The British Book Market and The Industrialization of the Book

The British Book Market and The Industrialization of the Book

The British Book Market

           

·      Robert Darnton has developed the concept of the “circuit” of the book as a means of modeling these relationships. 

·      Starts with a person or firm, which turns the author’s work into a form in which it can be distributed and sold.

·      Writing started out as a way to present information but with the rise of the circuit and publishers you see authors around the seventeenth century, writing for money became more established. 

·      This then lead to copyright acts so that authors can get credit for what is theirs. 

·      At first it was only books but as the need for a bigger market increased so did the types of literature.  Newspapers, and magazines grew in population and were easy to produce and were a lot cheaper then books.

The Industrialization of the Book

·      Papermaking began to really take off with the rise of wood pulp paper.  With the rise of the need for books the need for paper grew as well.  People began to look into other ways of producing paper faster and with better resources.

·      Printing presses began to change as well.  They began to use metal presses that eliminated a crank and produce more pressure.

·      Color began to become more widespread after the 1800.  At first color text was limited to two-color title page, but then began to use color in the illustrations.

·      The use of photography struggled at first because of the black and white colors but with the innovation of printing the answer came in the shape of the halftone screen.  This was a device used to break down the tonal image of a photograph into a series of small dots. 

Comment

            I really liked these segments of the book.  I think that by breaking down each type of the book production in “The Industrialization of the Book” you are able to see how each part was vital for the mass production of the book.  By revolutionizing papermaking, presses, and inks the book became more available and affordable for the masses.  With these innovations of the book, the book is now the symbol it stands for today and is as wide spread now then ever before.

                      

Question

            How do you think stereotyping saves money on printing? Are there other areas you can cut to save money on printing?