Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Tables
- Note on the Text
- 1 Economics and the Flowering of the British Short Story
- 2 The Business of Authorship
- 3 How Much Money Does an Author Need?
- 4 Publishing Conditions in England, 1880–1950
- 5 Authors’ Careers: The Development of the Short Story in Britain, 1880–1914
- 6 Short Stories and the Magazines
- 7 Magazines’ Restraints on Art in the Service of Commerce
- 8 Short Stories in Book Form
- 9 Sales of Short Story Collections and Novels
- 10 First Editions, Limited Editions and Manuscripts
- 11 The British Short Story and its Reviewers
- 12 Vitality and Variety in the British Short Story, 1915–50
- 13 Art and Commerce in the British Short Story
- Chronology
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
4 - Publishing Conditions in England, 1880–1950
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Tables
- Note on the Text
- 1 Economics and the Flowering of the British Short Story
- 2 The Business of Authorship
- 3 How Much Money Does an Author Need?
- 4 Publishing Conditions in England, 1880–1950
- 5 Authors’ Careers: The Development of the Short Story in Britain, 1880–1914
- 6 Short Stories and the Magazines
- 7 Magazines’ Restraints on Art in the Service of Commerce
- 8 Short Stories in Book Form
- 9 Sales of Short Story Collections and Novels
- 10 First Editions, Limited Editions and Manuscripts
- 11 The British Short Story and its Reviewers
- 12 Vitality and Variety in the British Short Story, 1915–50
- 13 Art and Commerce in the British Short Story
- Chronology
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
In 1880 the publishing conditions in Britain could best be described as traditional, even a bit sleepy. Triple-decker novels and lending libraries like Mudie's that purchased them still controlled most of the market for new fiction, while the periodical market was dominated by holdovers like Blackwood's (1817–1980), the less staid Belgravia (1866–99), Chamber's Edinburgh Journal (1832–1956), Cornhill (1860–1975), Good Words (1860–1906), Macmillan's (1859–1907) and Temple Bar (1860–1906). Change was already evident, however, in the form of George Newnes’ Tit-Bits (1881–1984), the profusely illustrated Illustrated London News (1842–present), the English Illustrated Magazine (1883–1913) and the lively Boy's Own Paper (1879–1967). The movement was away from the print-heavy, largely non-fiction content of the established journals toward lighter articles and fiction – both serial novels and short stories. As this chapter will later demonstrate, new magazines sprang up in the 1890s following the success of the Strand (1891–1950), opening up huge new markets for authors.
Meanwhile, the spread of education created new demands for inexpensive and largely sensational fiction; as a result, both the novel itself and its three-volume incarnation were under huge pressures:
Signs were plentiful that artists of all kinds could not presume forever upon the public's patience as an age of increasing hurry generated competing demands upon people's attention. The vogue for short stories was already pointing the way, and when the triple-decker novel was finally challenged, it tumbled to the ground with startling suddenness. Between 1894 and 1895 the publication of three-volume novels fell from 184 to fifty-two; in 1896 it halved again, to twenty-five; and in 1897 only four were published. The coup de grace had been administered by the run-away success of one best-seller, Hall Caine's The Manxman, issued in one volume in 1894, priced 6s., although other authors who had had titles published in this format – George Moore, A Mummer's Wife (1885), and Rider Haggard, She (1886) – subsequently would claim a supporting or starring role in this victory.
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- Art and Commerce in the British Short Story, 1880–1950 , pp. 35 - 50Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014