ABSTRACT
The publishing industry in the United States is idiosyncratic, individualistic, and complex. Domestic sales and subsidiary income are no longer guarantees of survival—as in many other industries, international activities must provide additional revenue to strengthen the fabric of the industry and assure its stability. The development of an international market for books in English was encouraged by the emergence of English as the primary tool of communication, the major language tying together countries and cultures. Much of the international activity results from the leadership of the United States in scientific and technological research and its concomitant primacy in the publication of scholarly books. The book world's great international marketplace and meetingplace, the Frankfurt Book Fair, is complemented by a host of local and regional fairs held at regular intervals in London, Moscow, Poznan, Cairo, Jerusalem, Bologna, Mexico City, Calcutta, and other even more exotic locations.
