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In addition to the concept of field, there is one other concept, or set of concepts, that we need in order to understand the world of trade publishing – the publishing chain. The publisher is one player in a field, and the way that publishers relate to other players is shaped by a chain of activities in which different agents or organizations perform different roles which are all oriented towards a common goal – namely, the production, sale and distribution of this particular cultural commodity, the book.

The publishing chain is both a supply chain and a value chain. It is a supply chain in the sense that it provides a series of organizational links by means of which a specific product – the book – is gradually produced and transmitted via distributors and retailers to an end user who purchases it. Figure 2 offers a simple visual representation of the book supply chain. The basic steps in the book supply chain are as follows. The author creates the content and supplies it to the publisher; in trade publishing this process is typically mediated by the agent, who acts as a filter selecting material and directing it to appropriate publishers. The publisher buys a bundle of rights from the agent and then carries out a range of functions – reading, editing, etc. – before delivering the final text or file to the printer, who prints and binds the books and delivers them to the distributor, which may be owned by the publisher or may be a third party. The distributor warehouses the stock and fulfils orders from both retailers and wholesalers, who in turn sell books to or fulfil orders from others – individual consumers in the case of retailers, and retailers and other institutions (such as libraries) in the case of wholesalers. The publisher’s customers are not individual consumers or libraries but rather intermediary institutions in the supply chain – namely, the wholesalers and retailers. For most readers, the only point of contact they have with the book supply chain is when they walk into a bookstore to browse or buy a book, or when they browse the details of a book online, or when they check out a book from a library. For the most part they have no direct contact with publishers and know very little about them; their primary interest is in the book and the author, not in the publisher.

Figure 2 Book supply chain

The publishing chain is also a value chain in the sense that each of the links purportedly adds some ‘value’ in the process. This notion is more complicated than it might at first seem, but the general idea is clear enough: each of the links performs a task or function which contributes something substantial to the overall task of producing the book and delivering it to the end user, and this contribution is something for which the publisher (or some other agent or organization in the chain) is willing to pay. In other words, each of the links ‘adds value’. If the task or function is not contributing anything substantial, or if the publisher (or other agent) feels that it does not add enough value to justify the expense, then the publisher (or other agent) may decide to cut the link out of the chain – that is, to ‘disintermediate’ it. Technological change may also alter the functions performed by particular links in the chain. The functions of the typesetter, for example, have been radically transformed by the advent of computerization, and some typesetters have sought to take on new functions, such as marking up texts in specialized languages like XML, in order to protect their position (or to reposition themselves) in the value chain.

Figure 3 summarizes the principal tasks or functions in the publishing chain. This diagram is more elaborate than figure 2 because each organization in the supply chain may carry out several functions (the agents or organizations that typically perform the various tasks or functions are indicated in brackets).

Figure 3 Publishing value chain

The starting point of the value chain is the creation, selection and acquisition of content – this is the domain where authors, agents and publishers interact. The interaction is much more complex than it might at first seem. Sometimes it is a simple linear process: the author writes a text, submits it to an agent who takes it on and then sells it to a publisher. But often it is much more complicated than this simple linear process would suggest: an agent, knowing what publishers are looking for, often works closely with his or her clients to help shape their book projects, especially in the area of non-fiction, and proposals may go through multiple drafts before the agent is willing to send them out, or a publisher may have an idea for a book and seek to commission an author to write it, and so on. It is not altogether unhelpful to think of agents and publishers as ‘gatekeepers’ of ideas, selecting those book projects they believe to be worthwhile from the large number of proposals and manuscripts that are submitted to them ‘over the transom’ by aspiring authors and rejecting those that don’t come up to scratch.¹⁰ But even in the world of trade publishing, which probably concurs with this model more closely than other sectors of the publishing industry, the notion of the gatekeeper greatly oversimplifies the complex forms of interaction and negotiation between authors, agents and publishers that shape the creative process.

In trade publishing, both agents and publishers are involved in selecting content, working with authors to develop it and exercising some degree of quality control. The essential difference between the agent and the publisher is that they sit on opposite sides of the table in the market for content: the agent represents the interests of the author and is selecting and developing content with a view to selling it (or, more specifically, selling a bundle of rights to exploit it), whereas the publisher is selecting content with a view to buying it (or buying the bundle of rights) and then developing it for publication. The development of the content will commonly involve reading draft material and editing it (sometimes several times); it may also involve picture research, copyright clearance and various kinds of quality control. Many of the other functions in the publishing chain, such as copy-editing, text and jacket design, proofreading and indexing, will either be handled by specialized staff in-house or will be outsourced, depending on the publisher. Virtually all publishers today outsource typesetting, printing and binding to specialized typesetting firms and printers. Most publishers retain responsibility for sales and marketing, although some smaller publishers may buy in sales and distribution services from specialized firms or from other publishers who take on third-party clients. The sales reps sell to the booksellers, retailers and wholesalers (many smaller booksellers are supplied by wholesalers), and the booksellers and retailers stock the books, display them and seek to sell them to individual consumers/readers. Books are supplied to booksellers, retailers and wholesalers on a sale-or-return basis, so that unsold stock can be returned to the publisher for full credit.¹¹ The publisher employs a range of marketing and publicity strategies, from advertising and authors’ tours to attempts to get authors on radio and television programmes and to get books reviewed in the national press, in an effort to bring books to the attention of readers and drive sales (or ‘sell-through’) in the bookstores, which is the only way of ensuring that books which have been notionally ‘sold’ into the retail network are not returned to the publisher.

Each task or function in the publishing chain exists largely by virtue of the fact that it makes some contribution, of varying degrees of significance, to the overall objective of producing and selling books. Some of these tasks (design, copy-editing, typesetting, etc.) are within the range of activities that could be done by a single publishing organization, although a publisher may decide to disaggregate the functions and contract them out in order to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Other tasks are rooted in activities that are quite distinct and that have, in historical terms, a more settled institutional differentiation. This differentiation may be characterized by harmonious relations between the agents and organizations involved, since all have something to gain from cooperation; but they can also be characterized by tension and conflict, since their interests do not always coincide. Moreover, particular positions within the chain are not necessarily fixed or permanent. Changes in working practices, economic developments and technological advances can all have a major impact on the publishing chain, as tasks that were previously commonplace or essential are bypassed or eclipsed.

Given that the publishing chain is not rigid and that particular tasks or functions can be eclipsed by economic and technological change, what reason is there to believe that the role of the publisher itself might not be rendered redundant? What are the core activities or functions of the publisher? Are these activities that could be phased out by new technologies, or that could be done by others? Could publishers themselves be disintermediated from the publishing chain? These questions have been raised often enough in recent years: in an age when anyone can post a text on the internet, who needs a publisher anymore? But the issues are more complicated than they might seem at first sight, and to address them properly we need to examine more carefully the key functions traditionally performed by the publisher and distinguish them from other activities that can be outsourced to freelancers or specialized firms. Figure 4 highlights six key functions of the publisher – it is by carrying out these tasks or functions that the publisher has traditionally made a distinctive contribution to the value creation process.

Figure 4 Key functions of the publisher

The first function is content acquisition and list-building. This is in many ways the key function of the publisher: to acquire and, indeed, help to create the content that will be turned into the books that comprise the publisher’s list. The publisher acts not just as a filter or gatekeeper but in many cases plays an active role in creating or conceiving a project, or in seeing the potential of something and helping the author bring it to fruition. Some of the best publishers are those who are able to come up with good ideas for books and find the right authors to write them, or who are able to turn what might be a rather inchoate idea in the mind of an author into something special, or who are simply able to see potential where others see only dross. There is a real skill here that involves a blending together of intellectual creativity and marketing nous, and that distinguishes outstanding editors and publishers from those who are run of the mill.

The second function is financial investment and risk-taking. The publisher acts as the banker who makes resources available up front, both to pay advances to authors and agents and to cover the costs of acquisition, development and production. In the entire publishing chain it is only the publisher, in the last analysis, who takes the real financial risks – everyone else gets paid (assuming that the author has received an advance on royalties and that the publisher has paid the bills). If the book fails to sell, it is the publisher who writes down any unsold stock and writes off any unearned advance. In the book publishing chain, the publisher is the creditor of last resort.

The third and fourth functions are content development and quality control. In some cases the content provided by an author is in excellent condition and needs very little input from the publisher, but in many areas of publishing this is the exception rather than the rule. Draft manuscripts are commonly revised and developed in the light of comments from editors and others. It is also the responsibility of the publisher to assess the quality of the text and to ensure that it meets certain standards. These standards will of course vary from one publisher to another and a variety of assessment procedures may be used, ranging from the judgement of in-house editors to evaluations by one or more external readers who are specialists in the field (although in trade publishing it is rare to go out of house). Quality control is important for the publisher because it is one of the key means by which they are able to build a distinctive profile and brand in the publishing field and thereby distinguish themselves from other houses.

The fifth function is what could be loosely described as management and coordination. This label describes a range of management activities that are an integral part of the publishing process, from the management of specific projects which may be exceptionally complex to the management of specific activities or phases in the life cycle of the book. For example, even if copy-editing is outsourced to freelancers, the freelancers must be given work and instructions, their terms of work must be agreed and they must be paid, and all of this requires management time and expertise; this is often handled by a dedicated in-house manuscript editor or desk editor. Similarly, even though typesetting, design and printing may be outsourced to specialized firms, the whole production process, from copy-edited manuscript to bound books, must be managed; this is usually done in-house by a production manager or controller. Decisions must be taken about prices and print runs, and stock must then be managed throughout the life cycle of the book. The copyright must also be managed through the sale of subsidiary rights (translations, reprints, serialization, etc.). All of these activities require a great deal of management time and expertise, and in most cases they are handled by in-house managers who have responsibility for specific sectors of the production and publishing process.

The sixth and final function is sales and marketing. I have bundled these activities together although they are in fact quite distinct. Marketing comprises a range of activities concerned with informing potential customers of the availability of a book and encouraging them to buy it. These activities include catalogue preparation and mailing, advertising, direct mail, sending out review copies and, more recently, various kinds of e-marketing. Most trade publishers also have a separate publicity manager and/or department whose task is to cultivate relations with the media and secure media coverage for a book – coverage that ranges from reviews, extracts and interviews in the printed press to radio and television appearances, book signings and author tours. Marketing and publicity have the same aim – namely, to make consumers/readers aware of books and persuade them to buy them; the only real difference is that the publisher pays for marketing, whereas publicity, if you can get it, is free. The task of the sales manager and the sales team is to call on the key accounts – which include the bookselling chains, independent booksellers, online booksellers, wholesalers and a variety of general retailers from supermarkets to warehouse stores – to inform them of the forthcoming books, solicit orders and manage the publisher’s relations with their key customers, with the aim of ensuring that books are stocked and available in bookstores for consumers to browse and buy.

These various sales and marketing activities are concerned not simply to bring a product to the marketplace and let retailers and consumers know that it is available: they seek, more fundamentally, to build a market for the book. To publish in the sense of making a book available to the public is easy – and never easier than it is today, when texts posted online could be said to be ‘published’ in some sense. But to publish in the sense of making a book known to the public, visible to them and attracting a sufficient quantum of their attention to encourage them to buy the book and perhaps even to read it, is extremely difficult – and never more difficult than it is today, when the sheer volume of content available to consumers and readers is enough to drown out even the most determined and well-resourced marketing effort. Good publishers – as one former publisher aptly put it – are market-makers in a world where it is attention, not content, that is scarce.

These six key functions of the publisher define the principal respects in which publishing firms ‘add value’. Whether these are functions that will always be performed by traditional publishing firms, or whether, in the changing information environment brought about by digitization and the internet, at least some of these functions will be eclipsed, marginalized, transformed or taken over by others, are questions to which there are, at this point in time, no clear answers. But before speculating about the imminent disintermediation of publishing firms, one would be well advised to reflect carefully on the functions actually performed by publishers in the cultural economy of the book, on which functions will continue to require fulfilment in the future and, if they do, on who will perform them and how.