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2018 Annual Seminar - Authors, Publishers, Serialisation, Readers - 6

Dates
Monday, April 16, 2018 - 17:30 to 19:00
Location
Room 243, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

 

The Open University History of Books and Reading (HOBAR) Research Group with the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London

2018 annual joint seminar series: ‘Authors, Publishers, Serialisation, Readers’

Serialisation has often been the neglected step-child of the publishing process, seen by many simply as a means to earn money rather than critical esteem, often viewed as a rapidly produced, provisional and ephemeral version rather than the definitive ‘book’ produced for posterity. Indeed, bibliographers, the trade in first editions and rare books, and public perceptions of cultural and material value have often lead us to think of authors only as authors of great books. But what of the highly productive work of publication in serial form? How did authors negotiate contracts for serialisation with their publishers? How did serialisation shape the perception of a literary work in the minds of readers? To what extent is serialisation the prime mode for readers’ engagement with texts? How has technology and the digital changed the dynamics of serialisation? This seminar series looks at the complex and productive relationship between authors, publishers and serialisation as a primary mode of reaching audiences from the 19th century to the present day. It also seeks to examine the phenomenon of ‘series, serials, and serialization’ more broadly. How did readers respond to the literary series, and in which reading environments were books in series consumed? What was the relationship between readers, periodicals, and their publishers?

Title:   Authors and the value of serial publication at the end of the nineteenth century

Speaker:   Andrew Nash (IES/SAS, University of London)

This paper will discuss the market for serial fiction in newspapers and periodicals in the late nineteenth century in the context of the economics of authorship. The expansion of the serial market in 1870s and 1880s coincided with the emergence of the professional literary agent, and, in 1883, the founding of the Society of Authors. By assessing the careers of a representative sample of writers, this paper will discuss the value of the serial market to authors of the period, and sketch out some of the contractual arrangements under which they worked.

Andrew Nash is Reader in Book History and Deputy Director of the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

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