The Four Horsemen of Publishing

Viktor Vasnetov's "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"

When publishers refer to The Four Horsemen, they usually mean Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google.

The concept of publishers having to joust with the fearsome, well-financed Four Horsemen started in the book-publishing industry. But the allegory is easily grasped by all publishers who warily view these web giants as, at best, frenemies.

The source of the moniker is the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the New Testament's mysterious Book of Revelation, who usher in nasty waves of Pestilence, War, Famine and Death. You don't suppose we publishers are at all paranoid, do you?


This is the fourth in Dead Tree Edition's 31-part Publishing Word of the Day series that will be published throughout July. We guarantee you've never heard all of these words -- because some of them were dreamed up in our own devious little brains.