A book acquisitions editor works at a publishing house and he or she is charged with searching out and securing rights to the books the company will print. W. Terry Whalin, an acquisitions editor, claims that publishing is a process in which consensus must be built. After the editor has decided to grab a book, he or she must convince senior editors, marketing personnel and others to invest in the book.
Before the book can be published, the editors, author and others must scrutinize a provisional final copy that is called a "galley." The galley has been typeset and line edited and the pages look much as they will in the published version. Once the author and editors and everyone else signs off on the galleys, the book goes to print.
While the technology has improved quite a bit over the years, books are produced largely in the same manner as always. Hardcover books feature pages that are sewn together with end sheets that are glued to cloth-wrapped covers.
Publishing your own books remains a popular creative outlet for some, as well as a reading alternative to mainstream fiction. Jim Monroe, who runs the website NoMediaKings.org, explains much of the process involved in binding a book on your own.
Another option for publication is perfect binding, which as NoMediaKings.org explains, is the process publishers use to create a paperback book. A perfect bound book features pages that are glued together to the spine of the cover.
Most book stores don't technically purchase the books on their shelves until a customer purchases them. Most publishers allow stores to return a significant portion of their book orders without penalty. As a result, publishers sometimes find themselves overwhelmed with copies of books that didn't sell. As the Midwest Book Review website points out, this is not a problem that is easily solved. If book stores are not allowed to return books, they will simply order fewer, which decreases the chances that shoppers will find a copy of a specific book they would like to buy.
When a publisher decides not to print subsequent editions of a book and there are no more copies in the warehouses, according to KeepYourCopyrights.org, the book is deemed "out of print." Those who wish to purchase a copy of a book that is out of print must do so through a secondhand bookstore.
Books that have been returned to the publisher can be sold at a discount as "remaindered" books. Many unsold books are simply "pulped," ground into small pieces and their raw materials recycled.