The Oxford Handbook of Publishing

Publishing is one of the oldest and most influential businesses in the world. It remains an essential creative and knowledge industry, worth over $140 billion a year, which continues to shape our education and culture. Two trends make this a particularly exciting time. The first is the revolution in communications technology that has transformed what it means to publish; far from resting on their laurels and retreating into tradition, publishers are doing as they always have - staying on the cutting edge. The second is the growing body of academic work that studies publishing in its many forms. Both mean that there has never been a more important time to examine this essential practice and the current state of knowledge.

The Oxford Handbook of Publishing marks the coming of age of the scholarship in publishing studies with a comprehensive exploration of current research, featuring contributions from both industry professionals and internationally renowned scholars on subjects such as copyright, corporate social responsibility, globalizing markets, and changing technology. This authoritative volume looks at the relationship of the book publishing industry with other media, and how intellectual property underpins what publishers do. It outlines the complex and risky economics of the industry and examines how marketing, publicity, and sales have become ever more central aspects of business practice, while also exploring different sectors in depth and giving full treatment to the transformational and much discussed impact of digital publishing. This Handbook is essential reading for anyone interested in publishing, literature, and the business of media, entertainment, culture, communication, and information.

Angus Phillips, Director of the Oxford International Centre for Publishing, Oxford Brookes University,Michael Bhaskar, Co-Founder, Canelo

Angus Phillips is Director of the Oxford International Centre for Publishing at Oxford Brookes University. He formerly worked in the publishing industry as a trade editor at Oxford University Press. He has given talks and lectures about publishing all over the world and has carried out consultancy and training work with international publishers. He is a member of the European Advisory Board of Princeton University Press and was a judge for The Bookseller industry awards for four years in a row. He is the author and editor of a number of books including Turning the Page (2014) and Inside Book Publishing (sixth edition 2019, with Giles Clark).

Michael Bhaskar is a writer, digital publisher, researcher, and entrepreneur. He is Co-Founder of Canelo, a new kind of publishing company based in London, and Writer in Residence at DeepMind, the world's leading AI research lab. He has written and talked extensively about publishing, the future of media, the creative industries, and the economics of technology around the world. He has been featured in and written for The Guardian, The FT, Wired and on BBC 2, the BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4 and NPR. He has been a British Council Young Creative Entrepreneur and a Frankfurt Book Fair Fellow. Previous books include The Content Machine and Curation: The Power of Selection in a World of Excess.