Book Wars - The Digital Revolution in Publishing

Reviews / Votes

One of Tyler Cowen's 'Best Non-Fiction Books of 2021' in Marginal Revolution

"An expert diagnosis of publishers and publishing, robustly illustrated with charts, graphs, tables, statistics and case studies... For anyone bewildered by the transformation of the book world, Mr. Thompson offers a pointed, thorough and business-literate survey."
The Wall Street Journal

"Thompson takes the reader on a wild and exciting ride exploring the changes that have turned book publishing on its head over the last 30 years, with the development of many new technologies that readers may have come to take for granted or never considered... well worth reading to understand where the book was in the latter part of the twentieth century and where it is headed well into the twenty-first."
LSE Review of Books

"Book Wars is as comprehensive, wide-ranging and deeply considered an appraisal of the book publishing world as one can imagine - and a sober consideration of what the digital age has meant to a print-centred business. This masterful work should be the foundation for all future thinking about book publishing, and much future thinking about how new technologies change - and don't change - societies."
Michael Schudson, Columbia University

"Thompson weaves together a remarkable account of how and why one of the oldest forms of media has persisted through the challenges posed by digital disruption. Extraordinary in its breadth and depth, Book Wars unpacks the complex implications of digital production and distribution and draws crucial lessons that are relevant well beyond the world of books, providing a valuable lens for examining the profound changes that internet communication has brought to nearly every sector of the economy, and especially media industries."
Amanda Lotz, Queensland University of Technology

"John Thompson was there when the digital-driven changes were in full swing, and he uses his bird's-eye view and thoroughly researched analysis to give the reader the story behind the stories. And it's a great read too."
John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan Publishers USA

"An astute deep dive into the current publishing predicament how we got here and what lies ahead. For anyone who wants to understand the key challenges facing our industry today, this book is highly instructive."
Jonathan Galassi, President, Farrar Straus & Giroux


"Thrilling reports from the trade-publishing front lines by a leading (as it were) war correspondent....I once (rather pompously) wrote that we need a 'contemporary history of the book'. Well, now we have it, for trade presses at least. I just didn't expect it to be so interesting."
Times Higher Education

"magisterial"
The Independent

"insightful and intelligent"
Publisher's Weekly


"excellent... Every skirmish, every battle, every standoff is covered objectively with supporting data and entertainingly with the case studies I would have chosen."
Richard Charkin, Publishing Perspectives

"An important book for anyone interested in publishing."
The Toronto Star

"John B. Thompson's Book Wars: The Digital Revolution in Publishing is certain to become this year's must-read for anyone serious about the publishing industry."
Thad McIlroy, The Future of Publishing


"an extremely authoritative account of the revolution which at one time looked like it was going to destroy the fusty old world of book publishing, but has actually ended up reinvigorating it in ways that no one predicted... for anybody wanting to get into publishing this should be compulsory reading. If you are about to go for a job interview anywhere in the industry, read this book first!"
Authors Electric

"Exceptionally well written, organized and presented... Book Wars: The Digital Revolution in Publishing is an extraordinary study and one that is especially and unreservedly recommended for anyone with an interest in how and why the publishing industry works as it does today."
Midwest Book Review


"If you're a serious professional author like me, this book is a must-read because it gives historical perspective. Younger and less experienced writers often lack historical perspective and there aren't many books on the history of the publishing industry, so Thompson's book is required reading."
M. L. Ron, Indie Author Confidential Vol. 5


"Thompson's work is authoritative and will be of tremendous value to future readers and researchers in understanding how a 500-year-old culture of print was able to absorb and adapt. I'm aware of no other title that provides such a useful account of how publishing professionals have fought to ensure stabilization and reliable delivery of content."
The Scholarly Kitchen


"magisterial... Thompson has provided an invaluable reference and resource for researchers into the complex and rapidly changing field of book publishing. Elegantly written, thoroughly researched, and remarkably comprehensive, Book Wars tells a fascinating story of how publishers large and small are adapting to the transformational effects of the digital revolution."
Publishing Research Quarterly


"Thompson's Book Wars has been the book-about-book-publishing event of 2021...no one else has Thompson's ability to marshal the facts into comprehensive and illuminating accounts of publishing in all its splendor."
Publishers Weekly

"Nobody arrives better equipped than Thompson to map how the publishing ecosystem has persisted and morphed in the digital environment... it's invaluable to have such thorough documentation of the digital publishing multiverse."
The Los Angeles Review of Books

"Thompson sets out to detail the recent history of the digital revolution of books and succeeds in not only providing such a history, but also showing a clear warning sign of how the digital revolution impacts every industry and individual differently... fascinating."
Real Change

"fascinating and salutary"
The Critic

"Thompson is an eloquent and lucid writer who has a real talent for telescoping smoothly from individual cases to a bird's-eye view of the industry of trade publishing... I do not imagine there are many other scholars working today who could provide such a magisterial account of the past two decades of the digital revolution in Anglo-American trade book publishing."
Robert Brown, Journal of Scholarly Publishing

"This is a deeply informative book that can be read cover to cover and then put on a nearby shelf as a reference, not only to the grand themes of the digital revolution in books, but to a plethora of companies and organizations that have contributed to every aspect of that revolution, from Smashwords to Booksmart to Blurb to Unbound to Inkshares to so many more."
Alex Holzman, Journal of Scholarly Publishing

"Book Wars brings depth and empirical richness to its account of the rapidly changing publishing industry, while contributing to theoretical and conceptual debates about digital platforms and culture industries."
International Journal of Communication

"A great book... This is a comprehensive and thoroughly convincing monograph on the digital revolution in publishing. There is just no way round this book, for publishing studies scholars (and students) as well as for book business professionals interested in the inner workings of the digital sector of their industry."
Logos


'a brilliant and singular work'
Escola de Llibreria


'Book Wars presents a comprehensive and compelling narrative of new forms of book production, publication, and dissemination. Anyone considering the current and historical states of Anglo-American trade publishing would benefit from reading this impressive piece of scholarship.'
Information & Culture


'Literary scholars, professionals with a vested interest in books' value, stand to benefit enormously from Thompson's account... Book Wars shows that understanding the major forces shaping literary production and circulation requires methods appropriate to resolutely non-textual phenomena. Our disciplinary habitus may not be a reliable guide to the hidden continents of literary media. Thompson's map of the changing publishing field points to different lines of inquiry for contemporary literary studies-different objects, different questions-than the ones we have so far taken up.'
Contemporary Literature


'Book Wars provides an expansive look at the state of publishing today, and will find readers across a wealth of disciplines and approaches... it will prompt and inform ongoing discussions about the book industry and publishing - and ultimately, help us understand the value of what we still call "the book" in our heavily digitized and media-filled lives.'
Zeitschrift fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik

"Thompson has a long view of publishing, one that isn't mired in nostalgia. He isn't dismissive or jaded about the digital revolution, which is exactly the right attitude for any publisher hoping to navigate its turbulent future."
The Author