Question 1a.
What's missing from this list? My first instinct is, as far as I know, nothing. But I also am totally new to all of this so I might not know enough about publishing houses to say. I guess one thing might be maintaining author/agent-publisher relations. I would imagine that a happy author would produce better and more punctual work, thereby adding value to said work.
Question 1b.
Which activities no longer apply? This one is a doozy. I'm of the opinion that every single one of these activities could be done by the general populace of good ol' Web 2.0, with the possible exception of number 2, financial investment and risk-taking. I think I'll develop this answer more when I move down to question 2.
Question 2.
I'll go ahead and rank 'em, 1 being least affected and 6 being most:
6. Content Acquisition and List-Building
I don't know that this would have made my number 6 if Thompson had described this in different words. He says the publisher "acts not just as a cultural filter or gatekeeper but in many cases plays a proactive role in creating or conceiving a project." In the era of Web 2.0, any entity whose role is as a "cultural filter" is dead in the water. If you guys watched that awesome video Dr. Grossblatt posted, you'll get where I'm coming from. The people of the culture will be our OWN filter, thank you very much, and thank God for that - we read enough dead white dudes thanks to the "cultural filters" running our schools as it is. With the advent of digital publishing, readers of sites like Digg, Reddit, or even Facebook and Twitter can act as a "cultural filter" by giving a thumbs up to stuff they like and a thumbs down to stuff they don't. A savvy editor is one that tracks down the popular writers and signs them to a deal right away, before those 15 minutes are up (see: %&^* My Dad Says, Regretsy, LATFH the Book, and many more). Oh, and as for the gatekeeper? We'll just go ahead and knock that gate down.
5. Sales and Marketing
This is at number 5 not because it no longer applies, but because the publisher's approach to sales and marketing needs to change in a big way with the coming of digital publishing. The way we price books needs a major overhaul if the industry wants to stay afloat (see: the entire freakin music industry). And as for marketing, when oh when will they learn that starting a Random House Twitter feed does not count as updating your marketing technique?? This area needs a major overhaul as well, one that gets way outside the box and re-imagines book marketing altogether. I like the idea of these book trailers that you're starting to see pop up every now and then, for example.
4. Content Development
Here again, it's becoming increasingly possible for Web 2.0 denizens to do this themselves. For example, it has been suggested that a writer publish a work-in-progress online, and then incorporate readers' input into the finished product. Is this a great idea? Maybe. Will this method produce the next Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man? Doubtful. But there are a lot of arenas where this approach is pretty intriguing - mystery novels, for example, or self-help books, or young adult romance novels.
3. Quality Control
Again, this activity will definitely still apply, it just needs a bit of an overhaul. In some ways, quality control will become a bigger and bigger part of a publisher's operation as more and more writers enter the arena. For example, say an acquisitions editor finds a high-school dropout who keeps a grammatically flawed but fascinating blog about trying to be financially successful without so much as a diploma, and the blog has a pretty big readership. If said editor decides she wants to sign the blog's author to a book deal, someone is going to have to do some serious quality control in the form of proofreading. Also, with the advent of the iPad and the potential for books to be animated, colorful, have audio, etc, publishers will need to be have employees who have expertise in these varied fields, to maintain the quality of all those nifty extras.
2. Management and Coordination
Business people are business people at the end of the day. Whether you're coordinating communication between the editor-and-chief and the warehouse foreman or the editor-in-chief and the IT guy at Amazon, you just have to be good at coordinating. So I think this area will continue to be as crucial as it's always been.
1. Financial Investment and Risk-Taking
If there's one thing I've learned so far, it's that it's cause to celebrate when a publishing house breaks even for the year. If there's two things I've learned so far, it's that it's been that way since Gutenberg had to take out $150,000 loan to build his printing press. Some things never change.
Question 3.
Because I have no professional experience in publishing, I'm mainly speaking as a reader and as a big believer in the power of Web 2.0. For that reason, I'd have to say that I don't think my rankings would change were I to focus on different market segments, although I will admit that I was mainly thinking in terms of trade publishing when I was putting my list together. Ultimately I think publishers have an incredible opportunity that they insist on viewing as a threat. Take reference publishing for example - disappearing fast. Why? Because the information is all online. Instead of lamenting the fact that no one will pay for that information anymore, why not celebrate the fact that we've come so far from chaining Bibles to the wall so no one but the elite could read them? Why not burst completely out of the old box and try to visualize a new one? This means doing more than just digitizing your backlist, or setting up an encyclopedia-esque website and erecting a paywall around it. And so, again, content acquisition becomes the number-one value-add activity that needs to change.
