The simplest way to distribute a printed work is for an author to deliver
copies of his or her own work directly to the reader. This method has always
been the favoured or desperate last resort of some. (Examples of self
publishing, which may include distribution, are to be found elsewhere in
this book.) However, even before the invention of printing, the chain of
textual transmission linking author and reader was lengthened by the
bringing in of intermediaries. In the early days of printing the tasks of
production and distribution could still be managed by one person not the
author, typically the master printer, who would commission the author,
employ the production workers, and oversee distribution, wholesale and
retail. In the small colonial societies of 19th-century New Zealand this
comparative lack of specialisation remained operative long after it had gone
out in metropolitan centres overseas. However, by the early years of the
20th century the divisions of function which are now the commercial norm
were becoming distinct, in line with practice in larger economies overseas.
Under the broad heading of
distribution are considered three topics, large in themselves: bookselling,
libraries, and book buying and book collecting. Space allotted to these
reflects not so much their importance as the amount and quality of scholarly
work devoted to them: bookselling and book buying in particular have been
relatively little studied.
Bookselling , the trade concerned with the distribution of printed
works, is likewise conveniently considered under three heads. First comes a
survey of patterns of historical change. For instance, the small mixed
business of the mid 19th century had a century later evolved into the
specialist bookshop or been overtaken by the spread of national chains.
Secondly, the people in the trade are remembered, some for their exceptional
drive or devotion to the printed word. Finally, trade regulation in its
various aspects—import licensing for one—is dealt with.
Booksellers have to cope more than many other sellers of goods with social
and political as well as economic pressures, notoriously those to do with
censorship.
Libraries of many kinds obviously have a distinct function among the
processes of dissemination. The ratepayer-funded public libraries, for
instance, by collecting and making available a range of printed and other
materials to all members of their communities, at little or no charge to
individual users, serve cultural rather than strictly commercial values.
These institutions were for the most part 20th-century creations. Their
19th-century forerunners were the Athenaeums and Mechanics' Institutes,
which have a fascinating history of their own.
Book
buyers and book collectors are the most obvious recipients of
print. However, it should not be forgotten that our letterboxes are witness
to a never-ending stream of ephemeral material, usually unsolicited. Book
collectors are important to historians because in these remarkable few may
be detected the inclination of countless common readers, less visible,
financially less well-endowed, and less obsessive. The collections built up
by such as Alexander Turnbull have a value to society as a whole. They
usually are opened to others while still in private ownership, and after the
owner's death may be bequeathed to institutions. Collections, even if
dispersed, may be reconstructed from sale or book auction catalogues. The
commercial agents who serve the collection builders, and the societies of
like-minded book lovers also deserve attention.
