A Short History of [Self] Publishing by Kathleen Jones
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there were no publishers. This may come as a terrible shock, but until only a little while ago, everyone published their own books. When the book was first invented, there wasn't any alternative; you copied them out by hand on papyrus or animal skins, or inscribed them onto clay tablets, or carved them into rock. The modern printed paper book, as we know it, started back in 1456 when Gutenberg turned out the first bible. For several hundred years after that, there were only printers - no publishers, no agents. No middle-man at all. You just wrote your book and took it down the road to your friendly printing press. Which was sometimes operated by women! You had to have money, of course, to pay the printer, but if you knew lots of people you could do a bit of crowd sourcing and get all your friends and family to stump up the money for the book in advance and it was called Subscription Publishing. It was ...