Definition of "book-trade" [book-trade]

• The buying and selling of books; the business of printing and publishing books. (noun)
• Those, collectively, who are engaged in this business. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "BOOKEXPO AMERICA Jane Fonda, Roger Ebert and young-adult author Sarah Dessen provide marquee names, while book-trade professionals exhibit and network."
• "Comics in print really have only two outlets – the comic shops (and the few book stores still carring comics), and the collected TPB for the book-trade."
• "The wrapper was discovered by the Bodleian's head of conservation, Michael Turner, when sorting through an archive of book-trade ephemera that had been bought by the Bodleian in a sale in 1892."