Publishing is the process of making information available to the public in written form. Traditionally, publishing centered on books, newspapers, and magazines. However, publishing has greatly expanded through the years. Today, publishing includes information circulated electronically on websites and blogs and through social media. People can access the electronic information from many devices, including computers and cell phones. Some experts on publishing believe this expansion has democratized publishing. It has allowed more people from different backgrounds and places to be able to make their ideas known.
Publishing dates back thousands of years to the time when scribes copied out writings to be housed in ancient libraries. Modern publishing began after the development in the 1440’s of a printing press that used movable type. With movable type, a printer could quickly make many copies of a book. The same pieces of type could be used again and again, to print many different books.
The earliest professional publishers were printers. Sometimes, printers sought out works from authors to print and sell. At other times, printers published pamphlets they themselves had written. By the late 1400’s, these early printers had started the business of publishing. The business reached a peak—both in terms of readership and importance—from the late 1800’s to the mid-1900’s.
By the early 2000’s, information published on the internet had at least as much influence as print publishing. Amateurs wrote widely read blogs and became “citizen journalists,” reporting on everything from events in their community to national politics. Individuals could leave comments about articles posted on online newspaper websites and social media, and these comments became part of the story. The divide between the publisher and the reading public became blurred or nonexistent.
For a description of the history of publishing in individual fields, see the articles Book; E-book; Magazine; Newspaper; and Website.
Preparing content for publication
Any writing that is published is called content, whether found in a book, magazine article, or poem. This section discuses the steps involved in print publishing. Some of these steps also apply to online publishing.
Manuscript and copy.
Before publication, a work-in-progress is commonly known as a manuscript if the work is a book, a story, an essay, or a series of poems. Journalists typically refer to their work as copy.
Proposals.
With certain types of writing, such as nonfiction writing for magazines, a writer pitches (proposes) an idea to an editor at a magazine or publishing company. First-time authors most often need to submit an entire manuscript on spec rather than just a proposal. On spec is short for on speculation. Writers who submit manuscripts on spec do not have an agreement that the piece will be published. The better known and more successful an author is, the more likely an editor will consider the author’s proposal for a book or magazine article. Such proposals run anywhere from less than a page to 150 pages or more. Nonfiction is more likely to require a proposal than fiction writing.
Contracts and advances.
When a book-publishing company, often called a publishing house, agrees to accept a manuscript, the editor will offer the author a contract for the work. The contract will specify such things as the length of a work, its due date, and the royalties the author will be paid. A royalty is the percentage of the profit made on a piece of writing that the publishing house owes to an author. Sometimes, an author may receive an advance—an amount paid before the writing has been delivered to the publisher. An advance can be hundreds of dollars for a new writer or millions of dollars for a well-known writer with a large following.
Kill fees.
If a magazine or newspaper decides not to publish a contracted article for whatever reason, it will often pay a kill fee to the writer. A kill fee is a payment of some fraction of the fee agreed upon for the published work. In many cases, the writer is then free to submit the finished writing elsewhere.
Editors and fact checkers.
There are a number of editors and researchers who work with a manuscript. Each has a specific task.
Acquisition editors
often are responsible only for purchasing a book for a publishing house. Acquisition editors are known more for their ability to recognize a talented author than for their editing skills. In most cases, their work is done before the manuscript arrives at the publishing house.
Manuscript editors
work with the content itself. They make suggestions and corrections to an author’s work. A manuscript editor is usually concerned with both grammar and punctuation, but such editors also change content for substance (meaning). The manuscript editor returns the manuscript to the writer with suggestions. The author typically accepts some of the proposed changes, but not necessarily all.
Copy editors
check for errors of grammar and punctuation. They sometimes rewrite parts of a manuscript to fit the style of the publication. Many publications have their own house style. A house style consists of specific rules about such matters as capitalizing, spelling, abbreviating, and phrasing. As with manuscript editors, copy editors sometimes go back and forth with the author. They correct mistakes, query (question) the author about word choices, and ask for clarifications.
Fact checkers
are researchers who have several responsibilities. They locate the sources an author has used to verify quotations that appear in the writing. They also carefully check statements an author has made in the text. Fact checking is a time-consuming process. However, it helps to ensure the trustworthiness of a publication. Fact checking also reduces the risk of lawsuits for a publisher, because fact checkers tend to catch instances of plagiarism. Plagiarism is the use of another person’s work without giving that person credit.
In book publishing, the entire process of editing, copy editing, and fact checking can take up to a year or even longer. In magazine and newspaper publishing, the process is greatly streamlined and condensed. Many newspaper editors will simply make changes to a journalist’s article without asking permission.
Art and design
Visual design is more important in some types of publishing than others. With newspapers and journals, a visual style may be set. Most articles will look like one another, with an illustration sometimes accompanying the published piece. Some large-circulation magazines have big art departments that work hand-in-hand with the editorial department to create artwork that complements the published articles. Book publishers also rely heavily on visual design.
Illustrators, picture editors, and graphic designers do many of the jobs in art and design in publishing. Each has specific duties.
Illustrators
provide drawings and sketches for a publishing house. Such images could be of animals, flowers, or anything needed to illustrate a piece of text.
Picture editors
find photographs to illustrate text. Some photos are in the public domain—that is, free. Most artwork, however, is owned by someone to whom a fee must be paid. The right to print such a photo might cost anywhere from a small sum to thousands of dollars. If a publisher uses an image without getting permission from the owner, the legal costs can be expensive. Therefore, after selecting a photo, picture editors make sure they obtain the necessary permissions for its use. They also make certain the owner is paid the appropriate fee and is properly credited.
Graphic designers
are responsible for the overall look of a publication. Designers determine the organization of a page and its layout—that is, how pictures and text are arranged on a page. They also choose or design decorative elements, such as borders, and select the styles of type that will be used on a page.
Scheduling, printing, and posting
There is often a significant delay between the decision to publish a book or an article and when it is actually printed. Books tend to be scheduled nine months to a year in advance, and sometimes much longer. This gives the author time to make revisions.
Traditional newspapers tend to print once a day. Many magazines, especially those concerned with current events, print weekly. Other magazines print once a month and have a little more time to prepare articles. Monthly magazines often complete the content for an issue six months before that issue’s publication.
With electronic content, a work is usually said to be posted, or uploaded, rather than published. There are millions of amateur sites that publish blogs and other types of electronic content. Many of these sites have few readers. However, there are also professionally published sites with millions of readers.
As with any magazine, professional websites often have a regular schedule of publication. A website, however, does have a certain amount of flexibility not possible with traditional print media. Print publications rely on the availability of a printing press and ink and paper supplies. A website, however, can often arrange for an almost immediate special upload when something important occurs.
Marketing
Many types of published materials compete for the public’s attention and money. Hundreds of thousands of new books are published each year, and many more articles and blogs.
In the book industry, publishers spend much time and effort before a book is published trying to make sure it receives attention. Authors are asked to get endorsements—short statements praising the book—from well-known people. These endorsements are sometimes known as blurbs.
The publisher also creates a catalog of all the new books it is producing. Sales people—known as representatives, or reps—try to promote these books. Reps travel to booksellers to try to persuade them to purchase multiple copies. Sometimes, the order of a single bookstore chain can make the difference of whether a book succeeds or fails.
In the past, authors were routinely sent to bookstores to give readings from their books and sign copies for their fans. But this practice is becoming less frequent as publishers focus more of their marketing dollars on internet promotion and book clubs. Book clubs are informal gatherings of book lovers who assign their members a book a month or so.
Kinds of publishing
Clay tablets were used for the first material that could be said to be published, or created for a public audience. Such tablets were first made by ancient cultures in the Middle East in about the 4000’s B.C. The first libraries were made up of these clay tablets.
By around 2000 B.C., the ancient Egyptians began writing texts on scrolls of papyrus. About A.D. 300, early Christians made popular an ancient type of book known as the codex (plural codices). Instead of consisting of pieces of papyrus or parchment joined together to make long rolls, codices were constructed of sheets of writing material that was sewn together on one side.
Whether created from tablets, scrolls, or codices, published materials in ancient times were produced laboriously by hand. Published works were limited by the small number of people able to produce books and the small number of people able to read them.
Books.
The printing press invented in the 1440’s by Johannes Gutenberg of Germany allowed for the mass production of books. It gave common people access to published knowledge in a way that revolutionized the world. Books about nearly every topic imaginable would be published over the next 500 years.
Up until the late 1900’s, a book was understood to be something printed on paper and bound between covers. But the definition of a book changed with the arrival of the internet.
Electronic books, also called e-books, increased in popularity in the early 2000’s. Technological advances improved the look, readability, and storage capacity of electronic readers, commonly called e-readers. Today, publishers often release their books in e-book format at the same time as they release them in print.
Audiobooks have also become popular. Audiobooks are published recordings of books or other pieces of writing. The first audiobooks were long-playing records known as Talking Books that were recorded in the 1930’s for blind people. Today, audiobooks are recorded on cassette tapes, on compact discs (CD’s), and on electronic files that can be downloaded onto a computer or an iPod or other digital player.
Newspapers.
Handwritten sheets of paper that provided daily news were an early form of publishing. The first such newspaper dates to 59 B.C. in ancient Rome.
As with other forms of publishing, the printing press greatly increased the availability of newspapers. For generations, readers of newspapers trusted professional journalists to sift through information and decide what news could reliably be verified.
Print newspapers declined as more and more people began to get their news from blogs, online newspapers, and social media. With the internet, news gathering has both benefited and suffered as a result of the democratization of the traditional reporter’s role. Some experts believe that such social networking websites as X (formerly called Twitter) and Facebook have become as influential and important as well-known reporters. In places where traditional reporters are barred from entering and gathering facts, for example, ordinary people often step in and snap photos and transmit them throughout the world through social media. However, the reader now has the difficult job of trying to verify what information is accurate.
A number of newspapers have popular online sites with versions of their print newspapers. Some online papers offer free content, but others charge a subscription fee. Unlike traditional print newspapers, online newspapers take full advantage of the immediacy of the internet. They often send e-mail updates on breaking news and post updates several times a day.
Magazines and journals.
Magazines come in many shapes and sizes. Some popular magazines have enormous circulations. Others have an audience of only several hundred readers. Any magazine can be called a journal, but that term is especially used for magazines of a scholarly nature.
Print magazines include those aimed at a broad cross section of the population, as well as those that target specific readers, such as men, women, or teenagers. Trade magazines target members of a particular profession, such as doctors, lawyers, or hair stylists. Literary journals publish new creative works by up-and-coming writers as well as those who are already established.
Many print magazines also offer an online version of their publication. In some cases, magazines that once existed only in print are now available only on the internet. Some magazines are published only on the internet and have never had a print version.
Blogs and websites.
New blogs and websites are uploaded onto the internet every day. There are millions of sites published, some of them by professional publishers and others by amateurs.
Self-publishing.
Many blogs and websites are a form of modern self-publishing. In the past, self-publishing referred most often to authors who had a number of copies of their own manuscripts printed at their own expense. A publishing house that assists authors in self-publishing is sometimes called a vanity press.
Books as art.
There are still many admirers of books as works of art in themselves. A number of dedicated printers use old technology, such as hand-set printers, to produce limited editions of books on fine paper. At centers for the traditional craft of bookmaking, students learn old-fashioned methods of bookbinding, printing, and related arts.
Going out of print
Books are said to be in print when they are actively being distributed and sold by publishers in bookstores and online. Only a tiny fraction of the books ever published is currently in print.
Since 1979, publishers in the United States have had to pay tax on the value of their inventory, the books they have in their warehouses. As a result, publishers try to sell books quickly and reduce their inventories as rapidly as possible. If a book is not selling well, copies of that book will soon be remaindered—that is, sold to wholesalers who drastically mark them down in price.
A book is said to go out of print when it has been remaindered—or pulped (stripped of its cover) if it is a paperback. It is also considered to be out of print if it is out of stock at the publishing house.
To avoid keeping large inventories of books, some publishers have turned to print-on-demand technology. When a customer places an order for a print-on-demand book, the book’s electronic files are sent to a designated printer. The process of printing and binding the pages takes minutes. The book is then shipped out to the purchaser. Print-on-demand technology can accommodate print runs as small as a few hundred books, or even one book.
The power of published ideas
Throughout history, published content has changed the course of events. During the American Revolution (1775-1783), American patriots spread their ideas through small, homemade booklets passed from one sympathizer to another. In the 1960’s in the Soviet Union, some people who opposed the Soviet government reproduced banned books by hand. This practice is called samizdat (Russian for self-publishing). Works produced in this way, which are also called samizdat, were passed from friend to friend.
Mainstream publications have also led to changes in behaviors, standards, and laws. For example, many historians believe the bitter feelings between Northerners and Southerners aroused by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851-1852) helped lead to the American Civil War (1861-1865). The Jungle (1906), a novel by the American author Upton Sinclair, was a shocking exposure of the unsanitary methods and horrible working conditions in the meat-packing industry. The Jungle led to the passage of the first pure food laws in the United States.
