Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
Typesetting the book is not the core of the business. And often that part is bought by the publisher from other companies. The core of the business is finding and developing new authors and selling all authors they publish.
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That's not how I see it. Finding authors is mostly done by agents and selling is achieved by big bookstore chains. It is the process of every business to acquire source materials and sell the final product. What distinguishes publishers from other companies is exactly their specific expertise to take an author's draft and turn it into appealing product, namely a book containing well edited text with illustrations etc. A publisher controls all aspects of their product, especially the characteristics of a physical book – size, cover, paper, font type and size, color etc. Whether it is actually done by their employees, contractors or freelancers, are minute details.