By Geoff Hoff
The history of publishing is a long and crooked one. People have written books for as long as people have written. Originally, to “publish” a book meant to have it hand-copied, and there were whole monastic orders that were dedicated to that craft. Each copy of the book was an original work of exquisite art. Since few could actually read, this seemed the way to do it. This is, of course, the ultimate “self-publishing.”
“Gutenberg bible” page (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Then people began carving plates in order to print the pages so that each copy looked like every other, and more copies could be printed. This was the way of it until Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press, produced the first “mass produced” books, which, among other things, included an edition of the Bible.
Fast forward to the late 1800s and early 1900s, when there were actually publishing companies. Several prominent authors still published their own work, but it was starting to be Continue reading
