Heya I was summoned by @punkarsenic to share some stuff.
For context, I've been studying business and publishing applied to the arts (and also comics). I took a three quarter program at my college, which ended with a pseudo independent study type thing. Next year I'm studying Advertising and Social Media.
These are some of the best books from my reading lists last year. The ones higher up on the list are things I consider "MUST READS" or would otherwise highly recommend. Especially the first three. If anyone has questions, or want to know more about the contents of a specific book, or what I got out of it, I'd be happy to answer.
Fine Young Cannibals: A History Of The Direct Market This is a series of three articles from The Comics Journal Archives. They're a history of how comics distribution got to be so weird, and also how Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles almost completely killed the industry.
The Merchants Of Culture This book is a broad, in depth overview of the general trade-book publishing industry. It's a bit dry at times, but it is chock full of information and firsthand advice. It covers both mainstream and small press publishing, and how the industry in general has been affected by the technological advancements of the last decade. If you are serious about publishing, or even if you just want to get published by someone else, read this book.
Notes From Underground This is a history and overview of underground publishing (AKA Zines, which have a lot of overlap with independent comics). It goes into the mechanics, culture, and politics of DIY self publishing. It completely changed the way that I think about my role in society as an artist, and as a prospective independent publisher.
Make A Zine / Stolen Sharpie Revolution These books go more into the nitty gritty of how to make and distribute zines. Both books cover really similar information with some notable differences. I think if you had to pick one, go with Make A Zine. That said I really like the presentation of Stolen Sharpie Revolution.
Intellectual Property: A Very Short Introduction Do you know how copyright works? Are you sure? No? Read this.
The Profitable Artist This is basically a step-by-step guidebook to your carreer as an artist. It's amazingly well organized and covers basically everything. I would have put this higher up but I haven't read most of it yet. We only read a few sections of it in my class. I plan on reading the rest of it this summer.
Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping This is a really interesting book about all of the psychological tricks that are used to get consumers to buy stuff. Most of what I read was in reference to shopping in stores, however a lot of the information could be applied to a convention setting.
I barely read these last two, so I can't entirely reccomend them. But I've put them on this list in case any one else is interested. From the skimming I did, they both cover a lot of the same information. There's also overlap with some earlier books in the list. I'm probably going to re-read Merchants of Culture and Notes From Underground before I bother reading these.
Publishing For Profit / What Editors Do