Wie Verleger denken. Eine Wissensgeschichte des Verlegens im viktorianischen Zeitalter (1840-1900)

Victorian publishers and publishing firms played a key role in organizing and financing the production and distribution of printed books, periodicals and newspapers during the 19th century. However, besides some case studies, there is very little research on their particular practices, their reasoning, and, finally, the ways by which they mediated and intervened in the publication of texts. This study, therefore, sheds light on the publishers’ ‹way of thinking› (Fleck: Denkstil) by analysing seven hand-books published between 1840 and 1900 which introduced young and inexperienced authors to the mysteries of the book market. For Victorian contemporaries, these hand-books offered guidelines for publishing their works as they served as repositories of publishers’ knowledge. Based on a history of knowledge approach, I show three central corner-stones of the publishers’ thought and rationality: firstly, risk management as the axiomatic idea of publishing; secondly, optionality within a relatively stable technological and social workflow; and, thirdly, the methodological production of ‹paratexts› (Genette) which enabled and documented the publication of texts. Furthermore, I demonstrate how at the end of the century, publishers’ arcane knowledge and expertise was increasingly contested by The Society of Authors whose representatives, namely Walter Besant, challenged the hegemonic status of the publishers’ knowledge. This controversy culminated in a debate which was held at the end of 1892 and the beginning of 1893 in the ‹Letters to the Editor› section of The Athenæum. By analysing this debate and the publishers’ and authors’ reasoning, I elaborate on late-Victorian discussions about transparency and open access to the publishers’ knowledge. By focussing on publishers, their practices and knowledge, this study contributes to the wide ranging historical and literary scholarship on Victorian print culture and provides a historical contextualisation of recent debates on economisation and the future of publishing.