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By considering the editorial, economic, and commercial dimensions of the book chain, Robert Escarpit laid the foundations for a socioeconomic approach to publishing which has come to grow within research on the cultural industries. This article aims to show how heuristic the tools developed by Escarpit were at the time, and how relevant they still are today for information and communication science. Indeed, his non-essentialist approach, centered on actors and rooted in empirical research, constitutes a valid frame of analysis for current research on publishing and book retail. Two contemporary fields of research will be presented to show how Escarpit’s methodology can be applied: first, self-publishing, through a study conducted on specific publishing platforms; then intermediation in bookshops, based on a survey of recently established independent bookshops in France.