Victorians! discussion

Some years ago I lost my copy of Anthony Trollope’s “The Last Chronicle of Barset” and I went to a bookstore to get a fresh copy. There were none on the shelves, but they eventually found me a copy. It cost about $ 15. A few months later I bought a Kindle and discovered that I could download the eBook version of this book for free.

There are voluntary, non-profit organisations that have uploaded 19th century and some early 20th century books into the internet that can be downloaded free. They are books in the public domain. You can even download free, audio versions of many of these books.

Though many might like to read off physical books, can they afford this luxury when eBooks are available for free? Hence, the demand for physical books that are in the public domain will diminish and it may become economically unfeasible for publishers to print these books.

Hence, the big question: will Victorian books soon go out of print?

Terrence wrote: "Hence, the big question: will Victorian books soon go out of print? "

From CNN Money one day ago:
New data suggest that the reading public is ditching e-books and returning to the old fashioned printed word.

Sales of consumer e-books plunged 17% in the U.K. in 2016, according to the Publishers Association. Sales of physical books and journals went up by 7% over the same period, while children's books surged 16%.

The same trend is on display in the U.S., where e-book sales declined 18.7% over the first nine months of 2016, according to the Association of American Publishers. Paperback sales were up 7.5% over the same period, and hardback sales increased 4.1%.

"The print format is appealing to many and publishers are finding that some genres lend themselves more to print than others and are using them to drive sales of print books," said Phil Stokes, head of PwC's entertainment and media division in the U.K.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/27/media...

For me it's not so much that the books are going out of print as it is that hardback copies are going out of print. Most everything in the classics realm is paperback, which is harder for me to read. I love hardback books, but they're getting harder and harder to find outside of the best seller lists.

This may have no relevance to the topic but my 3rd graders choose print books over ebooks most of the time. Some of that is because my classroom library (about 1,500 books) is entirely print books (organized into genre baskets) and the school library has mostly print copies (with 6 iPads for research). But students have the option of bringing their e-readers in for pleasure reading, book reports, etc. Resoundingly, they don't. Other than in September when it's a novelty.

Similarly, they have access to laptops 3 days a week in the classroom, but seem just as happy getting information from my dinosaur set of encyclopedias on alternate days. There's still something wonderful about turning pages... And stumbling on interesting things in the process.

As to Victorian books, I do both. I own print copies for when I have the time to indulge in the page; ebooks and audio for the school-year.

Although, you're making me question when was the last time I actually purchased a physical copy of something originally printed before 1900. That's it... I need to but a copy of something Gaskell!!

Terrence wrote: "Some years ago I lost my copy of Anthony Trollope’s “The Last Chronicle of Barset” and I went to a bookstore to get a fresh copy. There were none on the shelves, but they eventually found me a copy..."

It is an odd question. Do you mean in print as in a "major publisher" or small niche publishers where much can be printed on demand. I presume the former?

Couldn't one argue that most of the books published/read during the Victorian era went OOP long ago? It is not a recent issue. Only specific authors/works (or rather the ones viewed worthy to be printed) remain in print. This is most likely due to status/"fame" or being profitable. Dover did a great job for a few authors (e.g. Wilkie Collins or Trollope) in the late 20th century, but most of those republications are now OOP. I suspect that most works from e.g. George Moore , George Gissing, and other Victorian authors have been OOP for a very long time. Even the great Trollope's books are OOP apart from the "main works". The iconic John Ruskin's work have been OOP for a very long time. In contrast almost all of George Eliot's books remain in print and probably will for a long time to come. It is always interesting to ponder why certain books remain in print while other disappear. This is not a unique phenomen for the Victorian realm. The majority of books disappear into being OOP relatively quickly. I suspect that modern novels will face a similar fate.

It is easy to fall into the overall debate between print vs. digital (e.g. this BBC article: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160...), but I think your question points to the more interesting realm of how some books "travel" through time. Why are some books reprinted while others are neglected? The question goes way back in time. Why did specific book of e.g. Livy or the Greek dramas survive the journey? Is it sheer luck in those latter cases or were some specifically selected for being copied over and over due to content? What about the Victorian ones? Why is all of Eliot in print while Ruskin is virtually all gone?

PS! Should on demand printing count as being in print?

I've moved this discussion to General Chat where I think it will be better served. Thank you for understanding.

Renee wrote: "Although, you're making me question when was the last time I actually purchased a physical copy of something originally printed before 1900.!"

And I have to question when the last time was I actually purchased a copy of something originally printed after 1980.

Well, at one point all one's rooms are completely filled with books and one's significant other will block any serious attempt to bring additional books into the house. Is this what happened to you in 1980, Everyman?

Haaze wrote: "Well, at one point all one's rooms are completely filled with books and one's significant other will block any serious attempt to bring additional books into the house. Is this what happened to you..."

No. I got married and my priorities for what to spend money on changed.

I have a lot of hard and soft cover physical books from the past. I only use my Kindle when I am travelling (I have about 300 emergency books on it, in case I go off for a night or a weekend).

The last physical book I got was a Trollope: _The Vicar of Bullhampton_. More and more I have to go to ABE, a wonderful site, to pick up older books. And I got a copy (in-print) of _Esther Waters_.

My local library has taken to weeding out anything that's more than a few years old unless it is read in the high school curriculum. What viciousness!

I buy as much new poetry as I can afford if I've read a sample of the author's work and like his or her style.

Natalie wrote: "My local library has taken to weeding out anything that's more than a few years old unless it is read in the high school curriculum. What viciousness! "

Evil!! It seems like many school libraries (6-8) are culling their collections as well - huge emphasis on comics and manga.

Natalie wrote: "My local library has taken to weeding out anything that's more than a few years old unless it is read in the high school curriculum. What viciousness! ."

Does that mean that they're dumping most of the Great Books of the Western World and the Harvard Five Foot Shelf? Most of Dickens, all of Milton, all of the Restoration poets, almost all of Wordsworth, all of Aristotle, Plato, Herodotus, Euripides, Sophocles (except maybe Antigone or Oedipus Rex), all of Shakespeare except maybe Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Julius Caesar?

What is there left to read???

I've been trying to find some statistics of the market share of book genres. It is harder to find than I thought! But from the little that I saw, classics make up about 7% - does this ring true for those of you in the know? Now the Victorian era is only a slice of this. Plus, the book industry churns out more new titles/products than just about any other industry in any given year. No wonder "dusty old titles" get lost in the shuffle.

I find it disheartening that even Penguin seems not to be publishing as much as they used to. Whenever I look up titles on Amazon there is a sizable share that one can only get from third-party sellers.

The problem with keeping books available for long periods is that publishers have to pay taxes every year on their unsold inventory, so if books aren't selling very well, it's cheaper to remainder them than to keep them in stock. Which is why the second hand book market is often the way to find new books -- they buy the remainders and since each one only has a small number of copies, and the value is pretty cheap since they bought them at remainder, it doesn't cost them much to carry them until sold.

Everyman wrote: "The problem with keeping books available for long periods is that publishers have to pay taxes every year on their unsold inventory, so if books aren't selling very well, it's cheaper to remainder ..."

Oh for crying out loud! Another reason we need a tax overhaul - badly... It is this kind of trickle-down stuff that affects the consumer negatively without him ever knowing it.

We are lucky to have a really good used book store in town, they have a huge selection of classics - though I always figured it was because of the university. Now you are adding another wrinkle, that they buy the remainders of other bookstores. Makes sense!