The size of the provincial market, and its rapid expansion, were among the most compelling reasons why the London trade defended their historic position so vigorously. Their success, however, would have been in vain if they had been unable to supply that market. The failure of the London chapbook printers to retain their national market, exemplified by the vast provincial production of chapbooks, could have been an augury for the whole trade. It is true that for less popular literature the changeless economics of printing worked in favour of the Londoners; demand may have been national, but it was limited, so that for many books a single print run of 2,000 copies could satisfy the entire demand. On the other hand, to justify such print runs, and hence to achieve the cost benefits of mass-production, the London publishers had to reach a non-metropolitan audience as well as their local customers. This chapter investigates that process, central to an understanding of the country book trade. We shall follow a book from its publication and marketing to its arrival in the provincial shop, and seek to answer five basic questions. How did the provincials, booksellers and book buyers alike, discover what books were available? How and from whom were such books ordered, and on what terms were they supplied? Was there any mechanism for the central supply of books through wholesalers or others? How were books actually transported, and at whose expense? And, finally, how did books reach the country bookshops and their customers?

ADVERTISING

Advertising is the key to the widespread marketing of any product; books were, and are, no exception.