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=Publishing in Victorian England=



Overview
The [|Industrial Revolution] of the mid 1700's to late 1800's brought population and social change to Victorian England. As the birthplace of the movement, Britain saw waves of immigration and emigration. Many Britons left the country in search of better work and living conditions, while others flocked to cities in the United Kingdom for whatever jobs they could find. This population influx created a larger market for media as the middle and upper class membership rose. Raw materials and finished products could then be transported in more efficient ways than ever before via steam locomotive railways. Electric telegraphs and the postal system opened new branches for communication. This, combined with the addition of mass production machines, increased the distribution of letters, advertisements, newspapers, and books. The myriad of small, hand-pressed centered workshops scattered across the country were soon replaced by [|relief and intaglio] printmaking machines that accommodated the rise in demand for printed media.

The Economy (population and working, price, etc)
Victorian England was a time of evolution for the country. With its iron ore and coal deposits, Britain was the center of the Industrial Revolution. As products became mass produced and readily available, //demand shot up alongside the need for machines in the work place.// These urban areas attracted many travelers from the country with their potential for work, higher education, and increased standard of living. As the quality of life continued to rise for the upper and middle classes who could afford the brand new products, there was soon a surplus of lower class workers. With too few jobs to accompany the rush of factory hands, working conditions plummeted. Any worker was easily replaced with another of any age, or even a machine in some cases, to do the life-threatening industrial work for an incredibly low wage. The region was soon overpopulated with the disease and pollution riddled lower class.

The Process
When an author decided to publish their work, communications amongst many different manufacturers were set into motion. A manuscript was sent to a typographer where, with paper and ink purchased from their respective manufacturers, the type was set and printed. These original manuscripts were rarely marked with designer specifications and edits. Depending on the scale of the work, type setting was sometimes divided among several compositors. This copy was then corrected and reprinted as a proof. Publishers were paid based on the amounts of type set, rather than hours worked, with fines for each mistake, so it was in their best interest to ensure quality and efficiency. On occasion, authors preferred to edit a proof two or three times before sending it off to a pressman. Presses set adjacent to one another made doubles of each page, cutting production time in half. With each letter on a separate, freestanding stamp, type often shifted between prints, resulting in some differenti ation between copies. If a specific work was expected to be in high demand and require a second printing, a plate would often be created from the press. By casting the types in plaster and filling it with lead, a metal plate was made from the mold. This form of printing, often called stereotype, was much faster than hand printing yet led to smaller pages due to the shrinkage of plaster as it hardened. These pages were then sent to a bindery where some were bound in cloth and others were bought to be bound and sold elsewhere.

The Printing Press in Action
media type="custom" key="25910286"

Genres/ Distribution

 * 'geography, travel, history, biography'
 * 'fiction and juvenile works'
 * 'poetry and drama'
 * 'misc'
 * newspapers, periodicals, magazines (story inserts
 * serialised fiction

References http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/victorian/pu_intro.html http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/victorian/pr_intro.html http://www.history.org.uk/resources/primary_resource_3871_134.html http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution http://char.txa.cornell.edu/media/print/print.htm http://www.victorianweb.org/index.html http://www.victorianweb.org/history/census.html http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/wmt/pegasus/ch5a.html#4

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/wmt/pegasus/ch5b.html https://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/victorian/review/summary.htm http://www.d.umn.edu/~csigler/Victorian.html http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/economics/index.html http://writersinspire.org/content/victorian-publishing-history http://www.unc.edu/~gundlach/pathfinder.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/victorianbritain_timeline_noflash.shtml

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/sochistov.html

Image sources http://thevictorianist.blogspot.com/2010/11/runaway-elephant-in-swindon-in-1861.html