Abstract

The text analyses the emergence of digital publications designed for the new portable devices with touchscreen. If in the last 30 years the universe of written text went through a mutation from paper to screens, now we are seeing a further stage of this process that recombines these interfaces, the old devices dialogue with the new ones and texts reside in new ‘species’ of hybrid media. The arrival of the emagazines is analysed from a perspective that integrates semiotics of interfaces and media ecology.

Abstract

Genette introduced and defined the concept of paratext in 1987, and applied studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of this methodological approach. However, reviewing the scientific literature shows a lack of studies of a paratext that is essential to the promotion of reading on social networks: public virtual epitext. The first aim of this paper is to review and analyze the scientific literature about virtual epitext. Next, we propose lines of research to advance the promotion of books and reading on social networks. Finally, we show the need to broaden the virtual epitext concept in order to analyze internet-related changes in the dissemination of books and reading.

Abstract

Letters are one of the main sources of information for researchers on old books, especially from the 18th century, when correspondence was the main vehicle of communication in the Europe of the Enlightenment. From them we can rebuild the world’s libraries, the circulation of books and ideas, and the world of reading from a more personal perspective. Through some examples, one can explore the possibilities that epistolary relationships offer future researchers on the history of the book.

Abstract

This research aims to identify the evolution and trends of the Spanish publishing sector. For this purpose, firstly, official statistical sources available on the publishing market and reading habits will be used, from which will be obtained: a) the necessary data for their statistical treatment, and b) an answer to whether the Spanish private publishing sector adapts adequately to market changes. The work raises several questions for this market: a) how is the price elasticity of the sale of copies? b) What impact does the greater or lesser number of private publishers have on the sale of copies? c) How does the sale of copies determine the evolution of the average print run?, and d) what impact does the habit of reading have on sales of copies?

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to determine the role of indirect taxation in the Spanish publishing industry. The work includes: a) a tax treatment comparison of books in Spain with respect to the rest of European countries; b) an evaluation of the options for exemption or reduction of the value added tax (VAT) applied to books; and c) an analysis of book fixed-price policy applied in Europe. The conclusions of this work point, firstly, to the need to harmonize VAT in the EU space; secondly, to reduce tax discrimination between formats and, thirdly, to emphasize that indirect taxation could be converted, if it is not already, in a brake for the development of the digitization of the Spanish publishing industry.

Abstract

We carry out mesoeconomic and mesoanalytical analyses of the structure and economic dimension of the book production process in Spain. For this report, the following have been carried out: (1) 43 in-depth interviews with experts have been conducted; (2) the information provided by Panorámica de la edición española from 1996 to 2019 has been systematized; (3) financial information from 2,683 companies for the period 2019–2021 has been obtained through the Sistema de Análisis de Balances Ibéricos. The report contains: (1) an original and rigorous way of analyzing the book production process in Spain; (2) novel quantitative and qualitative information about publishing companies, as well as their suppliers of goods and services: editorial services, packagers, graphic arts divisions, the paper industry, and software providers; (3) relevant information about the context in which book production takes place in Spain and the national and international institutions involved.

Abstract

The digitization of protected works in the context of cultural preservation is becoming more important, according to the latest proposal of the European Commission directive on copyright in the digital single market, pending final approval. This may represent an opportunity for European libraries, which can create digital collections with those works that are manifestly outside commercial channels. This requires a set of computer programs capable of extracting information from catalogs, and provide a first detection of the owners of the works. This research approach the methodology for the development of a software capable of crossing information from library bibliographic catalogs, with commercial catalogs, in order to determine the presence or absence of their books. In its development, the difficulties and solutions used for its construction are explained, derived from the heterogeneity of the consulted catalogs. Finally, it is concluded that the creation of this type of computer applications is feasible and very useful, since an average of more than 90% correct answers can be obtained in the distinction of non-commercial works. However, there are still problems when trying to differentiate the editions or even interpreting the false positives, derived from aspects such as the algorithms of automatic suggestion of works.

Abstract

The general aim of this research is to validate the hypothesis that the book and its industry, as an integral part of cultural industries, have economic–social characteristics that differentiate them from other industries and merchandise. Once this statement has been corroborated, it is considered that this fact should be taken into account by the academic community, professionals, companies, and those responsible for public administrations when it comes to equating, subsuming, or assimilating the book industry with respect to the creative industries, content industries, entertainment industries, media economics, or copyright industries. The process followed to validate the hypothesis is structured around three objectives: (1) to analyze the main attempts at economic modeling of culture developed over the last 25 years, and how these contemplate the categories of cultural industries and the book industry; (2) to determine by comparison the main socioeconomic characteristics of the cultural industries; (3) to establish in an original way the socioeconomic characteristics of the book industry. For this research, an inductive–deductive method based on three qualitative tools was applied over 29 months (April 2019 to August 2021), including (1) the review, analysis, systematization, and extraction of relevant information through an inductive process of purposefully searching the main sources relating to the objects of study, (2) the establishment of a group of 28 experts who anonymously and systematically debated the different phases of this study in three stages, and (3) in-depth interviews with 43 experts from and on the book industry.

Abstract

Within the framework of the information society, we are witnessing a paradigm shift in reading characterized by the convergence of analog and digital supports and the consequent challenges. In this context, the illustrated nonfiction book emerges as a format with great editorial vitality. They are open works subject to the reader’s critical interpretation that move away from the traditional encyclopedic discourse and towards a confluence between art and knowledge. As a way of promoting these books, the book-trailer is defined as a virtual peritext that generates meanings, guides the reading, and projects a model of the reader that is immersed in the culture of the social web. To identify the keys that determine this reader, an exploratory study based on content analysis on the characteristics of the book-trailer of illustrated nonfiction books aimed at children was carried out. A sample of 397 book-trailers from 50 publishing houses was selected for the analysis. The results reveal that the promotion of nonfiction books defines a reading model that emphasizes the physical dimension of reading, the artistic proposal, an interactive, fragmented, free reading that is also guided, the solvency provided by the recognition of authorship, and learning linked to the playful and emotional component through hybridization as the axis of construction. It is concluded that the book-trailer of the illustrated nonfiction book corresponds to a curious and reflective implicit reader in line with the needs posed by the digital society of the 21st century in terms of reading.