Welcome to the Nexus, the lobby for this exhibit on the history of publishing.
This exhibit was made using Twine in order to freely allow users to explore the history of publishing as it suits them. While Twine is typically used to tell narratives and to create games of those narratives, I will be using it to tell a story of something very important to story tellers everywhere: the history of publications.
This is not limited to how books have been created, bought up by retailers, and sold, nor is it limited to the machines which allowed such things to be produced. This exhibit is not so linear as a typical research paper, nor is it as chaotic as an open world video game. Consider the exhibit as a wiki of sorts, and this [[Nexus]] is the front page. Here you will find links to each of the topics of interest found in the exhibit, much like a lobby in a museum leading to its many rooms.
Enjoy yourselves, and do not be afraid to get lost with history. If ever you do, you may always return to this room and begin again.
[[Pre-Industrial]]
----[[Gutenberg]]
----[[Gutenberg Press]]
----[[Case: Bible]]
[[Industrial]]
----[[Koenig and Bauer]]
----[[Koenig-Bauer Press]]
----[[Newspaper Industry]]
----[[Richard March Hoe]]
----[[Hoe Press]]
[[Digital]]
----[[Opinions on electronic publication]]
----[[Big Players]]
----[[Current Process]]
[[Extras]]:
----Press [[Specifics Compared]]
----[[Changes in Literacy]]
----[[Self-Publishing]]
[[Reflection]]
Welcome to the pre-Industrial era hub.
This hub covers information on book making from before the year 1760CE.
This section primarily concerns the works of Johannes Gutenberg and an examination of his life, his printing machine, and a hypothetical examination of the Gutenberg Bible.
The period in which Gutenberg lived is considered to be the early German renaissance era, and his inventions mark the movement of intellectual society from being curated by clergy and towards free thought and expression.
This period marks the crucial first steps of literary society towards our current age of electronic publications.
Please follow one of the paths below
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Proceed to life of Johannes [[Gutenberg]]
Proceed to the [[Gutenberg Press]]
Explore a production study with [[Case: Bible]]
or move on to the [[Industrial]] era
The Industrial era is so named for the industrial revolution occurring between 1760 and 1830, and is the second era of publishing in this exhibit. The industrial era is characterized by avancements in technology, often marked with the innovation of the steam locomotive.
This period for book making and publications is marked by the invention of two new printing presses, released a short time apart from one another: the Koenig-Bauer press and the Hoe press. This period also saw advances in the production of newspapers, another factor in rising rates of popular literacy.
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Proceed to the life of [[Koenig and Bauer]]
Proceed to the [[Koenig-Bauer Press]]
Proceed to the effects of these machines on the [[Newspaper Industry]]
Proceed to the life of [[Richard March Hoe]]
Proceed to the [[Hoe Press]]
Return to the [[Pre-Industrial]] era
Proceed to the [[Digital]] era
The Digital Age of Publishing is defined by this project as beginning with the general population's ability to access the world wide web at the tail end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. While the Digital Revolution (which, much like the Industrial Revolution, is what gives the name to this period) began a few decades earlier, the crux of the Digital Age for the purposes of this project begins with the end of the 20^^th^^ century.
The World Wide Web^^1^^ was developed by British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee at CERN (la Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) in 1989, and was released on a "royalty free basis, for ever" in April 1993.
As the world wide web has evolved, new platforms have spawned from it such as social media and publication business platforms. These new platforms are forums for the voices of the people to be heard, for better or for worse. As these platforms have emerged, the world has changed with it.
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Explore a brief history of [[Self-Publishing]]
See some [[Opinions on electronic publication]]
Who are the [[Big Players]] in digital publishing?
What is the [[Current Process]] in publishing?
Go back to the [[Pre-Industrial]] era.
Go back to the [[Industrial]] era.
^^1^^: World Wide Web Foundation. "History of the Web". http://webfoundation.org/about/vision/history-of-the-web/. Accessed December 12 2016.
Johannes Gutenberg was born sometime in the last decade of the 14th century in Germany (what year exactly is either debated or thoroughly unknown, though sources agree it is no later than 1398) into aristocracy. According to Britannica Online^^1^^, little is known of his early life outside of his trade-skills, which were in metalworking and gem cutting. Sometime between 1428 and 1430, Gutenberg’s family was exiled from his home of Mainz and settled in what is now Strasbourg, France. Gutenberg entered into business with some colleagues, one of which died.
Following a failed lawsuit by the children of the deceased colleague, it was revealed Gutenberg had been working on the machine for which he would become most known for – the printing press. The press would, however, only be complete in 1450. The interim years would see a financial ruin Gutenberg would never recover from.^^1^^
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the [[Pre-Industrial]] hub
Proceed to the [[Gutenberg Press]]
^^1^^: Hellmut E. Lehman-Haupt. "Johannes Gutenberg". //The Encyclopaedia Britannica Online//. Accessed November 14, 2016. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johannes-Gutenberg.
Gutenberg's press was a modified screw press^^1^^, a machine which would have been well known to Gutenberg as a metalworker. The inventor had to create a special metal alloy that would become malleable but not melted within the heat of the press , as well as an oil-based ink that was more enduring than the water based inks of the time. The alloy in question would be a precursor to diecast metals patented in the 19th century by Sturges^^2^^, once again for printing.
Gutenberg applied a type matrix, or a template, of each individual letter (in reverse) to the alloy and pressed the ink-laden blocks onto the sheets of paper, making impressions of the lettering.
The invention of the Gutenberg printing press marked a period of expedited production for literature at a lower cost to the producers^^3^^. The press marked the beginning of what Oregon State University's Special Collections and Archives Research Center calls "the Printing Revolution"^^1^^, an even which allowed thinkers all over Europe to create copies of their concepts and spread them all across the many cultural centers of the continent.
The item embodying Gutenberg's legacy is the Gutenberg Bible, the first commissioned printed book.
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the life of Johannes [[Gutenberg]]
Explore a production study with [[Case: Bible]]
See the [[Specifics Compared]] for all presses
or move on to the [[Industrial]] era.
^^1^^: "Incunabla". //Special Collections and Archives Research Center at Oregon State University //. Accessed December 5, 2016. http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/mcdonald/incunabula/gutenberg/.
^^2^^: "About Die Casting: FAQ". //The North American Die Casting Association//. 2010. Accessed December 10, 2016. http://www.webcitation.org/5tVCFPCyL?url=http://www.diecasting.org/faq/.
^^3^^: Steven Kreis. "The Printing Press". 2000. Ed. May 02, 2016. Accessed December 9, 2016. http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/press.html.
During the initial pitch for this project, the question of how long it would take to print a Gutenberg Bible was brought up. The presenter lacked sufficient data in order to answer the question, however the calculations have now been made.
Various unreliable sources (mostly forums and Wikipedia-type articles) have given numbers between 25^^1^^ impressions (pages) per hour, and 250^^2^^ impressions per hour for the Gutenberg press. According to newworldencyclopedia.org^^3^^, this 250 page rate was true of Stanhope's cast iron press at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The following calculations will assume a worst case scenario (from the data collected) at 25 pages.
History.com^^4^^ claims "Most Gutenberg Bibles contained 1,286 pages bound in two volumes, yet almost no two are exactly alike". For the sake of brief argument, the term "average" will be applied to this assertion, so as it may be claimed the average Gutenberg Bible contained 1286 pages.
25 pages per hour, 1286 pages per Bible (on average).
1286 / 25 = 51.44 -> 51.44 hours
44/100 = 26.4/60 -> take the .44, converted to minutes = 26.4 minutes
40/100 = 24/60 -> take the .4, converted to seconds = 24 seconds.
Total time equals 51 hours, 26 minutes, 24 seconds to print 1286 pages. This equation does not factor in the amount of time it would take to change the type, as that rate is unknown. In a best case scenario, in contrast, the time would be a tenth of what it is here (250/25 = 10)
[[Nexus]]
[[Pre-Industrial]]
[[Gutenberg Press]]
^^1^^: User: T.E.D.. "How much faster were the printing presses than handwriting?" January 23 2014. Accessed December 10 2016. http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/2545/how-much-faster-were-the-printing-presses-than-hand-writing.
^^2^^: "Printing Press: Printing in the industral age". Accessed December 10 2016. http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Printing_press#Printing_in_the_industrial_age.
^^3^^: “Printing Press: Gutenberg's Press". Accessed December 10 2016. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Printing_press#Gutenberg.27s_Press.
^^4^^: Evan Andrews. "7 Things You May Not Know About the Gutenberg Bible". February 23 2015. Accessed December 10 2016. http://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-gutenberg-bible.
Friedrich Koenig^^1^^ was born the 14^^th^^ of April, 1774 in Eisleben, Germany. After he completed his schooling, Koenig was worked as a printer's apprentice in Leipzig. Prior to his innovations in printing with the rotary press, Koenig attempted to modify the already existing flat-bed press, and it was only after this endeavour failed that Koenig partnered with Bauer on the press they would become named for.
In contrast, little unassociated with Koenig is known about Koenig's partner, Andreas Bauer, beyond his profession as an engineer and his later ascension to leading the company^^2^^ following Koenig's death c. 1833. Bauer with his profession "assisted Koenig and became largely responsible for the practical execution of Koenig's plans"^^3^^
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the [[Industrial]] hub
Proceed to the [[Koenig-Bauer Press]]
^^1^^: Scott Robinson. “Friedrich Konig”. //Robinson Library//. Ed. May 14, 2016. Accessed December 12, 2016. http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/library/practical/konig.htm.
^^2^^: “Koenig & Bauer AG - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Koenig & Bauer AG”. // Advameg, Inc//. Accessed December 12, 2016. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/99/Koenig-Bauer-AG.html
^^3^^: Lance Day and Ian McNeil. //Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology//. Routledge, 2002. Accessed December 12, 2016.
The Koenig-Bauer Press was patented in 1810 following the failure of Friedrich Koenig's previous endeavour, the Suhler press, which may or may not have ever been practically built ^^1^^. The plan of this Suhler press was to reink the plates with rollers between presses in order to expedite the process.
Koenig, with Andreas Bauer, applied the new steam engine to mechanize the necessary labour for the new press. Further, this machine used cylinders to print type on both sides of the sheet of paper in order to waste less space. To quote Elliget's study, the machined functioned as follows:
"The cylinder made one-third of a revolution for each impression and then stopped whilst the bed carriage returned and the forme re-inked, at the same time allowing a fresh sheet to be laid on and delivering that already printed"^^1^^.
Koenig's steam press was patented in 1810, and produced its first test in 1811. The press was sold to //The Times// in London in 1814, expediting the production of newspapers.
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the [[Industrial]] hub
Return to [[Koenig and Bauer]]
Proceed to their contemporary, [[Richard March Hoe]]
Explore their contributions to the [[Newspaper Industry]]
See the [[Specifics Compared]] for all the presses.
^^1^^: Bill Elliget. "Letter Press Printing in the 1960s" pg 58. Accessed December 10 2016. http://letterpressprinting.com.au/page58.htm
The introduction of newspapers saw the wide spreading of the written word to the general population, a great departure from the closed off scriptora of the Middle Ages.
The industry surrounding newspapers grew in the 19th century due to growing populations and advances in technology. These advances in technology resulted in more economical production^^1^^ and therefore increased numbers in production in the intervening years. Using the //Manchester Guardian// as a case study, A. E. Musson in 1958 investigated the effects of the Industrial Revolution on newspaper printing.
Just as the advancements in technology brought printing to a higher level of intensity, so did such advancements bring a higher frequency through reporting the news^^2^^. As production shifted, so too did demand, and by 1870 the //Guardian// had become a national paper. Even the most important papers forty years prior had runs of a few thousand, however by that year the average run tallied at about 10,000 issues.
Musson claims production in the early 1800s was relatively similar to what it had been for centuries, with slow daily production^^2^^.
The introduction of the Koenig-Bauer steam press saw the first shift in centuries, and modifications on the machine by British engineers Edward Cowper and Augustus Applegath^^3^^ saw the production rate of the steam press double. Richard Hoe’s innovations in machinery shortly after in America would see further increases in production speed. These increases in speed would exponentially increase the amount of issues which would reach more readers.
If the Guardian’s circulatory expansion is anything to judge the industry on, newspapers would be released bi-weekly around 1836 and daily in 1855^^1^^, though their late adaptation of the Hoe machine in 1858 would suggest other newspapers grew far more quickly as early adaptors.
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the [[Extras]] hub
Explore the [[Industrial]] hub
Proceed to the [[Koenig-Bauer Press]]
Proceed to the [[Hoe Press]]
^^1^^: A.E. Musson. “Newspaper Printing in the Industrial Revolution”. //The Economic History Review, New Series// Vol. 10, No. 3. 1958. 411. Accessed December 11 2016. www.jstor.org/stable/2591261.
^^2^^: A.E. Musson. “Newspaper Printing in the Industrial Revolution”. //The Economic History Review, New Series// Vol. 10, No. 3. 1958. 412. Accessed December 11 2016. www.jstor.org/stable/2591261.
^^3^^: A.E. Musson. “Newspaper Printing in the Industrial Revolution”. //The Economic History Review, New Series// Vol. 10, No. 3. 1958. 416. Accessed December 11 2016. www.jstor.org/stable/2591261.
Richard March Hoe was born September 12, 1812 in New York City. His father was a mechanic, who established a print factory with his brothers-in-law, R. Hoe and Company. Richard began working at the company when he was fifteen years old and came to lead the company six years later after his father's passing.^^1^^
Prior to Hoe's innovation of the patented rotary press, he made constant tweaks to the machines in the factory. The rotary press was the ultimate product of his adjustments, and even that continued to be upgraded by Hoe throughout his lifetime.^^1^^
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the [[Industrial]] hub
Proceed to the [[Hoe Press]]
See the [[Specifics Compared]] for all the presses
^^1^^: The Editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Richard March Hoe". https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-March-Hoe. September 12, 2008. Accessed December 13, 2016.
The Hoe Press was a modified cylinder press tweaked by Richard M. Hoe throughout his lifetime. The Encyclopaedia Britannica lists two versions of the press sold to newspapers, and each of these iterations had a different output than the last: at 8000 single sided sheets and at 18000 double sided sheets^^1^^
A rotary press functions by having two cylinders rotation in opposite directions, which feed paper across the plate cylinder, which inks the pages. Multicolored rotary presses require multiple plate cylinders, each with their own type and ink ^^2^^.
Retur to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the [[Industrial]] hub
[[Richard March Hoe]]
See the [[Specifics Compared]] of all the presses
See the press' impact on the [[Newspaper Industry]]
^^1^^: The Editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Richard March Hoe". Accessed December 10 2016. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-March-Hoe.
^^2^^: The Editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Rotary press". November 27, 2011. Accessed December 13, 2016. https://www.britannica.com/technology/rotary-press.
Gutenberg Press:
----innovated circa 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg.
----famous for increasing the speed of book production
----serves as the foundation for later innovations
----25^^1^^-250^^2^^ impressions per hour, 600-6000 per day
Koenig & Bauer Press:
---- Innovated by Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Bauer circa 1812.
---- Moved away from the manual flatbed press system for a steam-powered press system
---- 1100 impressions per hour, 26400 per day.^^3^^
Hoe Press:
---- invented by Richard M. Hoe in 1847
---- printed at a nearly continuous rate with rolled paper
---- could initially produce 8000 on a single side when it was sold to the //Philadelphia Public Leger//^^4^^
----later, the machine reached a rate of 18000 per hour, double sided, when it was sold to the //New York Tribune//^^4^^.
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the [[Pre-Industrial]] hub
Return to the [[Industrial]] hub
Proceed to the [[Gutenberg Press]]
Proceed to the [[Koenig-Bauer Press]]
Proceed to the [[Hoe Press]]
Move on to [[Digital]] publishing.
^^1^^: User: T.E.D.. "How much faster were the printing presses than handwriting?" January 23 2014. Accessed December 10 2016. http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/2545/how-much-faster-were-the-printing-presses-than-hand-writing.
^^2^^: "Printing Press: Printing in the industral age". Accessed December 10 2016. http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Printing_press#Printing_in_the_industrial_age.
^^3^^: Joanne Asala. "Printing Press" http://www.compassrose.com/publishing/printing-press.html. Accessed December 10 2016.
^^4^^: The Editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Richard March Hoe". Accessed December 10 2016. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-March-Hoe.
A big question my classmates had regarding the production of books across history was regarding the correlation between literacy rates and new innovations in printing.
During Gutenberg's time, from data^^1^^ taken from seven years following his death, the literacy rate in his homeland of Germany was 9%. This had spiked to over 50% by the time of the next major innovation in 1814, the Koenig-Bauer Press.
Elsewhere in the world, such as in Great Britain and France, the literacy rates sat at 53% and 38% respectively.
Data for era of the American Hoe press is lacking, as the study for the United States of America begins at 1870. At this point in time, literacy rates were recorded at 80%.
There is a correlation between increasing literacy rates and advances in technology, however this does not necessarily imply causation alone.
At the time of the study, in the electronic age, global literacy rates sat at 83%, with the other countries mentioned herein resting at nearly ubiquitous literacy rates at 99%.
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the [[Extras]] hub
Visit the [[Pre-Industrial]] hub
Visit the [[Industrial]] hub
Visit the [[Digital]] hub
^^1^^: Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina. "Literacy". //Our World in Data//. Fig. 2. Accessed December 10 2016. https://ourworldindata.org/literacy/.
The concept of self-publishing has existed since before the invention of Gutenberg's printing press, however it was primarily following the German innovation that printing became accessable to the masses. Ownership of a press would, under the concept of freedom of the press, allow for the owner to produce whatever they wished.
In the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin (yes, that one) became well known for his annually published //Poor Richard's Almanack// which cemented a number of cultural sayings, lifestyle advice, and now common words into the cultural consciousness of the people.^^1^^
A number of famous authors read in literature classes today, such as William Blake, Jane Austen, Walt Whitman, and Marcel Proust paid for the independent publications of their texts. Author Virginia Woolf and her husband started Hogarth Press in the 20th century in order to publish her own works as well as those of others. In 1997, Lightening source, one of the largest print-on-demand companies was founded, allowing writers to pursue publications more easily and for publishers to sink less money into the process. In 2006, physical print media on-demand became a reality with Espresso Book Machines, which takes in .pdf files and "prints, binds, and trims within minutes as a single, library-quality, paperback book"^^2^^, putting the power of a press into the hands of the masses.
Susan Wiget of Ooligan Press comments in March 2010 article, "Self-publishing is now thriving, and contrary to 1990s-era beliefs about print-on-demand"^^3^^, indicating there had been major reservations of this phenomenon during the 1990s.
With the innovation of the World Wide Web in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tim Berners-Lee opened up a wole new platform for writers, opening up at the tail-end of the 20th century with blogging sites and books in electronic installments. Blogs allow for instant publication, with some blogs over the years becoming books in the process. Of the electronic installment phenomenon, Stephen King said "My friends, we have a chance to become Big Publishing’s worst nightmare" after the online publication of his novel //The Plant//, showing the change in status quo.
In 2011, the Pew Research Center estimated 29% of Americans owned an e-reader. At this same time, companies such as Smashwords and BookBaby facilitated the publication and distribution of independent books^^1^^. At present, companies such as Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, have services which promise to allow authors to publish and sell their books through their systems^^4^^.
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the [[Extras]] hub
Explore the impact of presses on the [[Newspaper Industry]]
Move on to the [[Digital]] age
Explore the [[Current Process]] to getting published
^^1^^: Jamie FitzGerald. "Notable Moments in Slef-Publishing History: A Timeline". November/December 2013. www.pw.org/content/notable_moments_in_selfpublishing_history_a_timeline. December 13 2016.
^^2^^: "First Espresso Book Machine Installed and Demonstrated at New York Public Library's Science, Industry, and Business Library". //PRWeb// June 11, 2007. Accessed December 13 2016. www.prweb.com/releases/2007/6/prweb534914.htm
^^3^^: Susan Wiget. "A Brief History of Self-Publishing". March 10, 2010. Accessed December 13 2016. ooligan.pdx.edu/a-brief-history-of-self-publishing/
^^4^^: "Independently publish with Kindle Direct Publishing to reach millions of readers". //Amazon Direct Publishing, Inc.//. December 13 2016. https://kdp.amazon.com/signin?language=en_US.
As technologies have advanced, so too have means of publication. With the rise of the digital age, the media surrounding publishing changed. Blog sites, social media platforms, and digital publications have created accessable means for people to voice their opinions. The latter of these three platforms has come under scrutiny in the second decade of the 21^^st^^ century.
In 2012, Zoe Chace of NPR contested the impeding nature of electronic books^^1^^. She meets claims that "e-books are destroying the business model" due to increased instances of piracy and the expectations of customers to find cheaper prices for digital media than physical copies. Chace further contends the presence of digital books allows for publishers to experiment with pricing, as the prices are adjustable at will and instances of dramatically lowered prices do not generate massive losses for the publisher. Further, new opportunities for business are accessable. Chace cites an example of an e-book where the classic rock band Queen was the subject. Within the pages, as songs were mentioned, Chace notes there were links to iTunes where the songs could be purchased.
In 2014, Jason Abbruzzese and Katie Nelson of Mashable commented on how e-market giant Amazon had been crippling the business of some traditional publishers^^2^^. Notably, they commented on the effects Amazon had on Hachette, which is to say not allowing people to pre-order books from that publisher. Abbruzzese and Nelson reported that Amazon create a reliance on their system for large publishers. Small firm owners were ambivilant to Amazon, if Karen Christensen of Berkshire Publishing's account is any indicator, claiming that Amazon afected her "at least as much as they [were] affecting the big publishers"^^2^^. Authors attached to Hachette, such as fantasy author Brent Weeks claimed the conflict was damaging. Book store owners, such as Sarah McNally claim to not know how Amazon has changed in relation to their businesses according to Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly in the same year^^3^^. This was because small businesses had already been squeezed by major booksellers like Barnes and Noble for years prior.
In 2016, Aaron Pressman of Fortune.com confirmed assertions made by Chace four years prior. E-books are "more profitable for publishers because they cost less to create and distribute, and they aren’t subject to returns"^^4^^. Pressman also asserts that the perceived value of e-books has changed amongst customers, and that this has driven down sales in recent years.
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the [[Digital]] hub
^^1^^: Zoe Chase. "E-Books Destroying Traditional Publishing? The Story's Not That Simple". //NPR//. December 27 2012. Accessed December 14 2016. http://www.npr.org/2012/12/27/168068655/e-books-destroying-traditional-publishing-the-storys-not-that-simple
^^2^^: Jason Abbruzzese and Katie Nelson. “How Amazon Brought Publishing to Its Knees – and Why Authors Might Be Next. //Mashable//. July 30 2014. Accessed December 14 2016. http://mashable.com/2014/07/30/amazon-has-killed-publishers-they-just-dont-know-it-yet/#_JFwnbl0.uqo
^^3^^: Calvin Reid. "Amazon's Impact on Publishing? It's Complicated". //Publishers Weekly//. October 30 2014. Accessed December 14 2016. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/64563-amazon-s-impact-on-publishing-it-s-complicated.html
^^4^^: Aaron Pressman. “Here’s Why E-Book Sales From Major Publishers Are Plummeting”. //Fortune//. July 11 2016. Accessed December 14, 2016. http://fortune.com/2016/07/11/ebook-amazon-publishers/
This page will serve as an exposé on the profiles of these companies to inform readers of who is in control of the market at present.
According to an article from 2013, Jeremy Greenfield of //Forbes//^^1^^ lists the following sources of electronically published books as their top five producers that year:
Penguin Random House at 478 Best Sellers
Hachette Book Group at 258 Best Sellers
Self-Published authors at 99 Best Sellers
HarperCollins at 91 Best Sellers
Simon & Schuster at 72 Best Sellers
Of these top five, four are members of the so-called "Big Five"^^2^^ English language book publishers. The missing fifth member is Macmillan, who is ranked sixth on this particular data set.
Penguin Random House is a conglomorate of several smaller companies under one label, with several major texts having marked their place in the market across history (a recent example of success is E.L. James' //Fifty Shades// trilogy, which "sold 70 million copies"^^3^^. They claimto have taken a leading position in self-publishing following the purchase of Author Solutions, Inc in 2012^^3^^. In 2013, Penguin merged with Random House, further growing its repertory of texts.
The Hachette Book Group is a global publishing corporation based in France^^4^^. They make a claim of publishing over 900 adult books per year, over 250 for young readers, and 400 audiobook titles. Hachette publishes famous authors such as Sandra Brown, Stephanie Meyer, Jeffery Deaver, J.K. Rowling, and Nicholas Sparks, among many others with the mission to "publish great books well".
HarperCollins is headquartered in New York City and boasts itself as the "house of Mark Twain, the Bronte sisters, Thackeray, Dickens, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, and Margart Wise Brown"^^5^^. Their interests for publications are wide ranging, touching on all genres of book which may be found in a bookstore. The company claims to use "digital technology to create unique reading experiences and expand the reach of its authors"^^5^^.
Simon & Schuster is owned by CBS Corporation and publishes approximately 2000 titles annually. They make sales in over 250 non-English speaking territories and over 18000 ebooks available. Simon & Schuster are the notable publisher of Stephen King, Ruth Ware, and Bill Clegg. Their demographics are all reaching. Belonging to CBS, Simon & Schuster have partnerships with many of CBS's affiliates (such as AOL and YouTube) and properties (such as //Star Trek// and //CSI//)^^6^^.
Not on this top 5 list is Amazon, an online marketplace who has its feet in the book publication business, as well as in the production of audiobooks since 2008^^7^^ with its subsidiary Audible.
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the [[Digital]] hub
Proceed to [[Self-Publishing]] for more details on that market
^^1^^: Jeremy Greenfield. "Top Five Ebook Publishers in 2013". December 30 2013. //Forbes//. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremygreenfield/2013/12/30/top-five-ebook-publishers-in-2013/#132ba5ed65d1. Accessed December 11 2016.
^^2^^: Valerie Peterson. "The Big Five Trade Book Publishers". July 10 2016. https://www.thebalance.com/the-big-five-trade-book-publishers-2800047. Accessed December 12 2016.
^^3^^: Penguin Random House. "Company History: 2012" http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/company-history/. Accessed December 13 2016.
^^4^^: Hachette. "About Us". http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/about/. Accessed December 13 2016.
^^5^^: HarperCollins. "Company Profile". http://www.harpercollins.ca/about-us/company-profile. Accessed December 13 2016.
^^6^^: Simon & Schuster. "Corporate Overview". http://about.simonandschuster.biz/corporate-overview/. Accessed December 13 2016.
^^7^^: Audible. "Our Mission". http://about.audible.com/. Accessed December 13 2016.
A question which arose during the initial pitch of this project was what the contemporary process towards publication with so many changes in publication. The logical first step is writing what is desired to be published. The National Novel Writing Month non-profit organization sets a novel at a minimum of 50,000^^1^^ words, so for the sake of this project's concerns, this would be a good target.
What comes next is up for debate. Simmons suggests researching the the markets by browsing stores and seeing how the gears of the publishing industry turn^^2^^. The Bloomsbury Publishing house uses terminology which would suggest having a literary agent or Commissioning Editor ^^3^^ is the first step before even beginning to think about writing. Consultations on deadlines and the acquisition of copyright permissions is also said to be essential by Bloomsbury before the writing even begins.
Simmons remarks that most major publishing houses do no accept unsolicited manuscripts^^2^^, or a manuscript without someone from within the industry supporting it, like an agent. According to the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association, there are a variety of ways publishers accept manuscripts, be they solicited or not^^4^^.
Whether or not a manuscript is accepted regardless of solicitation, the editorial process is where a publisher determines whether or not the text will be published. An author should direct their manuscript toward a publisher who is known to publish their materials. Afterall, a cookbook would not likely be accepted by a known fantasy publisher like Tor Books. Editors, according to Simmons, usually "request minor rewrites or reworks" which the author must commit to in order to continue along the path towards getting published.
Once the editors have taken the manuscript in, Bloomsbury comments that their process involves copy-editing, typesetting, proof-reading, revision, and final corrections, among other genre specific edits^^3^^.
The production stage involves the creation of physical media. This phase, according to Atlantic Books involves "designing, proofreading, and printing"^^4^^. Simmons and Bloomsbury are in accord, generally, with this process. What follows this production is the business portion. Books are shipped to warehouses^^3^^, from which they will be delivered to stores and be sold.
Self-publishing meanwhile offers a different route from conventional publishing processes in order to enter the traditional market. As Jamie FitzGerald from the Poets and Writers organization states, "Many authors self-publish with the hope of eventually getting a traditional book deal"^^5^^. FitzGerald cites the example of Sergio De La Pava's //A Naked Singularity// in his text, however other examples, such as Andy Weir's //The Martian// and Lisa Genova's //Still Alice// began as self-published titles that were later picked up major publishers.
Return to the [[Nexus]]
Return to the [[Digital]] hub
See who the current [[Big Players]] in publishing are
Explore a brief history of [[Self-Publishing]]
^^1^^: "About". //National Novel Writing Month.// http://nanowrimo.org/about. Accessed December 14 2016.
^^2^^: Jerry D. Simmons. "Publishing 101: What You Need to Know". September 22 2009. http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/business-legal-matters/publishing-101-what-you-need-to-know. Accessed December 14 2016.
^^3^^: Bloomsbury Publishing. "A Guide to the Publishing Process". http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/academic/for-authors/a-guide-to-the-publishing-process/. Accessed December 14 2016.
^^4^^Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association. "The Publishing Process". http://atlanticbookstoday.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Publishing-Process.pdf. Accessed December 14 2016.
^^5^^Jamie FitzGerald. "Notable Moments in Slef-Publishing History: A Timeline". November/December 2013. www.pw.org/content/notable_moments_in_selfpublishing_history_a_timeline. December 13 2016.
Twine is an excellent resource for telling a story, connecting cells or instances to one another by way of coding pathways between them. One of the reasons I switched to Twine was due to the subject matter of this research project. As an aspiring novelist, the story of how books are made is a topic very close to me. As a gamer, the gamification of learning has made the experience easier for me since I was in primary school. Twine embodies both of these aspects in the way it presents material. When I saw how Twine creates pathways between individual blocks of text, I saw how it might work in old text-based adventure games and I began thinking of how the structure of my research would look as a digital exhibit. In my mind, each page representing a categorical hub in my research (presented as pre-Industrial, Industrial, and Electronic in my exhibit) was more like an entire wing in a building, and each subtopic box represented a different room to be navigated. I programmed pathways (or hallways, or doors, depending on how one sees the design of the museum) between each room for visitors to travel between and learn about the history of publishing.
What made Twine a more interesting tool than Omeka was the user-friendly instructions within the program and the accessible nature of the program. Omeka felt very in depth, and cannot be faulted for its level of customization, however it is an extremely complex system where even the tutorials feel overwhelming, at least as far as this project is concerned. I began by attempting to create a Neatline through Omeka to chart the changes in publishing but the proposed templates did not fit my vision for the end product. Further, compared to the standard Omeka exhibit structure, the interactive nature of Twine facilitated the exploration of the topic at hand. I made certain that some blocks of information connect to others, and that each block could refer back to citations if visitors are so inclined to see them. Even this reflection on the creation of the exhibit is present in the final product.
The sources I selected were made largely out of convenience and a lack of other possibilities. Notably, biographical information on some of the inventors appears to be absent from reliable sources. Extremely unreliable, but necessary inclusions for the sake of conjecture have been marked on the appropriate pages. Among the toughest cases of unreliable information came not from bad sources but from conflicts. The Gutenberg Press apparently created anywhere from two, to twenty-five, to two hundred fifty impressions per hour according to various sources, which made discussing the press’ functionality difficult. Many primary sources on the machines (these being patent documents in particular) possess confusing vernacular which turned out to have very little in the way of useful information for the purposes of the research at hand. Many of the newer topics (the “Electronic” sections) lack detailed research and are primarily opinion based. Such information will no doubt come into the gaze of academic interest in the coming years, but in the present moment are lacking in reliable peer-reviewed sources. This is a major fault in the foundation of the project at large regardless of which platform it would be constructed on.
In sum, Twine helps me as a researcher present history in organized categories much in the way that other exhibiting sites do. What Twine allows is some added creativity and gamification of learning, which would be helpful to me as a student of any field, but especially where the presentation of facts is concerned. By creating a game out of the history of publishing, students and other interested parties may explore the museum of my thought process at their own pace without ever getting lost. Twine helps write history like a narrative one may follow from one era to the next, from one sub-topic to another. A major drawback to the program is it does not allow the incorporation of images, however there are dozens of online publishing history exhibits which are formatted like a standard website. There are no gamified experiences like my exhibit.
I will be making this exhibit public in order to continue my research on the topic as well as to collect feedback from others. Even if this project goes on to be disliked by visitors, I will be able to learn why. If I had the funding, such an exhibit would be very interesting to see in the rising trend of virtual reality visible at the end of 2016. The application of the many wings and rooms found in the Twine exhibit made visible in digital space would represent another trend in evolving publishing technologies.
If I had had more time, this exhibit would have been further gamified to reflect a text-based adventure game like Colossal Cave Adventure. This may still happen in my personal time outside of the course this was created for.
[[Nexus]]
A number of topics in the exploration of the history of publishing and the historical expansion of literacy do not fit into any given historical period. For these auxilliary materials, this small hub has been created.
Explore the [[Changes in Literacy]] in each of these time periods
Explore the effects of the printing presses on the [[Newspaper Industry]]
Explore a brief history of [[Self-Publishing]]