AustLit

'The "long eighteenth century" is a familiar designation in the fields of historical and literary studies, and it is a concept with particular resonance for bibliography and the history of the book. Physical bibliography in the Greg-Bowers tradition has foregrounded the practices of the hand-press period, which counts the "long eighteenth century" as both its twilight and its period of most intense activity. In many ways, scholarly interest in print culture and the history of the book has followed the contours established by bibliographical scholars. The recent Cambridge History of the Book in Britain provides a case in point: the latter volumes of the series seem to be dominated by a protuberant eighteenth century (Vol. 5, 1695-1830), producing a shorter view of the nineteenth (Vol. 6, 1830-1914), which in turn impinges on the territory of the (as yet uncompleted) seventh volume on the twentieth century.' (Authors introduction)

'Publishing in Australia from the late nineteenth century and through much of the twentieth century was relatively haphazard, but nevertheless entrepreneurial. Arguably, publishers in the trade sector achieved their successes less through planning than through luck. This was not the case with educational publishing, where publishers had to work closely with educators and curriculum authorities in order to produce textbooks that met market needs. Peter Donoughue, former managing director of John Wiley in Australia, has observed that "educational publishing is usually thought of as the unglamorous side of the industry."1 It is also an aspect of the publishing sector that has remained largely invisible to public eyes'. (Author's introduction)

Following its introduction to Australia in 2000, the Nielsen BookScan sales tracking system has revolutionised the ways in which bestseller lists are created and communicated to the public. The transition to the BookScan system has marked a shift from partially intuitive modes of assessing consumer behaviour to a greater rationalisation of the consultative methods employed by the Australian book industry, characterised by the constant generation of sales data. With unprecedented precision, BookScan bestseller lists have revealed the comparatively poor sales of Australian literary fiction, against the more robust rankings of genre fiction, prompting claims that BookScan is hastening the demise of Australian literature.' (Author's introduction)