The Professionals' Guide to Publishing makes the disclaimer in the first paragraph that it will not help you write your best seller, collect a listing of clients, or manage your publishing business. Instead, this informative textbook‐style resource takes the reader through the publishing industry, piece by piece, breaking down what it means to be in this trade. The introductory chapters set the tone for the remainder of the work, describing what will be discussed in finer details, as well as giving a brief history of the industry.
With detailed chapters on editing, marketing, sales and distribution, production, the law, and rights and permissions, the authors go into specifics describing what is essentially the cycle of the publishing industry. With a final chapter on careers in publishing this resource reads very much like a textbook from a college‐level course. Entire sections in nearly every chapter are devoted to the digital world of publishing including social media and marketing, digital and e‐book rights and digital distribution, demonstrating that the authors had the foresight to consider these issues in the pre‐publication stages. Complete with tables and charts, an index, glossary and table of contents this book is a well‐rounded source. Each chapter also contains a further reading section.
While written from the UK perspective, The Professionals' Guide to Publishing should be well received by both US academic and public libraries as well as individuals interested, wherever they might reside. There are however a few gaps in coverage, which should have surpassed the international boundaries. While a section on the publishing industry's “agenting” business probably does not need to be referenced, it is surprising there is not any mention of this lucrative portion of the trade at all, as literary agents are fairly prominent in the field, especially in the US, Canada and western Europe. And finally, while the e‐portions of the various aspects of publishing are touched upon, e‐publishing in general as the very popular format for self‐publishing, is not mentioned in the slightest. Overall however, The Professionals' Guide to Publishing is a very informative read to the back‐end of the publishing world.
