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I have studied the history of books as cultural objects for over half my life. I have read countless records of publication runs, reviews, & more. And yet I continue to be tripped up every so often by the fact that my own next books are, y’know, products.

Dr. Emily Friedman

@ecfriedman.com

Apropos to the Pride & Prejudice-palooza we’re having right now thanks to @trungles.com — it is also a weird specific fuckery to think that my next books will have starting print runs more than the first edition of P&P did in 1813 — and indeed ANY of Austen’s novels in her lifetime.

24/7/26, 4:03 pm5 reposts44 likes

Gordon McAlpin

@gmcalpin.bsky.social

26 July

randomly: as a book designer, it embarrasses me that I have no real clue how many books a printer & binder can produce of a book in (say) a single week today vs. how many a book printer could produce in the early 1800s, and if anyone knows a good book on that i would be VERY interested and grateful