Lessons from the Nineteenth Century: The Importance of Book Subscriptions

The competition for publishers becomes fiercer every day. To ensure that people will buy more books, new initiatives are always considered. However, the past should not be forgotten. During the nineteenth century, the answer to turning reading potential into a reading audience was book series. Book subscriptions are the modern equivalent, but not many publishers in The Netherlands are offering this service. To see whether book subscriptions could be successful, this thesis compares the reading culture of the nineteenth century to the twenty-first. By considering reading and production potential, obstacles, the concept of book series and book subscriptions, and the effects of these initiatives, from both the reader’s and publisher’s side, a comparison can be made between the two centuries. This thesis argues that book subscriptions are very suitable for the twenty-first century and could motivate people in The Netherlands to read more, which is supported by the many similarities to...Show moreThe competition for publishers becomes fiercer every day. To ensure that people will buy more books, new initiatives are always considered. However, the past should not be forgotten. During the nineteenth century, the answer to turning reading potential into a reading audience was book series. Book subscriptions are the modern equivalent, but not many publishers in The Netherlands are offering this service. To see whether book subscriptions could be successful, this thesis compares the reading culture of the nineteenth century to the twenty-first. By considering reading and production potential, obstacles, the concept of book series and book subscriptions, and the effects of these initiatives, from both the reader’s and publisher’s side, a comparison can be made between the two centuries. This thesis argues that book subscriptions are very suitable for the twenty-first century and could motivate people in The Netherlands to read more, which is supported by the many similarities to be found between the reading culture of this time period and of the nineteenth century, when a similar phenomenon, i.e. book series, was successful.Show less

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Lessons from the Nineteenth Century: The Importance of Book Subscriptions