Logos

Phillips, Angus

doi: 10.1163/18784712-20240055pmid: N/A

Trevathan, Jeremy

doi: 10.1163/18784712-20240051pmid: N/A

AbstractFramed as a reflective practitioner account, this speech addresses publishing as a professional and cultural practice shaped by social and technological change since the late 20th century. Drawing on experience in British trade publishing during periods of political realignment, cultural contestation, and digital transition, it reflects on the evolving responsibilities of publishers in recognizing and sustaining voices that challenge dominant narratives. Situating the present moment within longer cycles of disruption in the industry, the speech highlights enduring debates around editorial judgement, access, and representation. It argues that publishing’s cultural value lies not only in commercial success, but in its capacity to widen public discourse through inclusive, ethically informed practice.

Gerčar, Jaka

doi: 10.1163/18784712-20240052pmid: N/A

AbstractThe definitional boundaries of the book have grown increasingly unstable in an era of hybrid formats, platform publishing, and shifting media practices. Technical, institutional, and pragmatic approaches each capture aspects of the book’s status, yet none provides a framework that highlights the book’s enduring cultural authority. This article advances a causal-ontological model grounded in Aristotle’s four causes (material, formal, efficient, and final). It is argued that the first three causes are often implicitly acknowledged in publishing studies, whereas the final cause, understood as the book’s purposive orientation, has remained largely overlooked in debates on the ontology of the book. It is argued that this dimension, though not metaphysically essentialist, illuminates the book’s epistemic affordances, cultural resilience, and symbolic persistence. By distinguishing between ancillary and ultimate ends, the causal model accounts for the book’s dual status as commodity and cultural instrument. In doing so, it clarifies persistent taxonomic challenges and demonstrates how philosophical analysis can enrich the theory of publishing.

Faustino, Paulo

doi: 10.1163/18784712-20240053pmid: N/A

AbstractThe main objective of this article is to identify the management operations and business strategy that have contributed to the economic and financial sustainability of the bookshop Livraria Lello in Porto, as well as the importance of marketing and communication policy in the development of the shop’s business model. The work is based on a literature review as well as on consulting published articles on Livraria Lello. The bookshop’s economic and financial reports from 2010 to the present were also analysed. Lello can be analysed in two main periods: before and after 2015. Before 2015, Lello was a bookshop with structural problems and facing difficulty in surviving, like many other independent bookshops. However, since 2015, Lello has been able to take advantage of a new market context, including the large influx of tourists to the city of Porto, and has developed a sustainable business model. It has also been able to adopt management, marketing, and communication strategies and practices that are consistent with the business project and with market opportunities that have been identified, including during the pandemic period in 2020 and 2021.

dela Cerna, Julian

doi: 10.1163/18784712-20240054pmid: N/A

AbstractIn Philippine literary publishing, a book that sells 1000 copies within one year may be considered a bestseller. The success of the multivolume series True Philippine Ghost Stories (TPGS) in the early 2000s, however, proves that the industry can move more copies than usually expected of a local title, given effective editorial strategy and community engagement. Following the conceptual model of genre worlds by Beth Driscoll, Lisa Fletcher, and Kim Wilkins (Genre Worlds, University of Massachusetts Press, 2022), this study of TPGS traces the production of an exemplary bestseller reflecting the reading preferences of Filipinos, analyses the text and paratext to identify the styles and themes of the first 10 volumes of the series, and asserts that a popular title cultivates a wide readership through the sociohistorical convergence of technology-driven connectivity, lingering familiarity with folk and paranormal tales, and the strategic use of orality in the written language. My descriptive study not only expounds the tropes of horror fiction, but also contributes to the regional production of knowledge in publishing and book history.