Abstract

Women participated actively in the 16th and 17th centuries publishing market. In that context, they acted, among other tasks, as book merchants, who were responsible not just for the book selling but also for finance the printing cost. Despite having developed these roles, in many cases their participation has been remained hidden behind the male name which appeared in the imprints or colophons. This has supposed that we have received a distort image of these women publishing activity. The aim of this paper is to offered a general approach to their work as book merchants through the information offered by the colophons, the historical documentation and the legal and publishing preliminaries. The intention is to propose some methodological lines which allow us to deal with a detailed research about the work of each of these women in order to reconstruct, in a comprehensive way, the scope of the role that they played in the publishing market of the Early Modern Age.

Abstract

Self-publishing is one of the most important recent trends in digital content production. While self-publishing is not a new phenomenon, it is new in the digital environment where it has achieved a distinctive character. Currently there is a lack of data about coverage and scope of this new trend. However, despite these problems, digital self-publishing has shown exponential growth in all countries, forcing a reorganization of the actors in the book value chain. Moreover, digital self-publishing involves authors in new tasks and responsibilities including dissemination and content promotion.

Abstract

Practices for free digital content downloads in the publishing industry are referred to as a problem by cultural and business leaders worldwide. The creation of systems to protect the files, the emergence of national and international agencies to monitor illegal downloads, and the publishing industry’s reluctance to abandon the paper and embrace the digital formats, provide the context for a practice that is little studied when it comes to books. The aim of this paper is to analyze the conditions under which it occurs in Spain, examining the legal provision of content, and the availability of works in p2p networks and blogs. The hypothesis is that in the book arena, the content downloads do not have the relevance and scale they possess in music or film, and that in large part they are motivated by the lack of a legal offering that is varied and up-to-date, and by deficiencies in the sales and distribution platforms. The presence of the bestselling books in major sales platforms and in different file sharing networks is analyzed.

Abstract

An overview of the current status of the publishing sector, taking into account each subject area. Data is furnished on the domestic and foreign book markets and an analysis is made of the situation of the Spanish publishing industry with respect to the digital world and the close attention being paid to the development of information technologies.

Abstract

After the introduction of electronic journals collections in academic libraries the next step is to expand the existing collections of books and reference materials with new content in digital format. The international publishing industry is currently offering their books in digital format. The present article reviews the key factors to be considered in the selection and acquisition stages of electronic books as well as the existing international publishing offer. It is shown also a comparison of electronic books aggregators with strong presence in Spain.

Abstract

Books, reading and the publishing industry are experiencing changes motivated by technological advancement. The content has been separated from the material and, therefore, the publishing industry has had to alter its logistic structure, based on physical distribution until recently. Print on demand and online bookstores are now meeting new needs: they have increased the possibilities of visibility and circulation of editorial production, and they have suppressed geographic and physical barriers.

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 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.