Victorian Publishing Por my husbtmd G,aham and our SOllS Pe/ix aml Alexantler Victorian Publishing The Economics of Book Production for a Mass Market, 1836-1916 ALEXIS WEEDON University of Luton, UK First published 2003 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 7111hirdAvenue, NewYork, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Alexis Weedon 2003 The author has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs an<! Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, induding photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Weedon, Alexis Victorian publishing : the economics of book production for a mass market, 1836-1916. - (The nineteenth century series) 1. Publishers and publishing - Great Britain History . 19th century 2. Publishers and publishing - Great Britain History - 20th century 3. Publishers and publishing - Economic aspects - Great Britain I. Tide 338.4 '70705 '0941 '09034 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Weedon, Alexis. Victorian publishing : the economics of book production for a mass market, 1836- 1916/ Alexis Weedon. p. cm. -- (The nineteenth century series) Indudes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-7546-3527-9 1. Publishers and publishing--Great Britain--History--19th century. 2. Publishers and publishing--Great Britain--History--20th century. 3. Book industries and trade-­ Great Britain--History--19th century. 4. Book industries and trade--Great Britain-­ History--20th century. I. Tide. 11. Nineteenth century (Aldershot, England) Z325 .W425 2003 070.5'0941--dc21 2002038374 ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-3527-7 (hbk) Contents The Nineteenth Century Series General Editors' Preface Vll List of Figures ix List 01 Plates Xl List of Tables Xllll Acknowledgements xv Inttoduction 1 1 Archives and Information Sourees S 2 The Growth ofche Mass Markee for Books 31 3, Trends in Book Production Costs 59 4 Looking aher theBo,ttom Lin,e 89 5 Educational Publishing 111 6 Publishing Strategies for the Mass Market: A Case Study 141 Conclusion 157 Appendices 1 The BookProduction Cost Database (BPCD) 163 2 Brief Sketches of the Histories of the Main ßPCD Firms and their Archives 169 3 Import and Export of Books Manufactured in Great Britain 185 8ib~iography 193 Index 207 This page intentionally left blank The Nineteenth Century Series General Editors' Preface The aim of the series is to re fleet, develop and extend the great burgeon­ ing of interest in the nineteenth century that has been an inevitable feature of recent years, as that former epoch has come more sharply into focus as a locus for our understanding not only of the past but of the contours of our modernity. It centres primarily upon major authors and subjects within Romantic and Victorian literature. It also includes studies of other British writers and issues, where these are matters of current debate: for example, biography and autobiography, journalism, periodicalliterature, travel writing, book production, gender and non­ canonical writing. We are dedicated principally to publishing original monographs and symposia; our policy is to embrace a broad scope in chronology, approach and range of concern, and both to recognize and cut innovatively across such parameters as those suggested by the desig­ nations 'Romantic' and 'Victorian.' We welcome new ideas and theories, while valuing traditional scholarship. It is hoped that the world which predates yet so forcibly predicts and engages our own will emerge in parts, in the wider sweep, and in the lively streams of disputation and change that are so manifest an aspect of its intellectual, artistic and sociallandscape. Vincent Newey Joanne Shattock University of Leicester This page intentionally left blank List of Figures 1.1 Transcript of a page from John Menzies' account book illustrating the account for their Comic Annual of 1832 20 1.2 Chatto & Windus: the top of a page from Publication Ledger volume 2 21 1.3 George Bell & Sons: frequency of print runs 28 2.1 Declared value at customs of books manufactured in the UK and exported to the USA and to British pos sessions in Australasia, the East Indies, North America and South Africa 40 2.2 The total number of titles issued annually in Britain: a comparison of figures from the NSTC and the Publishers' Circular 46 2.3 Estimate of the increase in books manufactured compared with the growth of the reading public in England and Wales (1846=100) 50 2.4 The quantity of books manufactured compared with the total retail price of those books adjusted for deflation (1846=100) 56 3.1 The average size of paper used for book printing (1830-1910) 65 3.2 The average cost of paper used for book printing (1830-1910) 67 3.3 The cost of composition per square inch compared with the index of the mean money wage 78 3.4 The average factor costs for titles with print runs of 1000 87 3.5 Percentage spent on each factor cost on average for titles with print runs of 1000 87 4.1 Average print run by subject, showing the percentage above or below the overall average print run for individual Dewey subject catagories 93 4.2 Demand for English and American literature: number of copies printed in each price bracket 106 5.1 Patterns of demand for arithmetic books 131 5.2 Patterns of demand for Greek and Latin classics 133 5.3 Patterns of demand for geography books 135 5.4 Patterns of demand for science books 136 5.5 Pattern of demand for printed music and music books 137 x LIST OF FIGURES 6.1 The impact of the publication of a 6d edition of Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White on the rate of sale of other editions 146 6.2 Chatto &Windus' reprints of tbree of Ouilda's novels 150 Al.l An exampme of a reco~d on rhepubliShers' databa,se (BPCD) 164 List of Plates 1 Bindings oE tbe 1857, 1901 and 1909 editions of Mrs Gatty's Parable$ fromNatur6,1 First Ser;es, published by George Bell &. Sons 82 2 Mn Gatty's own illustration for the tale 'Training and Restraining' born the 1857 edition ofher Parables {rom Nature, First Series, published by George Bell ~ Sons 83 3 Ho.man Hunt's illustration forthe tale -. Active and Passive' {rom ehe 1880 edition of Mn Gatty's Parables (rom Nature, First Series, published by George BeU &. Sons 84 This page intentionally left blank List of Tables 1.1 Number of books produced according to records gathered from publishers' and printers' archives for the BPCD sam pie years 24 1.2 George Bell & Sons: sampie years and re cords of book production costs 25 1.3 George Bell & Sons: Summary table of print runs 27 2.1 Centres of publication ranked by number of titles 36 2.2 Proportion of titles published in UK and foreign centres 37 2.3 Declared value at customs of books manufactured in the UK and exported to the USA and to British possessions in Australasia, the East Indies, North America and South Africa 39 2.4 NSTC titles per decade for place of publication (1801- 69): Calcutta and Madras in India, and Melbourne and Sydney in Australia 42 2.5 Genre analysis of NSTC titles giving Calcutta or Madras, India, or Melbourne or Sydney, Australia as place of publication (1801-69) 43 2.6 Index of the number of published titles: NSTC figures compared with the Publishers' Circular (1861=100) 46 2.7 Average print runs of books by decade 49 2.8 Estimated size of the reading public based on the ability to sign the marriage register, calculated for each age cohort of the population of England and Wales and weighted for the relative size of this cohort in the overall population 51 2.9 Estimated total retail value of the output of the UK book industry for the BPCD sampie years 55 3.1 The average size of paper used for book printing 66 3.2 The average cost of paper used for book printing 66 3.3 Machining cost of paper printed (pence per square yard) with an adjustment for deflation using the Twigger price index (1850=1) 72 3.4 The cost of stereos, electros and moulds as a percentage of the total cost of composition 74 3.5 Percentage of titles printed from stereos or electros listed in the Macmillan impression books 75 XIV LIST OF TABLES 3.6 The cost of composition (pence per square inch) compared with a compositors' wages index and the average money wage index 79 3.7 The average unit binding cost adjusted using Twigger's price index 86 4.1 Comparison of the number of titles in the NSTC with the BPCD by Dewey subject 91 4.2 The number of titles in each genre compared with the quantity of books printed (1836-76) 94 4.3 The number of titles in each genre compared with the quantity of books printed (1886-1916) 95 4.4 Return on capital invested on specimen costs by Society of Authors (1891) and Stanley Unwin (1926) 97 4.5 English and American literature: number of copies printed with known retail prices 105 5.1 Summary of content analysis of advertisements for educational works in the January educational issue of the Publishers' Circular 116 5.2 Elementary school attendance and cost per scholar for 1886 in Australasia, Canada and Cape Colony 123 5.3 The number of titles recommended for