Victorian Publishing: The Economics of Book Production for a Mass Market 1836-1916

by Weedon,Alexis

• ISBN13: 9780754635277
• ISBN10: 0754635279
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-05-23
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Drawing on research into the book-production records of twelve publishers taken at ten-year intervals from 1836 to 1916, this book interprets broad trends in the growth and diversity of book publishing in Victorian Britain. Chapters explore the significance of the export trade to the colonies and the rising importance of towns outside London as centres of publishing; the influence of technological change in increasing the variety and quantity of books; and how the business practice of literary publishing developed to expand the market for British and American authors. The book takes examples from the purchase and sale of popular fiction as well as works by canonical authors such as George Eliot, Wilkie Collins, and Mark Twain. Consideration of the unique demands of the educational market complements the focus on fiction, as readers, arithmetic books, music, geography, science textbooks and Greek and Latin classics became more of a staple for publishing houses.

Author Biography

Alexis Weedon did her D.Phil at Linacre College, Oxford, on William Hurrell Mallock. She worked for a time in publishing before becoming a postdoctoral researcher on the History of the Book in Britain project

Table of Contents

The Nineteenth Century Series General Editors' Preface	vii
List of Figures	ix
List of Plates	xi
List of Tables	xiii
Acknowledgements	xv
Introduction	1	(4)
1 Archives and Information Sources	5	(26)
2 The Growth of the Mass Market for Books	31	(28)
3 Trends in Book Production Costs	59	(30)
4 Looking after the Bottom Line	89	(22)
5 Educational Publishing	111	(30)
6 Publishing Strategies for the Mass Market: A Case Study	141	(16)
Conclusion	157	(6)
Appendices
1 The Book Production Cost Database (BPCD)	163	(6)
2 Brief Sketches of the Histories of the Main BPCD Firms and their Archives	169	(16)
3 Import and Export of Books Manufactured in Great Britain	185	(8)
Bibliography	193	(14)
Index	207