The untold story of books: a writer's history of book publishing

Introduction

Part I: The first book business. Want a book? That'll be $75,000

Gutenberg went bankrupt

Meanwhile, in America: want a book? That'll be $600

How to reduce the price of books: piracy

Copyright struggles and printing innovations, as pulp paper creates an enduring class divide in books

New York becomes the nation's publishing capital on "The night before Christmas"

Authors battle book piracy as the first book sells a million copies

The questionable dawn of book reviewing, and "business is business"

Part II: The second book business. Publishing industrializes and Carnegie builds 1,689 libraries

Publishers and authors undeterred by "too many books"

From "the doom of books" to department stores with authors as supplicants in the "gentlemanly" book business

Authors flock to agents as editing business becomes formalized and covers become billboards

The fraught debut of bestseller lists, and a "line of type"

"Goodbye forever, Mrs. Weathersby, I've joined Book of the Month"

Simon meets Schuster, and publishers wonder if advertising sells books

Under pressure: The Great Depression changes bookselling

The kid who singlehandedly changed the book business

The bumpy road to blockbusters, as books' shelf life falls to "somewhere between milk and yogurt"

BookScan and (non)transparency in publishing

Part III: The third book business. Brave new (digital) world

The meteoric rise and decline of e-books

The many challenges of self-publishing, and the conundrum of "quality"

Backlist gold and mass-market hardcovers, as the biggest names become their own co-publishers

Everyone struggles with Amazon

The likely future of the book business.