishing world, from both the creation and distribution of content, so the appropriate balance between the use of AI and human intervention will continue to be essential to maintain a diverse and creative publishing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixty-six million years, ninety-three million miles... What do these numbers really mean? Elementary science concepts that involve large numbers require students to have conceptual understanding of what one million represents and how it differs in orders of magnitude from smaller numbers such as ten thousand. These concepts also require students to have procedural fluency with estimation strategies. In this article, we presents strategies that integrate science, math, and trade books for simultaneously addressing NGSS and CCSSM standards and practices grounded in conceptual understanding of large numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) book is an indispensable carrier for the implementation of the strategy for invigorating China through science and education. Developing high-quality TCM book publishing industry plays a very important role in training TCM talents, improving the quality of TCM education, and enhancing the confidence in the traditional culture. This paper reviewed the historical process of the TCM book publishing industry from its beginning to the present, and proposed nine problems for promoting the high-quality development of TCM book publishing in the current environment, aiming at the pain points and difficulties existing in the current development of the publishing industry. It fundamentally points out the development direction and coping strategies of the future TCM book publishing, and promotes the high-quality development of the benign, orderly and sustainable publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides the first account and analysis of the publication of Hannah Wolley (c.1622-c.in or after 1674), the prolific but understudied author of five different domestic manuals between 1661 and 1674. The publication of The Ladies Directory in 1661 and its reprinting in 1662 provide the context for an exploration of the opportunities and challenges facing a first-time female 'Authress' (as Wolley was described on the title page) being published. As a non-elite but educated working woman, Wolley did not fit the mould of her female published precursors, and nor did the format and contents of her texts. This study shows how Wolley and other stakeholders in the production of The Ladies Directory navigated a challenging period in English book production, through conceiving the book as the first instalment in a series of domestic texts that could be printed separately but bound together; and argues that she used print as but one strand of her commercial 'offer', alongside private tuition and selling readymade medications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article turns attention to the contemporary Black feminist trade book, which I argue introduces a new, highly visible, and highly profitable genre: Black feminist self-help. This article thinks critically about Black feminist self-help, tracking the exceedingly narrow conception of the political that it advances. If all feminist work might be understood as a form of self-help, as championing "the personal is political" and suggesting that political transformation begins with the self, Black feminist self-help insists that the entirety of political transformation is self-improvement, that self-work is synonymous with political work, that feeling better is political and politically radical. The idea of the radical promise of self-improvement permeates this archive, from the transformative promise of self-love in Sonya Renee Taylor's The Body Is Not An Apology to the resistant potential of simply lying down in Tricia Hersey's manifesto Rest Is Resistance. And the idea that feeling better is radical permits the reader to heed the call of these books, to take on the labor that their authors demand even as the authors often hide the fact that their books ask their readers to work. Further, this ideas allows the authors to claim that the acts of reading, working, and thinking differently are political tasks that remake both the self and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macao's academic book publishing industry has a rich history and has grown significantly over the past two decades. This study employs a semi‐structured in‐depth interview to evaluate the current and prospective state of Macao's academic book publishing industry. The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis and the PEST (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological) analysis are used in this study. The strengths of Macao's academic book publishing industry include that requesting an ISBN in Macao is easy and quick under the principle of 'One Country, Two Systems' and financial support from the Macao SAR government. However, the industry faces several weaknesses, including an underdeveloped cultural industry, a small seller market and a talent shortage, and less copyright output. Opportunities for the industry exist through constructing a Culture‐based Bay Area in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area and developing an international hub for digital trade in the Guangdong–Macao In‐Depth Cooperation Zone–Hengqin. However, Macao's academic book publishing industry is threatened by emerging Internet technologies, such as augmented reality, the metaverse, and ChatGPT. This paper also proposes strategies for future practice, such as taking the initiative to encourage a group of top‐tier publishers to establish branches in Macao and improve publications' cultural elements. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the strategic management of Macao's academic book publishing industry and will be of interest to publishers, academic researchers, and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1949 and again in 1951, staff from the privately endowed Newberry Library in Chicago travelled to the UK and Continental Europe on lengthy buying trips that were designed to take advantage of depressed post-war book markets. They hoped thereby to bypass middlemen in the book trade (most of them New York dealers) and to establish long-term relationships with European booksellers that would allow them to build research collections on a large scale. The Newberry shoppers were relatively early in this opportunistic sort of buying, but their project reflects the kind of aggressive acquisitions American libraries would undertake across the next two decades. Along the way, institutional buying transformed the antiquarian trade from an elite, largely bibliophile concern into a massive supply chain for modern historical research. This essay explores the rich sources for the Newberry's acquisitions in these years by way of exemplifying the broader phenomenon, that Americans were driving an unprecedented boom in the antiquarian book trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional book distribution was central to political mobilization in the localities during the English Civil Wars. A contextual approach, building up a picture from print and manuscript sources such as journals, reveals the multiple ways in which books circulated, through a case study of Devon and the south west. In contrast to recent emphasis on activist publishers, these sources highlight the significance of book distribution by puritan clergy. Book distribution in Devon was dominated by the unmatched south-western network of the London publisher Francis Eglesfield (publisher of Robert Herrick's Hesperides). However, the political agency of book distribution lies beyond the conventional book trade with the activities of local ministers, exemplified by John Bond of Exeter, Thomas Larkham of Tavistock, and John Syms of Sheepstor and Plymouth. Their distribution efforts provided multiple routes by which books reached their political audiences and created opportunities for political participation in parish communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the rapid and dynamic transition of the Bulgarian book from the Late Middle Ages to Modernity between 1806 and 1878. Special attention is paid to the work of Hristo G. Danov—one of the founders of modern Bulgarian book publishing, book printing and book trade. His business spread within the vast geographical area of Central and Eastern Europe, between the Austrian and Ottoman Empires' capitals. The research focuses on topics such as transnational book communication, book travel from place to place and multilingual printing book context. It presents how the printed book as a new means of text dissemination was used during the Bulgarian Revival—the difficult process that had to balance with many geopolitical, religious and social factors, as well as characteristics of daily life in the Ottoman Empire. Besides the Bulgarian national context, this paper refers to the organization of book publishing in geographical and economic aspects, the pursuit of an intellectual project through an active search for authors, texts and ideas, and the relation between book publishing and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Trade in Rare Books and Manuscripts between Britain and America c. 1890–1929" by Danielle Magnusson and Laura Cleaver explores the period of American book collecting from 1890 to 1929, which was a time of significant growth and change in the market. The authors discuss the rise of American collectors and the increasing sophistication among buyers during this period. They also highlight the important role played by British and American booksellers in facilitating the trade. The book provides a detailed account of notable sales, collectors, and key figures in the trade, drawing on archival material and personal correspondence. The authors present both British and American perspectives, showcasing the tensions and stereotypes that existed between the two countries. Overall, the book offers valuable insights into the motivations of collectors and the dynamics of the rare book and manuscript trade during this golden age. [Extracted from the article]

Socialist artist, wood engraver, and writer Clare Leighton transformed the interwar wood engraving revival from a niche movement within fine book publishing into an everyday art for the people when in 1935 she brought out with leftist publisher Victor Gollancz her authored and illustrated Four Hedges: A Gardener's Chronicle. Read alongside Country Matters (1937), a second illustrated countryside book that Gollancz commissioned from Leighton, Four Hedges becomes a key 1930s text because it realigns modernist values associated with the wood engraved productions of small presses with the more democratic values of mass-reproduced trade books. Combining feminist biography, close reading, and modernist and middlebrow book history, this article argues that the wood engraved books that Gollancz commissioned from Leighton contribute to rather than resist or exist outside of the radical 1930s once they are located within Leighton's rural arts practice and Gollancz's publishing ventures, including his publication of George Orwell's legendary urban documentary, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tematy & Konteksty is the property of University of Rzeszow and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The essay, with evidence of Yeats's inscriptions and ownership of his rarest books in its Appendices, argues that connoisseurship enhances readership as well as creating value. In the coming era of "Virtual Reading Rooms" for research libraries, collectors, and the antiquarian book trade, Yeats's books as the symbolical embodiment of his endlessly revised texts, will be examined more often in online form. As access to digital representation of rare editions widens, students will have even more need to understand the materiality of the book. Copy-specific provenance data-bases will be an essential tool of online bibliography if we are to understand the motives of collectors with which Yeats himself remained baffled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether existing multilateral trade commitments really deter larger trading nations from taking steps that further weaken cross‐border commercial ties is assessed here. Evidence from salient commercial policy episodes of recent years is combined with information on the actual leeway available to G‐20 members under extant World Trade Organization rules. The upshot is a bleak assessment of the capacity of the existing multilateral trade rule book to rein in any attempt by larger trading nations to "deglobalize" the world economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of TESAM Academy Journal is the property of Tesam Academy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates online feedback systems and their perceived diagnosticity in the book industry, using a mixed methods approach, with data retrieved from Amazon. Several variables concur to give the overall perceived diagnosticity of customer reviews: score systems, written text and its themes, and reviews date. Even though reviews are positively biased, long negative reviews are perceived as the most diagnostic. The older the review, the higher the perceived diagnosticity, due to the combined effects of early bird bias and winner circle bias. By understanding the role that variables have on diagnosticity, the findings can be used by scholars, as well as by e-commerce and marketplace webmasters who seek ways to improve the feedback systems of the online platforms in or outside the book industry.

I offer reflections on the late Charles Bosk's book proposal as a trade book, focusing specifically on different genres in nonfiction trade publishing, and the different approaches to evidence in sociology and journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Turkey, the Tevhid-i Tedrisat Law (March 3, 1924), which came into force with the establishment of the Republic and aimed at bringing education completely under the control of the state within the framework of a common curriculum, and the process of transition from the Arabic to the Latin script, the so-called 'Letter Revolution" in 1928, led to radical changes in book printing and literacy. This paper analyzes the basic characteristics and changes in the practice of selling books in Arabic script from peddlers to booksellers. The study is limited to Diyarbakır. For the study, in-depth interviews were conducted with three booksellers in Diyarbakır, with people who worked in bookselling at different times, and with madrasa teachers who visited the bookstores. As places of religious and, to some extent, literary education, madrasas were one of the most important institutions that contributed to the formation of an literate community. Bookstores were one of the places where this community socialized. They served as a place where madrasa teachers could exchange ideas about books and, in case of disagreement, take the relevant books from the shelves and discuss them. For this reason, changes in the book trade will also make important contributions to the analysis of changes in the literacy tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I offer reflections on the late Charles Bosk's book proposal as a trade book, focusing specifically on different genres in nonfiction trade publishing, and the different approaches to evidence in sociology and journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photojournalism as an industry has experienced a highly dynamic development in recent years. The present study aims to provide an encompassing image of this industry and its emergence, as well as its challenges in the current context. The cultural dimension of this sector, as well as its prevalent connection to the book industry, constitute two of the main perspectives elaborated in this study. Lastly, an entrepreneurial perspective on photojournalism as a profession is adopted, while a detailed DESTEP analysis is provided further to illustrate the practical implications of this field of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, customer experience and satisfaction have become more critical than ever before. Companies focus on these two elements to retain and acquire customers in a highly competitive environment. The relationship between authors and publishers has always been complex, with dynamics deeply rooted in the social and cultural environment. At the same time, the success of their collaboration significantly impacts the local creative and sociocultural landscape. It is essential to understand the factors that determine author satisfaction and ease of collaboration, both generally and industry-specific, to support the growth and development of the book sector. This paper analyzes the collaborative dynamics between authors and publishers using the Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Customer Effort Score (CES) metrics based on a survey of 133 authors from various literary fields and geographic areas in Romania. The research findings provide insight into the key drivers behind authors' satisfaction and ease of collaboration with publishers. Moreover, we suggest practical recommendations from authors to publishers that can improve their collaborative processes, enhancing positive experiences for authors and potentially improving the overall quality of published works. This study's insights shall benefit authors, publishing houses, various organizations operating in the publishing field, policymakers, and regulatory bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society has always relied on education for the building of progress ever since the dawn of history, and books have always been strong agents of change no matter the shape they came in (papyrus, codex, handwritten manuscripts, printed books, digital books, etc.). For this reason, analyzing the interplay between education and books is valuable and necessary if we wish to get a better sense of society at any moment. This paper explores how education and the book industry intersect in today's Romanian society. However, it also proposes a possible solution for strengthening their relationship and opening new horizons for culture and research. More specifically, my analysis focuses on children's literature since children's education is considered an investment into the future of society in modern democratic states. In the case of Romania, it is unfortunate that this type of literature is somewhat neglected compared to other countries, but this should never be a good enough reason for not trying to create more creative contexts to improve the situation. Drawing inspiration from what other countries are doing to develop bridges between education and the children's book market, but at the same time highlighting essential initiatives in Romania that can become reliable engines of change, I strongly advocate for the necessity and possibility of creating a Romanian House of Children's Literature, open to supporting researchers, professionals, and families in their shared mission to ensure quality development of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Book publishing companies navigate the interplay between localization and globalization seamlessly, yet the cadence at which global dynamics infiltrate local markets unfolds at different rhythms. Using publicly available data about the performance of Romanian book publishers, this paper explores the local market and its dynamics from 2018 to 2021. The results indicate "an inactivity trend" among enterprises: more than 40% of companies could not generate a net profit, and more than 50% had no employees. The prevalence of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) over big companies is an intrinsic characteristic of the Romanian market. Although compared to bigger companies, SMEs manage to translate sales into profitability, over 70% of small and medium-sized companies have a turnover below 60,000 Euros. The paper concludes by highlighting growth opportunities, such as tapping into the Romanian diaspora and exploring the correlation between book sales, university locations, and the role of academic institutions in shaping reading habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at small independent publishers in the UK and explores whether there is room for them in the overcrowded UK publishing scene. The literature review considers contradictory press reports about the health of the UK publishing industry during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire allowing in-depth responses was sent to six micro-publishers and four independent bookshops. The responses were analyzed and supplemented with publicly available interviews with the publishers and personal conversations with the booksellers. A case study of the recently founded publisher of translated crime fiction Corylus Books confirms many of the issues reported by the surveyed micro-publishers. This research offers an inside look at the UK micro-publishers' challenges and creative approaches, providing practical and applicable insights not only for the UK market but also for small publishers in other countries, especially agents or publishers looking to sell rights to those markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michael Harris, a historian and founding editor of Media History, passed away in December 2022. He was known for his research on the eighteenth-century newspaper press and the book trade. Harris played a significant role in establishing newspaper and periodical history as a mainstream area of study. He authored several important articles and a monograph on London newspapers in the 1720s and 30s. Additionally, Harris co-founded the Annual Conferences on Book Trade History and was instrumental in the creation and development of the Journal of Newspaper and Periodical History, Studies in Newspaper and Periodical History, and Media History. He was highly regarded as a scholar, teacher, and supportive colleague. [Extracted from the article]

Tobias Smollett's works were among the most frequently illustrated in the eighteenth century. Smollett's eclectic output encountered equally diverse types of illustration that both accompanied these works and inhabited their own independent creative identity. Frontispieces occupy a unique place within this wider context. This article investigates two main points: first, booksellers deemed Smollett a saleable author, deserving of potentially expensive illustrated additions that enhanced his works' circulation on a competitive book market; second, these illustrations were considered useful visual tools in deciphering the verbal text, with frontispieces serving their own specific introductory function. Two types of publication by Smollett—his translated texts, Gil Blas (1748) and Don Quixote (1755), and original prose fictions, Roderick Random (1748) and Peregrine Pickle (1751)—and their earliest frontispieces (by Francis Hayman, Henry Fuseli, and an anonymous artist) shed new light on Smollett's early reception, and on the wider forms and functions of eighteenth-century frontispieces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]