PUBLISHING 



PUBLISHING 



revolution in the history of the 

 world. By degrees, printing made 

 the distribution of literary work 

 and the rapid spreading of new 

 ideas possible. At first the censor- 

 ship of church and state handi 

 capped free production, but that 

 disappeared after a while with the 

 growing enlightenment caused by 

 the greater diffusion of knowledge. 

 The gradual emancipation of litera- 

 ture led first to the establishment 

 of copyright, national and then in- 

 ternational, and by degrees to the 

 recognition of the commercial 

 value of literary work. The com- 

 mercial exploitation of literary 

 work for the benefit of authors is 

 the business of the modern pub- 

 lisher, and it is satisfactory to see 

 a constantly increasing effort on all 

 sides, not only to take the fullest 

 advantage of the value of literary 

 property, but also to arrive at an 

 equitable distribution of its econo- 

 mic produce among authors, pub- 

 lishers, and booksellers. Early 

 producers of books after the inven- 

 tion of printing, whose names have 

 been honourably handed down, 

 were Aldus of Venice, the Elzevirs 

 and Plantins of Antwerp, Caxton in 

 England, and the Koburgers of 

 Nuremberg. In the 17th century 

 the amiable Tonson was probably 

 the first modern publisher to col- 

 lect around him a group of dis- 

 tinguished authors. 



Printers and Publishers 



Printer, publisher, and bookseller 

 were in the early days of printed 

 books combined in one person, but 

 the three branches have, with few 

 exceptions, drifted widely apart. 

 In this division the description 

 printer stands not only for the ac- 

 tual printer, but for the mechanical 

 producer of the book, which in- 

 cludes paper-maker, binder, and 

 the makers of all the materials that 

 are required for modern books. 

 The printer in this fuller sense of 

 the word is usually employed by 

 the publisher, who is in direct rela- 

 tion with the author, or his agent, 

 while the bookseller is the dis- 

 tributor to the public of the manu- 

 factured article produced by the 

 printer out of the author's work for 

 the publisher. 



The publisher's functions em- 

 brace, besides those of manufac- 

 turer, the selection of manuscripts 

 suitable for publication, for which 

 purpose he employs readers to sup- 

 plement and correct his own judge- 

 ment, and the commissioning of 

 books on special subjects to suit the 

 requirements of his market. For 

 the former function good critical 

 judgement is of the first import- 

 ance, and also experience in find- 

 ing the most suitable way of pre- 

 senting the material offered. A 



book will have a better chance in 

 the market if it is produced in a 

 way that appeals to the eye, imagi- 

 nation, and taste of the reader, and 

 therefore the format of a book, the 

 character it is printed in, the thick- 

 ness of the paper, its opaqueness or 

 transparency, the proper distribu- 

 tion of black on white, the legi- 

 bility of type, proper margins, and 

 suitable bindings, are all considera- 

 tions to which the publisher must 

 give close attention in order to get 

 the best possible results. 



Selection of Illustrations 



To make a book as attractive as 

 possible , the publisher supplies illus- 

 trations, which require the services 

 of special artists, or photographs, 

 maps, schedules, and other devices 

 that adorn and illustrate or explain 

 the author's intention. He natur- 

 ally takes special heed in the case 

 of each book of the requirements of 

 the special public he appeals to, 

 and if he manufactures for differ- 

 ent markets he will give to each 

 edition the special characteristics 

 which are demanded in the market 

 it is intended for. This is especially 

 the case in popular works and fic- 

 tion, less so in scientific works, 

 which depend more upon the nature 

 of their contents than on the mode 

 of their presentation. In scientific 

 works great care, accuracy, and lu- 

 cidity are necessary in the technical 

 presentation of illustrations, especi- 

 ally in books on intricate machin- 

 ery, medicine, natural history, etc. 



Most publishing firms have spe- 

 cial lines to which they confine 

 themselves; only a few publish 

 books of a certain standard in 

 almost any field of literature. The 

 publications of general publishers 

 often range over history, biography, 

 belles lettres, fiction, poetry, etc. 

 Publishers of specialities often con- 

 fine themselves to one such field, as 

 law, medicine, fine arts, sport, army 

 and navy, maps, etc. Publishers of 

 specialities naturally employ for 

 the selection of their publications 

 specialists, on whose opinion they 

 can rely to a greater extent than 

 does the general publisher, who is 

 often almost as well able as a pro- 

 fessional critic to judge of the 

 chances of a manuscript submitted 

 to him. 



When a book is manufactured, 

 and the publisher has fufilled his 

 original function of selection and 

 manufacture, the business of dis- 

 tribution begins. This is done in 

 different ways ; by travellers who 

 visit the booksellers with samples, 

 by creating a demand through ad- 

 vertisements in the public press, by 

 means of reviews which the public 

 expect for their guidance in the 

 periodicals they read, and here and 

 there by means of canvassers who 



sell books on the instalment plan 

 a plan adopted also in recent years 

 by certain newspapers for the sale 

 of expensive and lengthy works. 



These methods of distribution are 

 more or less universal, but there is 

 a great difference in the method of 

 display of new books between the 

 system in all continental countries, 

 where books are bound in paper 

 covers, and in England and Amer- 

 ica, where cloth-covered books are 

 the fashion. Paper-covered books 

 are commonly sent out on publica- 

 tion in considerable quantities to 

 the booksellers on sale or return, 

 and every possible reader has thus 

 an opportunity of actually seeing a 

 new book when it is published. The 

 greater expense of cloth bindings 

 and the fact that they are easily 

 soiled and damaged in transit ren- 

 der their speculative distribution 

 impossible in countries where cloth- 

 covered books are preferred. In 

 these countries publicityis achieved 

 chiefly by means of newspaper ad- 

 vertising, and the publisher has to 

 create the demand which the book- 

 seller does with greater ease and 

 less expense where paper-covered 

 books are the fashion. 



Circulation by Booksellers 



There can be no doubt that 

 greater results are produced for 

 the general run of literature by the 

 local efforts of booksellers who can 

 directly reach every likely reader 

 of a new publication, while a 

 fashionable novelty will probably 

 gain particular impetus through 

 newspaper advertising, which for 

 serious and professional literature 

 is extravagant and uncertain. The 

 enormous distribution of German 

 scientific literature, not only in 

 German countries but in all parts 

 of the world, is due to the system 

 of sending out books on sale or 

 return, and so is the enormous 

 success of German propaganda. It 

 is much to be hoped that publishers 

 in other countries will in future try 

 to find means for an equally 

 effectual mode of distribution. 

 This may involve the adoption of 

 paper covers in place of cloth 

 bindings, but in view of this 

 possibility, it must not be over- 

 looked that continental publishers 

 have the burden of printing large 

 editions in order to fill the demand 

 for books on sale or return, which 

 often results in heavy returns of 

 dead stock. Expensive books and 

 art publications are often sold 

 through circularising. This is also 

 the case with books printed in 

 limited editions. 



More original and often more 

 lucrative than the issuing of ready- 

 made MSS. are publications de- 

 signed by publishers themselves, 

 the writing of which is confided to 



