Book-trade. The business of dealing in books comprehends three classes of traders—Publishers, who prepare and dispose of books wholesale; Wholesale Booksellers, who distribute books to retail dealers; and Retail Booksellers, who sell books to the public. The latter class may again be divided into dealers in new books, in second-hand books, and in periodicals. Although ordinarily distinct, these classes may conveniently be treated together. While publishing apart from bookselling is of modern date, the selling of books is as old as the origin of literature. Manuscript copies of the works of authors were sold in the ancient Greek cities and in Rome. The first book of Martial's epigrams was to be had for an English equivalent of about three shillings; his other books for less. Slave labour was employed in transcription; and there were men who employed copyists and sold their work. Horace celebrates 'the brothers Sosii' as eminent booksellers (bibliopolæ). In the middle ages the monks of various monasteries were in the habit of bartering the books they transcribed. But books were rare and costly because of the ignorance and the apathy of the public. With the foundation of several universities in the 12th century, the preparation and sale of books increased; but the trade of bookselling attained to importance only after the invention of printing. The first booksellers were also book-lenders, under the control of the universities. In 1292 the book-trade of Paris consisted of 24 copyists, 17 bookbinders, 19 parchment makers, 13 illuminators, 8 dealers in manuscripts; the last had increased to 29 in 1323. The business was more in lending than selling. Students at the English universities bought their books or received them on loan from the 'sworn stationers.' Some of the French kings and princes of the royal blood were liberal patrons of authors and all engaged in the production of books. Philippe, Duke of Burgundy (1396-1467) gave constant employment at Bruges to a host of authors, translators, copyists, and illuminators.
The first printers acted also as booksellers, and being mostly learned men, they were generally the editors, and, in some instances, the authors of the works which they produced. The manufacture of books had become such an important item of commerce that at Bruges (1454) and Antwerp (1450) a guild of booksellers, copyists, and allied trades was formed (see PRINTING). Fust and Schöffer, the partners of Gutenberg (q.v.), carried the productions of the Mainz press to the fair of Frankfort-on-the-Maine and to Paris. Some instances of division of the two branches, printing and bookselling, occurred in the 15th century. The founder of the Stephens (q.v.) family of printers and publishers had settled in Paris in 1502; Louis, the first of the Elzevirs (q.v.), was settled as a bookseller and bookbinder in Leyden in 1580. The press established by Aldo Manuzio, during one hundred years (1490-1597), printed 908 different works (see ALDINE EDITIONS). Plantin (q.v. 1514-89) of Antwerp had sometimes twenty presses at work.
Migrating from place to place, and resorting to the great continental fairs for customers, the early booksellers became known as stationarii, or stationers—i.e. occupiers of a 'stance' or station at a fair. The first stationers in England seem also to have engrossed what they sold. Caxton and Wynkyn de Worde chiefly issued translations. The Reformation caused a great demand for Bibles. The pedlars who frequented the country fairs were of some importance in the early days of bookselling. It was a common thing for government, in the 16th century, to enforce the printing of restrictions as to price on the last page of a book. The number of readers was but small, and in 1540 Grafton printed only 500 copies of his complete edition of Scripture. There exist 326 editions of the Bible or parts of the Bible printed between 1526 and 1600. Ames and Herbert record 350 printers at work in England and Scotland (1476-1600); at least 10,000 distinct works were printed during that period. The British Museum has a collection of over 2000 volumes of Tracts all relating to the period of the first English Revolution from 1640 to 1660, which include 30,000 separate publications. This was the era of the controversial pamphlet. Dr Johnson has remarked that from 1623 to 1664 the nation was satisfied with two editions of Shakespeare. The stock of books in sheets lost by the booksellers around St Paul's in the great fire of 1666 was of an estimated value of £200,000.
Whether settled or migratory, the early booksellers were subject to many restrictions. In England, the book-trade was trammelled by royal patents and proclamations, decrees and ordinances of the Star Chamber, licenses of universities, and charters granting monopolies in the sale of particular classes of works. In 1557 the Stationers' Company of London was constituted by royal charter, and exercised an arbitrary censorship of the press. The Crown, by an Act 13 and 14 Car. II. chap. 23, commonly called the 'Licensing Act,' assumed this species of control over the issue of books. The Licensing Act, and its renewals, ultimately expired in 1694. By the first Copyright Act, 8 Anne, chap. 19, the legislature interposed to protect the rights of authors, and to relieve them, as well as publishers, from the thralldom of the Stationers' Company. But by the same act, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, and certain judges in England, and the judges of the Court of Session in Scotland, were empowered, on the complaint of any person, to regulate the prices of books, and to fine those who sought higher prices than they enjoined. This provision was in force till 1738, when it was abolished by the Act 12 Geo. II. chap. 36. From this time the book-trade was free.
Many of the bibliopoles who flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries have been rendered famous, not less by their enterprise and vigour of mind, than by association with the authors and wits of the period. Thomas Guy (1644-1724) is remembered in connection with the Bible-trade, and as the founder of Guy's Hospital; Cripps, the publisher of the seven folio editions of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1621-76), according to Wood, 'got an estate by it'; John Dunton's (1659-1733) name has been preserved by Swift, and he is notable as one of the first men the Pretender purposed to hang at Tyburn, if ever he ascended the British throne, 'for having writ forty books to prove him a Popish impostor'; Jacob Tonson (1656-1736), Dryden's publisher, and satirised by the poet, was the first to popularise Paradise Lost and Shakespeare; Lintott (1675-1736) enriched himself and Pope with editions of the Iliad and Odyssey; Curll (1675-1748) was pilloried not only by the govern- ment, but by Pope in his Dunciad; Richardson (1689-1761) was both novelist and printer; Johnson, who wrote the life of Cave (1691-1754), said Cave 'scarcely ever looked out of the window but with a view to the improvement of his Gentleman's Magazine.' Of the publisher of Thomson, Fielding, and Hume, he also said, 'I respect Millar, he has raised the price of literature.' One of the Newberys, bookseller and medicine vendor, was associated with Goldsmith, and is spoken of in the Vicar of Wakefield as 'the philanthropic bookseller of St Paul's Churchyard.' Ralph Griffiths is notable as the founder of the Monthly Review in 1749, and Doddsley of the Annual Register (1758). Joseph Cottle (1770-1853), the Bristol bookseller, was the friend and early patron of Coleridge, Southey, and Wordsworth. The names of Hutton, Cadell, Strahan, Baldwin, Rivington, Longman, Dilly, Lackington, were no less notable in their day, than have been, in later times, those of Knight, of Edward Moxon, the friend of Lamb, and publisher of the early works of Browning and Tennyson, and of Bell & Sons, Bentley, Cassell, Chapman & Hall, Chatto & Windus, Longman, Low, Macmillan, Murray, Nisbet, Rivington, Routledge, Seeley, and Smith, Elder, & Co.
In Scotland, after struggling through an age of restriction, the book-trade was developed about the middle of the 18th century. In Edinburgh, it engaged Allan Ramsay, who published and sold his songs and his charming pastoral. Among his successors were Donaldson, Bell, Miller, Elliot, and Creech (author, and publisher of the first edition of Burns), each eminent in his way; but it was mainly Archibald Constable (q.v.), the first publisher of the Edinburgh Review and Waverley Novels, and later William Blackwood (q.v.), the originator of Blackwood's Magazine, who raised the reputation of Edinburgh as a literary mart in the early part of the 19th century. Still more recently the reputation of the Edinburgh book-trade has been maintained by W. & R. Chambers; by Adam Black (q.v.), publisher of the Encyclopædia Britannica, whose house removed to London in 1892; by T. Nelson & Sons, well known for their educational, juvenile, and religious publications; by W. & A. K. Johnston, publishers of maps and atlases; and by Mr Bartholomew, geographical publisher. The preparation of school-books has largely occupied the energies of the two principal publishing firms, while it is worthy of note that two of the most successful encyclopædias of the 19th century, the Britannica and the present work, emanated from Edinburgh. Glasgow during recent years has become energetic in publishing, and many books, chiefly educational, have been issued from local presses.
The purchase of books in the 15th and 16th centuries was confined to the nobler and richer citizens and scholars. In the 17th and 18th centuries the demand for books began to spread among the middle classes. The plan of issuing neat cheap editions of popular works was initiated more than a hundred years ago (1760-70) by Alexander Donaldson (an Edinburgh bookseller), and by John Bell, who in 1777 issued British Poets, from Chaucer to Churchill, which led to the famous meeting of forty members of the London book-trade in the Chapter Coffee-house, and to the publication of Johnson's Lives of the Poets. These were followed up by several publishers in London, one of whom, C. Cooke (1790-1800), issued an extensive series of cheap reprints, of a pocket size, called Cooke's Editions, which for tastefulness of preparation have hardly been excelled. In the early years of the present century, Suttaby's, Sharpe's, Walker's, and Dove's pocket editions were stock articles in the trade. About 1817-18 some enterprising booksellers began to break through certain old usages, by issuing reprints of standard works, in a good style of typography, at considerably reduced prices. At the same time, numerous cheap periodicals made their appearance; but these, for the most part, were of so seditious, irreligious, and libellous a character, that the law interposed to check the growing evil, by the Act of 1819 (see NEWSPAPERS). During the next ten years the only periodical that attained to permanent success was Limbird's Mirror (1822), an illustrated weekly sheet. In 1827 the Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge began to issue its low-priced scientific treatises; and Archibald Constable commenced the cheap series of works in original literature, called Constable's Miscellany. 'Though Constable in his grand style,' says Knight, 'talked of millions of buyers, he charged his little volumes 3s. 6d. each. He was right. The millions were not ready to buy such books at a shilling, nor even at sixpence. They are not ready now' (1854). All this is changed, and as good value can now be had for sixpence and a shilling.
Viewing all previous enterprises of this kind as fitful and insufficient, as well as unsupported by any breadth of appreciation, we have to refer to this period (1827-32) for the true origin of what is now designated the 'cheap press.' Taking advantage of the growing demand for cheap literature, and desirous of guiding it in a right direction, William and Robert Chambers (q.v.) of Edinburgh began, on the 4th of February 1832, to issue Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, a weekly sheet at 1½d. : on the 31st of March following appeared in London the Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; and this was followed, July 7, by the Saturday Magazine, which was issued under the direction of a committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The success of Chambers's Journal led to the issue of Information for the People, Cyclopædia of English Literature, Miscellany of Tracts, and many educational and other works. Charles Knight (q.v.), first editor of the Penny Magazine, with his Penny Encyclopædia, and Library of Entertaining Knowledge, and other works, was another pioneer of the cheap press. Within twenty years he expended £80,000 upon copyrights and literary labour, and during the same period £50,000 upon paper-duty. The effect of the repeal of the advertisement-duty (1853) and of the paper-duty (1861) was to encourage the production of cheap literature. John Cassell's (q.v.) name survives in the largest book-factory of modern times, along with his Popular Educator, Family Bible, and innumerable other works; Routledge's Railway Library and Popular Library of cheap novels, and shilling and sixpenny editions of standard works, are well known. Bohn's Libraries are familiar to scholars and lovers of good literature all the world over. The Longmans, honourably connected with the London book-trade for more than a century and a half; Strahan, originator of Good Words (1860) and Contemporary Review (1866); Smith, Elder, & Co., proprietors of the Cornhill (1860), and publishers of Thackeray and Browning's works; Macmillan & Co., publishers of Lord Tennyson's works, and those of men eminent in all departments of science and literature; along with many others, have all added their quota to the rapidly increasing volume of cheap literature.
At present, we have the works of Shakespeare at sixpence and one shilling, and penny reprints of some classics. Well printed threepenny editions of standard books, and portions of books, began to be issued in 1886. For many years previously the Bibliothèque Nationale in France, and the Universal-bibliothek in Germany, had supplied the public on the Continent with standard literature at the same figure. The good, well printed volumes of standard literature now to be had at sixpence and one shilling must make literary rubbish less saleable. There is now less reason for Mr Ruskin's reproof than ever, that 'we call ourselves a rich nation, and we are filthy and foolish enough to thumb each other's books out of circulating libraries. . . . How much do you think we spend altogether on our libraries, public and private, as compared with what we spend on our horses?' The trade in light literature, and in cheap periodicals and newspapers, has been fostered by the railway bookstalls, of which Messrs W. H. Smith & Son had 600 in 1888. The 'shilling dreadful' had a phenomenal sale during 1885-88. Such books as R. L. Stevenson's Treasure Island and H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines revived the taste for tales of adventure. A London publisher (Routledge) reported in 1885 that in round numbers he printed 6,000,000 books annually, of which 4,000,000 were bound, being at the rate of about 14,000 books per day. One reason of the cheapness of good books is the expiry of copyrights; in the case of such popular authors as Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, and Carlyle, it has led to many competing editions, some of them at a very cheap price. Advertisers seizing the idea have even issued penny editions of some of the most popular works by popular authors.
The present generation, which has witnessed a great reduction in the price of books, has also had the privilege of purchasing the most luxurious and artistic editions de luxe, frequently printed from type specially cast for the purpose, the illustrations in the highest style of art, and printed on china-paper. Shakespeare, Thackeray, Dickens, and isolated volumes, such as George Eliot's Romola, and Blackmore's Lorna Doone, have been treated in this magnificent manner. The price for such books, of which only a limited number is printed, runs from one to four guineas. To get up a book in this way necessitates the expenditure of many thousands of pounds. We hear of the plant of an Illustrated Shakespeare costing £10,000, and an illustrated book of Natural History, £16,000. The trade in the manufacture of children's picture-books has assumed great dimensions; those by Caldecott (q.v.) having been eminently successful. The best talent in literary and artistic circles has been employed in the production of books for the young. The bright and attractive books and periodicals for juveniles are often the envy of older minds. There are fashions in books, as in ladies' dresses, and the sale and use of Birthday Books (q.v.) led to an enormous business being done. The great improvements in Bookbinding (q.v.), including artistic covers, abundance of illustrations (many of which are electrotypes purchased and adapted) in Christmas books, or books for presents, has given a stimulus to certain branches of the trade. The great bookselling season is from October to February, when the nights are long; during the summer, fiction and the lighter periodicals sell best. For the last three months of the year the wholesale booksellers have a hard time of it, executing orders for the various annual volumes of the periodicals, and Christmas literature of every kind. The practice which Dickens inaugurated of issuing Christmas numbers has grown enormously, and has been adopted with profit by many leading illustrated newspapers and periodicals. Good newspaper notices sometimes start the sale of a book; when it has begun to sell, if really good, its success proves its best advertisement. When a book has been issued at one guinea, or two guineas, after the richer public has been exhausted, a moderately cheap edition may be brought out at a price from 5s. to 10s. 6d., followed up at a proper interval, if the book is calculated for wide circulation, by an edition at 2s. 6d., or even less. The following were some of the best selling English books in 1887, in the order of popularity, from a London retail book-seller's point of view: The works of Shakespeare, Tennyson, Longfellow, Byron, Milton, Scott, Hood, Dickens, Thackeray, Besant, Mrs Henry Wood, Mrs Craik (John Halifax), George Eliot, Lord Lytton, R. D. Blackmore, Mark Twain, Macaulay, R. L. Stevenson, Miss Braddon, &c.
The position of those who, in the hurry of business life, and in the time occupied in earning a living, have little leisure for solid reading, has been abundantly catered for in the 'story' paper, and the lighter periodicals. Convenient abridgments, manuals, compendiums, and primers of almost every branch of knowledge exist; while many publishers have made quite a feature of 'condensed' lives of celebrities. See BIOGRAPHY.
The circulation of our weekly and monthly periodical literature is enormous, and can only be calculated by millions of copies. At the end of 1831 there were issued 177 monthly publications; in 1833 there were 236; in 1853, 362; and in 1893, 2060; more than 470 of the latter were of a religious character.
As circulating libraries, by creating a taste for reading, led to the establishment of the cheap press, so, as might be expected, has the cheap press extended the sphere of literature, and given rise to public libraries and book-clubs. C. E. Mudie in 1842 introduced a new system of subscription lending library, and since then the firm have purchased some seven million volumes for the use of subscribers; the number of volumes issued and re-issued daily during the busy season now exceeds 5000 volumes. About 250 persons are employed, and now there are over 40,000 subscribers. As many as three thousand copies of a single work at eighteen shillings or a guinea are sometimes added; so that in many cases what would formerly have been considered to be large editions are absorbed by one purchaser. After being used for several months, the surplus copies are sold at a cheap rate. It is not unusual for the catalogue to exceed 300 pages. For country subscribers some 700 boxes of varying size are sent out every day. The London Library and the Grosvenor Library are also well known. Messrs Smith's remarkable system of bookstall libraries was begun in 1838.
The selling of second-hand books from open stalls, and from Booths (q.v.), is a practice so ancient as to be connected with the trade of the stationarii of the middle ages. Some men of considerable note in the book-trade began in the humble quality of stall-keepers. London is the chief seat of the second-hand book-trade; but it is also conducted on a respectable scale in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, Bristol, and other centres of wealth and intelligence. In many cases what are called 'remainders' of an edition are purchased and sold at a merely nominal price by the second-hand booksellers. But the dealers procure supplies chiefly at public auctions of the libraries of deceased clergymen, professors, and private gentlemen, of which sales there is a constant succession in London, Edinburgh, and elsewhere. At these auctions, good editions of standard books may usually be obtained at moderate prices; but rare and curious works, prized by the 'bibliomaniac,' frequently bring very high sums. Mr Quaritch spent £40,000 at the Hamilton sale, and £33,000 at the Sunderland sale. He paid £3900 for the Mazarin Bible, and £4950 for the Psalmorum Codex (1459), a portion of the Scriptures. A vellum copy of the Gutenberg and Fust Bible sold for £3400, a paper copy for £2690. See BIBLIOMANIA. Dealers in second-hand books send catalogues to their customers throughout the country; and from this source not a few gentlemen's libraries are mainly made up. Large quantities of second-hand high-class works are purchased for public libraries forming in the United States. From France, Italy, and Germany, there has been a similar export-trade in fine old editions to North America. In 1888 was published a new edition of The Directory of Second-hand Booksellers in Great Britain, on the Continent, and in America.
The Canvassing-trade consists in the plan of disposing of books mostly in weekly and monthly numbers or parts by house-to-house visitation. Smollett's History of England, Stackhouse's History of the Bible, and Scott's Bible are early examples of successful publication in number form. Amongst modern authors, Thackeray, Dickens, and George Eliot tried the part form of publication with success. There are also various societies in this country employing book-hawkers or colporteurs, who visit outlying districts which are not reached by the ordinary bookseller.
Apart from the general trade, the publication of small books, tracts, and periodicals is carried on to a large extent also by associations for religious purposes, the funds for which are raised by voluntary subscription. See the article TRACT SOCIETY.
Another distinct kind of trade is that of printing and publishing authorised versions of the Bible, New Testament, and Book of Common Prayer. The preparation of these works has always been a prerogative of the crown, which grants exclusive privileges or patent rights to certain parties for the purpose. According to old usage, England, Ireland, and Scotland are treated separately. The last patent for England was granted by George IV. to Andrew Strahan, George Eyre, and Andrew Spottiswoode, for a term of thirty years; and having commenced on the 21st of January 1830, it expired on the 21st January 1860, and was then renewed during pleasure. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge have, by royal charters, enjoyed the right of printing Bibles, &c. in common with the patentees; but as the Queen's printers represent the owners of the copyright, the privilege of prosecution for infringement belongs to them alone. In the case of the revised version of the Bible, issued in 1881 and 1885, the university authorities purchased the copyright from the revisers, and consequently have the sole right of publication; over one million copies of the New Testament were sold (by the Oxford Press alone) on the first day of its appearance. See PATENT.
In Ireland, George III. in 1766 granted a Bible patent to Boulton Grierson for forty years. He was succeeded by his son, George Grierson, who in 1811 obtained a renewal. Trinity College, Dublin, had also a concurrent right. In Scotland, the last patent expired in 1839, and was not renewed. The crown appoints a Board with authority to grant licenses to parties desirous to print editions of the Bible and other books falling within the royal prerogative, such as the Confession of Faith.
The modification of the patent having tended to lower prices, the possibility of any further material reduction seems doubtful. One noticeable feature of the trade in Bibles is, that the publishers in England sell large numbers in sheets to the various religious societies, such as the British and Foreign Bible Society and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, who issue editions to the public under cost price—the New Testament from one penny, and the complete Bible from sixpence per copy. The better bindings, in morocco or ornamental styles, are retailed at proportionately higher prices. In London alone, probably more than 2000 persons are employed in binding Bibles, prayer- books, and other books of devotion; but the tendency now is for the publishers or printers to do their own binding. From their cheapness, but more particularly from their accuracy, English-printed Bibles and New Testaments are purchased in large quantities by the United States. The Oxford University Press now carries on the whole process of Bible production within its own premises.
Although the printing of the authorised version of the Bible, the New Testament, and the Book of Common Prayer, seems to be reserved to the nominees of the crown, practically no objection is taken to the printing of these works by others. Translations of the Bible, other than the authorised version, are also issued freely by Roman Catholic and other bodies.
The universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the four Scotch universities; and the colleges of Eton, Westminster, and Winchester, obtained an act of parliament, 15 Geo. III. chap. 53, giving them a perpetual copyright of all works belonging to them, or which might afterwards be bequeathed to or given to them, provided such works are printed at the university or college presses. The only work in existence older than the present century, claimed by any of the above institutions, to which any value can be attached, is Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, with his life and continuation. The right to this and other works possessed by the university of Oxford, was confirmed by the Copyright Act (5 and 6 Vict. chap. 45). The profits of the first edition were applied towards the erection of the 'Clarendon Building' (1713), which till 1830 was the university press; but, its business increasing, the 'Clarendon' has been superseded by the 'University Press.'
The British book-trade is centred in London, though carried on to a considerable extent in Edinburgh, and to a less degree in Oxford, Cambridge, Liverpool, Manchester, Dublin, Glasgow, and a few other places. The London Post-office Directory alone contains the names of over eight hundred persons who were connected with the book-trade. Among these booksellers are included commission-houses; and among the publishing establishments are branches from Scotland, America, and several English provincial cities. The London book-trade is partly carried on in distinct departments: miscellaneous literature, law books, medical books, educational treatises, periodicals, &c., respectively engage the attention of publishers; and as regards religious books, each sect may be said to have publishers and booksellers of its own. The larger number of the publishing and commission houses are situated in Paternoster Row and the streets adjoining; so that this part of the city has become the great and acknowledged market for literature. Covent Garden and Fleet Street are likewise centres of the business. Between the country booksellers and the leading publishers and commission-houses a continual correspondence is kept up. In addition to his daily or weekly parcel every provincial bookseller makes up a monthly order for magazines, periodicals, and books.
In the infancy of the trade, authors frequently resorted to the plan of getting friends and patrons to subscribe for copies of their forthcoming works; the publisher in such cases acting only as commission-agent. Literature has now risen above this degrading system. At present, (1) the author sells his work in manuscript to the publisher for a specified sum, giving him an assignment of the copyright, and leaving him to bring out the work according to his own taste; or (2) the author retains the copyright, pays all expenses, undertakes all risks, and gets a publisher to bring out his work; or (3) the author, retaining the copyright, incurs no risk, and only allows the publisher to print and issue an edition of a certain number of copies for a sum agreed on; or (4) the author and publisher issue the work at their joint risk, in that case sharing equally in profit or loss, or on such other terms as are mutually agreeable; or (5) the publisher agrees to issue the works of a popular author at his own risk and expense; the clear profits are divided into three equal shares, one of which is paid to the author, and two retained by the publisher, or the author may receive half-profits, which, in the case of a 5s. book, may amount to 9d. or 1s. a copy; or (6) the familiar 'royalty' system, by which the publisher takes whole or partial risk and pays the author a certain sum per copy, after the disposal of a specified number of copies. Under the French system the publisher takes the book, and makes what he can of it, but pays the author a royalty. A successful author on a book nominally priced 3.50 francs receives a royalty of about 5d. per copy, but a very successful author may command as much as 10d. Under the French law the printer is forbidden to print copies except by order of the author.
Publishing is an exceedingly hazardous profession, and those engaging in it must possess wide and special knowledge, else they may soon lock up their capital unprofitably, and fill their warehouses with waste-paper. This is especially the case in dealing with literature which is sold at a very small advance upon the actual cost of paper, print, and binding. Attached to the larger publishing houses are men who read and give judgment on the manuscripts submitted to their care, when this is not undertaken by the head of the firm. Works of which the highest expectations are formed may not pay expenses; and books of a seemingly worthless kind may prove exceedingly remunerative. Mr Ruskin has objected on principle to the booksellers' system of discounts and abatements: after 1873 he severed his connection with his former publishers, and appointed an agent of his own, who has issued new editions of most of his writings. Mr Ruskin, however, had to relax this rule of selling at a fixed price, and allow the booksellers a discount of 10 per cent. An 'Incorporated Society of Authors' was founded to watch over the interests of authors, and to support the Copyright Association (composed of publishers and authors) in furthering the establishment of the International Copyright Union.
Milton's agreement with Simmons the printer, disposing of the copyright of Paradise Lost for five pounds, is an oft-quoted but inadmissible argument against publishers, as a larger sum was paid, and at that time it might even have been a losing bargain. It would be easy to cite many publishers' blunders, in at first refusing works which, when issued, have taken their place amongst the classics of literature. Publishers as a rule are high-minded, fair, though keen men of business, and it is quite to their advantage to treat an author well. There have been cases of gross injustice, but when an author's books find a ready market, he reaps a ready benefit. If we take the line of fiction, in which Great Britain is said to have an average of two books a day, Sundays included, we find many instances of large sales and large earnings. Scott's income from his pen ranged from £10,000 to £15,000 per annum for many years. He is said to have received £110,000 for 11 novels and 9 volumes of tales. Woodstock alone yielded him £8228, and his Life of Bonaparte (2 editions), £18,000. Thackeray, when he became famous, was well paid for every line he wrote, and received a handsome salary for editing the Cornhill. For several novels Trollope and Dickens each received more than £3000, while the bargain for Edwin
Drood was £7500 with a share in after profits. Routledge paid Lord Lytton £20,000 for the right to publish a cheap edition of his novels for ten years. 'George Eliot' (Marian Evans) was paid £40,000 cash down for the first sales of her various books; for Felix Holt she was paid £5000; Romola, £7000; and Middlemarch, £8000. Macaulay received a cheque for £20,000, being his share of the profits of two volumes of his History. Browning received 100 guineas for his ballad 'Hervé Riel' in the Cornhill. These may be thought exceptional payments, but the rule holds good that where an author finds a large public, he secures a willing publisher and large payments. But not many books have a sale like the Pickwick Papers, 900,000 copies of the authorised edition having been disposed of by Chapman & Hall up till 1887.
In publishing new books, the copyright, setting up the types, author's corrections, stereotyping, press-work or printing, paper, binding, advertising, and presentation copies to editors for review, all need to be taken into account. When the author retains the copyright, the publisher charges, besides the above items for printing, &c., a commission on the sales of the work. Editions of a book are frequently wanted for an export order, or sets of stereotype plates are purchased by publishers in the United States or Canada, in order to print from. New books are issued at a certain selling price to the public, and the publisher allows a percentage off the price to the retail bookseller. In a large proportion of cases, there is interposed the commission-agent or wholesale dealer. A new book on the eve of publication is offered to the trade at a slightly cheaper rate than at a later date. At the trade sales, which are now less common than formerly, some publishers do a large business.
Throughout the more respectable part of the trade there is a constant effort to maintain unbroken prices; for when a book can be obtained by booksellers below trade-price, it is essentially ruined for all regular business. On the other hand, the practice has become very general among retail booksellers of selling new books to the public at prices little above cost. This system of underselling has caused much disquietude in the trade. Mr Sampson Low was secretary of a trade association (abolished 1852), which had for its object the protection of the bookseller against underselling. For a long time resolute attempts were made by the heads of the profession to refuse to deal with undersellers; but these, appealing to the public, ultimately conquered; and now books of all kinds are disposed of at such prices as the bookseller pleases. After making all ordinary deductions, to which losses, &c. may be added, publishers can reckon on receiving little more than half the price at which their books are nominally issued. Many publishers annually spend very large sums in advertising new books.
Publishers are under the legal obligation to deliver, free, a copy of every book they issue (new editions without alterations excepted) to the five following public institutions: Library of the British Museum; Bodleian Library, Oxford; University Library, Cambridge; Trinity College Library, Dublin; and the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh. Lord James and Sir Richard Webster gave in 1887 a decided opinion that copies of every American book issued in Great Britain, though printed and originally published in America, must also be sent to the British Museum. Manufactured American books are imported in large quantities by British publishers, who, for the convenience of purchasers, print on the title-page the name of the firm which has introduced the work into Great Britain; hence the claim of copies by the British Museum. There is no compulsion as to registration of titles at Stationers' Hall, the fee for which is 5s. (see COPYRIGHT). The title of a popular book or periodical is often of great value, and is jealously guarded by the publisher; the use of this title by another is an infringement of copyright. Owing to the rapid multiplication of books, it is becoming increasingly difficult to steer clear of titles already in use. In 1893-94, 12,759 volumes were lodged at the British Museum in terms of the Copyright Act, and 511 by international exchange, 19,084 acquired by purchase, besides 4944 pieces of music, and about 2500 sets of newspapers. See BRITISH MUSEUM.
The gradual increase in magnitude of the book-trade is interesting. One of the first catalogues compiled in England (1666-80) has a list of 3550 works, being a yearly average of 253. From 1700 to 1756, without including pamphlets, 5280 new books were issued. The Modern Catalogue of Books (1792-1802) has a list of 4096 new works, or an annual average of 372 new books. According to the London Catalogue of 1800-27, the publications, including reprints, amounted to 19,860 volumes; that of 1816-51 contains the titles of 45,072 books, an average annual publication of more than 1200 books. There were three times as many books published in 1853 as there had been in 1828. The annual production of new books in the period 1877-87 averaged 4000 volumes; of new editions, 1400. The number of new books issued during 1893 was 5129; the new editions, 1253. Of this number 1328 were novels and tales; 533 theology, sermons, &c., and 622 educational. Owing to the absence of compulsory registration, however, statistics respecting the publishing trade of Great Britain cannot be wholly accurate. The only statistics now issued are those associated with the compilation of Low's English Catalogue. In 1893 the books imported into the United Kingdom were valued at £249,277. Of these, the value from Germany was £19,236; France, £47,955; Holland, £101,921; Belgium, £16,794; the United States, £51,629; other countries, £5160. The value of English printed books exported in 1893 was £1,261,921. The United States purchased to the amount of £392,219; Australasia, £438,595 (the returns for 1885 showed an average annual expenditure in Australia of more than 11s. per head in books and stationery); Canada, £83,259; British India, £133,508. France, Germany, Holland, and Belgium unitedly took to the value of £106,526; our next largest customer being South Africa, for £99,682. The total to British possessions was £714,423; to foreign countries, £547,498.
In Germany, where the book-trade first became established, the principal mart was Frankfurt, to whose fairs the early booksellers and printers resorted. Leipzig also became a great mart for books as early as 1680; but in 1885 as many books were published in Berlin as in Leipzig; and since about 1830 Stuttgart has come to the front, whilst Frankfurt has entirely lost its ancient prestige. From the teeming press of Baron Bernhard Tauchnitz of Leipzig there had been issued by 1888, by arrangement with British and American authors and publishers, a series of more than 2000 volumes of cheap reprints of English popular works in a pocket size. The bringing of these German reprints of English copyright works into Great Britain is against the law, and copies are liable to seizure. From a table prepared by Hinrichs of Leipzig, we learn that 16,253 books were issued in Germany in 1886, and 21,275 in 1891. Of this number, educational and theological works topped the list. Book-buyers in Germany have the privilege of receiving books on approbation from the booksellers and publishers: in this way an examination can be made of the proposed purchase, which may be returned.
Though Germany has the largest number of new books of any country in Europe, editions are relatively small; and the encouragement to men of letters is poor. Great use is made of the circulating library, upon which the publisher mainly depends for the sale of a popular work. Some of the illustrated papers have an enormous circulation. Die Gartenlaube has a circulation of 300,000; Ueber Land und Meer has 150,000.
In France, every book and pamphlet must be registered before publication, and publishing is carried on chiefly in Paris, where there are many extensive printing establishments. About two-thirds of all the books published issue from Paris. A large number of the scientific works are published at the sole cost of the state. French books are, with few exceptions, done up simply in coloured paper covers, for temporary service; works of a superior class are executed with a high degree of taste—the excellence of pictorial embellishments being always conspicuous. The finest editions de luxe used to be French; and many expensive works in French, and also in the classical languages, issued from the Parisian press still command a large sale. Owing to the almost universal knowledge of the French tongue, there is a large export to foreign countries.
Belgium possesses a flourishing book-trade; and Brussels, as a kind of minor Paris, is the seat of some extensive printing and publishing concerns. In Italy there are recent signs of revival in book-publishing and bookselling. The trade of the other European countries is of less interest.
The book-trade of the United States has sprung up from small beginnings within the present century. Ezekiel Usher was in business in Boston in 1652; bookselling was well established at the beginning of the 18th century. Benjamin Franklin (q.v.) was one of the most famous of the early printers. But at first scholars and libraries were mainly supplied with books from Europe, and the bulk of American publications were reprints of British literature. In the period 1830-42 about 1300 books were issued, half of them being original, and half reprints; in 1853 there were 879; in 1855, 1092; in 1859-60, 1350 a year; and in 1871, 3000. The Publishers' Weekly recorded the publication of 4665 new books and new editions in 1891, and 4862 in 1892. The number of new books entered for copyright in 1878 was 5632, and in 1879, 6580; and it is estimated that, of the 10,212 articles in the form of books entered in 1887, about three-fourths may be reckoned as properly coming under that designation. There are nearly 350 firms in the United States which publish books. Of these New York has 130; Boston, 38; Chicago, 35; and Philadelphia, 34. The great distributing houses are located at New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago; Caspar's General Directory of the American Book, News, and Stationery Trades (1888), wholesale and retail, contains the addresses of 20,000 firms actually in business. A few of the larger publishing houses, such as Harper's in New York, and Lippincott's in Philadelphia, print, bind, and manufacture the books they sell. The latter firm combines the business of the publisher, 'jobber,' or middleman who buys from the publisher to sell again, and retailer. The names of Appleton, Roberts Brothers, Ticknor & Co., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Scribner, and others, are well known. A very large proportion of the book business is done by book-agents or canvassers. At the fall and spring trade sales, a large business is done, both in new publications and in older standard works, at a discount of from 25 to 40 per cent. off the usual trade prices. Local booksellers have suffered through the commission-agents and library associations who deal directly with publishers.
Between 1820 and 1856 a very large proportion of American books were reprints of English works. But as Holmes expresses it, 'the Yankee mind, which has for the most part budded and flowered in pots of English earth,' has now asserted its own individuality, and produced writers of genius and culture, and of world-wide reputation, such as Irving, Hawthorne, Motley, Holmes, Prescott, Emerson, Longfellow, Whittier, Poe, and Lowell, whose works have lent dignity and importance to American literature, and given an impulse to the book-trade. Mrs Stowe's Unele Tom's Cabin had a phenomenal sale, 500,000 copies being sold in less than five years in the United States, and by April 1852 more than 1,000,000 had been reprinted in Great Britain. Of Longfellow's poems, without taking into account unauthorised English reprints, the American sales in 1839-57 amounted to 325,550 copies; from the latter date till 1881, 194,000. Webster's Spelling Book (Appleton & Co.) had reached a sale of 50,000,000 copies in 1887, and is said still to sell at the rate of about 1,000,000 copies a year. In spite of the ruinous competition with unpaid English literature, a popular American author commands a high figure for his work. C. L. Webster & Co. are said to have paid Mrs Grant £40,000 as her share of the profits of vol. i. of General Grant's Life, probably the highest payment for a single volume on record. Louisa M. Alcott is reported to have received £20,000 for her Little Women series. Bonner of the Ledger paid Henry Ward Beecher £6000 for his Norwood, and £1000 to Dickens for one short story. The Harpers gave Longfellow £200 for his 'Keramos' for Harpers's Magazine, and the same figure for 'Morituri Salutamus.' T. B. Aldrich once received £240 for a short story, and W. D. Howells and Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) can command £100 or £200 for a short story or article.
A common arrangement between the American author and publisher is a payment of 10 per cent. royalty on the retail price of all sales; sometimes a lump sum is paid, and the publisher secures the copyright, which is granted for twenty-eight years, subject to renewal by the author, his widow, or children for other fourteen years. A condition is that a copy of a title-page must be registered with the librarian of congress, and two copies of the best edition of the book lodged there within ten days of publication. The entry fees are 50 cents, and 50 cents additional for a certificate of record. A copy of any new edition must also be sent to the librarian.
American books are now executed with great neatness and taste; their wood-engravings, notably those in Harpers's, The Century, and Scribner's Magazine, have been brought to a pitch of remarkable beauty both in design and in printing, largely by help of improvements in process engraving. All these magazines have gained a firm footing in Great Britain. The Bookbuyer (1888) says that the seven leading magazines in New York have an average monthly circulation of 650,000 copies. The Atlantic Monthly and the North American Review have had as contributors and conductors the most eminent literary men that America has produced. Several English publishers have found it to their interest to have branch establishments in New York, while several American publishers have also branches in London. Owing to the prevalence of education, and the abundance of cheap series of books under the title of libraries, book-buyers in a humble position in life are much more numerous than they are in the United Kingdom.
By the provisions of the International Copyright Act (1886), a foreign author's rights are protected in Great Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Hayti, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Tunis. Colonial authors can also secure copyright without publication in the United Kingdom, and a work copyright in the United Kingdom is copyright in Canada. American cheap reprints of British books are admitted to Canada subject to a customs duty of 12½ per cent., to be paid over to the British author, but hitherto the returns from this source have been very small. It is understood that an American author by prior publication in England secures British copyright, although the matter has never been properly tested; the British author until 1891 had no such privilege in the United States. Hence the constant (but for long futile) proposal of plans for an international copyright arrangement, whereby an English author and his publisher might reap the benefit of an American sale, and vice versa. As the matter stood, British copyright books were freely reprinted to a public of more than 50 millions at a price from a few cents upwards. A book which sold in England at any price from a couple of shillings to a couple of guineas, could thus be reprinted and sold for little more than the price of paper and print. Bills were introduced into the American House of Representatives and the Senate without effect. The American Copyright League, founded by G. Parsons Lathrop in 1882, which soon attained a membership of several hundreds, including Mark Twain, Julian Hawthorne, Will Carleton, Howells, Stoddard, Boyesen, and other well-known authors, sought to influence the legislature in favour of some equitable arrangement. Dickens, Carlyle, Lytton, Besant, and other English authors, also spoke strongly on the subject. The American Publishers' Copyright League (1888) existed for a like purpose. At length, on 1st July 1891, an act came into force whereby copyright can be acquired by authors who are not citizens of the United States, provided two copies of the work be left with the librarian of congress not later than the day of publication, such book to be printed from type set up in the United States, or from plates made therefrom. See COPYRIGHT.
The 'libraries,' collections of cheap reprints of British copyright books, extend some of them to more than 500 volumes. The best known perhaps are Harper's Franklin Square Library (new series, 1888), Munro's Seaside Library, and Lovell's Library. Of the previous edition of the present Encyclopædia there are several unauthorised reprints. There is a reprint of all Ruskin's works at a much lower figure than one of his earlier books now costs in England; while his Sesame and Lilies, Crown of Wild Olive, and Ethics of the Dust, appear in one volume for about 2s., or about one-eighth of what Mr Ruskin charges for them in England. Froude's Carlyle and George Eliot's Life can be had for fewer pence than they at first cost shillings in England. When the average published price of Black or Blackmore's novels in England was 6s. a volume, they could be bought in New York at 10 or 20 cents. Lord Tennyson has of course suffered along with other English authors. These unauthorised reprints, if imported into the United Kingdom, are liable to seizure by the custom-house officers. We have many examples, on the other hand, of American books being reprinted in England without anything being paid to the author.
The modern bookseller and publisher has many trade helps, the best of which are the following: The London Catalogue, giving a list of 42,340 works published between 1831-55; the British Catalogue; Low's handy and useful English Catalogue of Books (published annually); Whitaker's Reference Catalogue of Current Literature (first issued in 1874), which is a volume of publishers' catalogues in alphabetical order, modelled on the late F. Leypoldt's American Trade List Annual; Roorbach's Bibliotheca Americana, a catalogue of books issued from 1820, continued by Kelly, in supplements, to 1871; and F. Leypoldt's American Catalogue (2 vols.) of authors and titles, the first volume of which has 70,000 entries. Sonnenschein's Best Books (1887; 2d ed. 1891) can be recommended. The recognised trade journals are in this country the Bookseller (monthly) and Publishers' Circular (weekly), in the United States the Publishers' Weekly and American Bookseller, all of which issue Christmas numbers containing announcements and criticisms of books, with specimens of the illustrations. The Athenæum prints a weekly list, with prices affixed, of works offered for sale in London. In Germany the Börsenblatt is the organ of the trade, but the Germans have also an encyclopædia of the book-trade, edited by Ebner and Weisbach, the Encyklopädie des Gesamnten Buchhändlerischen Wissens (1887). The French organ of the trade is entitled Bibliographie de la France.
See Knight's Old Printer and the Modern Press (1854) and Shadows of the Old Booksellers (1865); Curwen's History of Booksellers (1873); Kapp's Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels (1886); Welsh's Bookseller of the Last Century: John Newbery (1885); Bibliographical Catalogue of Macmillan & Co.'s Publications, 1843-89 (1889); Roberts's Earlier History of English Bookselling (1889); Arber's List of Eight Hundred and Thirty-nine London Publishers between 1553 and 1640 (1890); Putnam's Authors and their Public in Ancient Times (1893); the lives of Lackington, Hutton, W. & R. Chambers, Constable, D. Macmillan (q.v.), Adam Black (q.v.), John Murray (q.v.), Hatchard; and the articles BIBLIOGRAPHY, BOOK, BOOKBINDING, COPYRIGHT, ILLUSTRATION, LIBRARY, NEWSPAPERS, PAPER, PERIODICALS, PRESS, PRINTING, STATIONERS' HALL, STEREOTYPING, WOOD-ENGRAVING.