Regarding the communication between (1) readers, (2) readers and authors, (3) readers and publishers, (4) readers and editors (scholars), we may recognize ways and networks of communication such as correspondence (epistles), academies and later on reading societies, literary salons and book clubs. Bookstores and printing shops were also appointment places where scholars and readers met and discussed. We may also distinguish between scholarly communication and communication among readers of other kind of texts.

Furthermore, the book as product and commodity implies and presupposes a degree of reader participation and engagement; this was developed during Renaissance. Saenger (2006, p. 3) refers to textual engagements as ‘contemporary ways of understanding and marketing relations between readers and books’. We can add between readers and publishers as well. Saenger also noted that ‘recent critics have increasingly been aware that when it comes to tracing a text’s influence, we should look at its original printed state, rather than to our idea of what the author intended’ (2006, p. 22). Thus, the content and the aesthetic identity of the book, including paratext, are of particular value. The book, apart from being the best advertisement of itself during the first centuries of printing, was also a medium of information and potential interaction. Paratext played a key role. At the second chapter we outlined ways of information and interaction with readers regarding both verbal (prefaces, introductions, epistles, epilogues, dedicatory letters, poems) and visual (title pages, frontispieces, decoration, illustration, borders) paratext.

In Baroque Naples, the poet Giambattista Marino recognized as key value the satisfaction of the reading audience whose role prevailed. The poet had to develop the readers’ taste and meraviglia was mentioned as the way for this. Snyder (2005, p. 86) writes: ‘Marino argued that the ultimate judge of the success or failure of a given work was the public, whose favour the poet thus needed to cultivate. How? In a word, Marino explained, poetry was invention: for the invention of dazzling metaphors and concepts should produce meraviglia in the reader’s mind, and this intensely pleasurable emotion should in turn make the text and the poet irresistible for the reading public.’

In that framework, we will focus on the case of Pietro Aretino who had developed a specific and rather privileged relationship with his reading audience. Readers became a vivid and significant part not only of his work but also of his self-presentation and of the publicity and fame he aspired and finally achieved to gain. Aretino is considered among the first, or even the first, professional writer and as Eisenstein has pointed out he ‘made all his profit out of a compete publicity and in a certain sense may be considered the father of modern journalism’ (1983, p. 228). Certainly, Aretino ‘took advantage of the new publicity system’ so as to gain fame and profit. In his effort and strategy he empowered and enriched his relationship with the reading audience exploring the opportunities provided by the printed book and the publishing activity.

Aretino, in a letter to the humanist scholar Francesco Alunno in 1537, points out to his communication with his readers and name himself ‘secretary of the world’: ‘As a matter of fact, I do not believe that Rome itself even saw such a conglomeration of people of different nationalities as burst into my house... For that reason, I have come to the conclusion that I am an oracle of truth, since everybody hires me to relate the wrong done to him by this prince or that prelate’ (Folkerth, 2010, p. 69). The above, among others, highlights the direct communication between Aretino and his readers, and certainly his effort for self-presentation.

Furthermore, Aretino published his correspondence while still alive gaining thus fame by enlightening trends of his work and giving a portrait of himself alongside with the social and cultural issues of his era. We may recognize two addresses to his letters: (1) the original private addressees and (2) the wide reading audience. It is noteworthy that Aretino (Folkerth, 2010, p. 72) reminds in his letters that maybe they will be published one day transforming thus this ‘private’ way of correspondence and communication into a mass medium existing in a developing public sphere. The transformation of private into public, the relationship with his reading audience, the convergence of private and public and the introduction of a new mass medium which was the printed epistle are among the concepts to be identified. Terms of scholarly communication became thus terms of the popular reading audience and of public taste.

The publication of Aretino’s letters has to be studied in terms of transforming and sharing experience with the readers engaging them in the publishing chain and ‘patronage’ issues. The author is the creator who incorporates and transforms into a literary work the desires and needs of his audience further establishing the fame of himself. The reader is transformed into a member of the publishing community; it is noteworthy that: ‘rather, he publishes his private correspondence as a means of leveraging his claim to the support of wealthy patrons. By publishing letters to and about them Aretino gives his audience the opportunity to become complicit in these power relationships. Each reader can become a part of a public...’, according to Folkerth, (2010, pp. 70–71). Information sharing and reader engagement in complex environments further introduced new concepts in the publishing activity enabling readers of different kind of texts, not only of classic works or scholar texts, to form audiences and communities.

In that context, Aretino reinvented himself each time and certainly promoted his works. Furthermore, via the publication of his correspondence he exhibited his activity in a kind of storytelling. Beyond that, he introduced himself as a celebrity: celebrity of his time and for his readers. He was a professional writer with a variety of audiences and book markets. The printing activity provided Aretino the framework and the tools for being distinguished and gaining both fame and profit. Collaborating with the printer–publisher Francesco Marcolini in Venice in the first half of the 16th century, he reached in his lifetime a total of 151 editions (Waddington, 2004, p. 33) of different kind of texts. As the first poligrafo, published various works, some of which were considered to be pornographic and so to be censured (Waddington, 2004, p. xxii) giving though fame to him through other than the traditional roads. Moreover, ‘exposure is what Aretino traffics in; the public he calls into existence in his letters, and in many of his more popular works, is carefully developed to feed human curiosity…’ according to Folkerth (2010, p. 71). He was probably among the first to develop the public sphere in a globalized concept and to encourage the participation, emotional and psychological of his readers.

Through this procedure, readers felt that they participated in the publishing process. Aretino used this so as to obtain fame and profit but also to develop specific works. He is an illustrious example of how the private sphere becomes public, of how readers become involved before the web and the electronic platforms, of how networks are developed; this engagement of the readers created broader networks adding value to the traditional ones. In nowadays terms, we could say that Aretino gained feedback from his existing or potential readers adding thus value to his work; furthermore, he measured his audience of patrons so as to ask for specific patronage. He was promoting his work and profile to every category of readers gaining what he wanted: financial support, fame, money and recognizable profile. The publisher then had to exploit the opportunities created by the author. A letter to his publisher Francesco Marcolini refers to concepts of money, taste and fame. Aretino makes clear that he does not want profit from his readers: ‘I hope God will grant that the courtesy of princes rewards me for the labor of writing, and not the small change of book buyers; for I would rather endure every hardship than to prostitute me genius by making it a day labourer of the liberal arts’ (Folkerth, 2010, p. 70; Richardson, 1999, p. 91).

In that framework, Aretino’s letters and his strategies could be thought as an ancestor of blogs: direct communication, interactivity, dialogue and creation of networks are the main features. He used the epistles/letters so as to obtain a recognizable profile spreading his fame in the popular reading audience; he also exhibited the fact that his work was appreciated by wealthy patrons who paid for it. Readers had the privilege of reading his precious and estimated work at the price of a copy; even better, readers had the privilege to communicate with him and feel that they participated in the process. Understanding the categories of the reading audience, Aretino applied to all of them (patrons, scholars, wide-popular reading audience) with different strategies encouraging further support or participation from them.

The above enable us to understand and explain the developing Renaissance networks bringing to light complex aspects and relations: Communication with readers, scholar networks, public taste, patronage, the role of the author, power and expression, patterns of prestige, terms of ‘social media’, information sharing, developing networks, convergence of private and public space, even convergence of media as shown in Scheme 3.1.

Inevitably, networks of people were created as reading and consumer cultures developed. It is noteworthy that Aretino in his early works (La cortigiana, Il marescalco) encouraged the interaction and relationship with the public with the aim to get feedback: ‘the audience should ultimately relate more to the author himself, directly, than to the characters who are his puppets’ recognized Aretino (Waddington, 2004, p. 49).

Certainly, self-presentation that almost reaches exaggeration and narcissism has to be counted among Aretino’s features: ‘I have made every Duke, Prince and Monarch that there is pay tribute to my genius. Since my shop is the place where men from every corner of the globe buy fame.’ (Folkerth, 2010, p. 71). But beyond this, he created a culture of convergence and of participation at an early stage. The web nowadays has been considered a public sphere (Papacharissi, 2015) in which convergence plays a key role. This convergence among private and public as well as among localized and globalized was a concept in Aretino’s strategies and aims too. New information technologies have changed, even transformed, the media audiences nowadays (Napoli, 2011), but the roots of this transformation may be recognized in the globalized world of Renaissance.

Accetto, a member of the Academia degli Oziosi in Baroque Naples, wrote and published his work in a much interesting and challenging place and era. Between the lines of his treatise the social, economic, cultural and political conditions of Baroque Naples in the mid-17th century may be traced and recognized. Under the Spanish dominion, governed by the Viceroy and the Council of Italy, Naples was one of the largest cities in Europe, an economic centre in which convergence of politics and cultures can be counted among the key features.

The author himself recognized that his treatise Della dissimulazione onesta was revised and developed years before its publication in the Academia of the Oziosi (Girolamo, 2000): ‘ha un anno ch’ era questo trattato tre volte piu’ che quanto ora si vede, e cio’ e noto a molti; e s’io avessi voluto piu differire il darlo alla stampa, sarebbe stata via di ridurlo a nulla’ (a year ago this treatise was three times larger than it is now, and many know this; and if I had wanted to differ further its publication, this would have been a way to reduce it to nothing; Snyder, 2005, p. 95). We may wonder if the laconic, even ‘minimalistic’ style of his work may be attributed to this. At the first edition of 1641, ‘nella stampa di Egizio Longo’, the 93 paged text was printed in 12° and it is noteworthy that did not have a dedication to any patron.

Accetto admits that the success of his work was not the desirable one. It is also of interest that he names in his text ‘public taste’: ‘Dopo ogni sforzo di ben servir al gusto pubblico, io conosco di non aver questo, ne altro valore, e solo ho speranza che sara gradita la volonta’ (after [making] every effort to serve well the public’s taste, I know I do not have either this or any other value, and I only hope that my intent will be appreciated) (Snyder, 2005, p. 95). The above can be used so as to explain the role and impact that these academies had on scholar works and on research outlining communication and interrelation issues.

Accetto had to face challenges in a complex social, political and cultural environment, in specific and still developing networks (Scheme 3.2): he and the Academy of the Oziosi, he and the reading audience, and in a broader sense he and public taste of Baroque Naples. He also faced challenges regarding his work and position: initially, the creation of his work and then its reception, waiting finally for his audience for centuries. ‘In this life one should not have a transparent heart’, Accetto admits (Snyder, 2005).

Probably the most important network in the creation of Accetto’s work was the Accademia degli Oziosi in terms of scholarly communication (Scheme 3.2); the wider network was obviously the reading audience of the era whose taste may though be rather difficult to define. Accetto’s failure was admitted by himself, although not clearly explained. Snyder argues that Accetto’s treatise was written ‘in response to a debate that took place within the academia degli Oziosi c.1640’ (2005, p. 87). From this point of view, the treatise was targeted to specific audience. ‘E percio quantunque a ciascuno sara lecito di favellare di fuore degli ecercitij dell’ Accademia, non sera pero convenevole discrovrire [sic] i difetti o gli errori de gli Accademici’ (‘however legitimate it is for members to speak on the outside of the Academy’s proceedings, it is inappropriate to reveal the faults or errors of the academicians’).

It is noteworthy that Torquato Accetto decided and proposed as main priority the public taste and the satisfaction of the readers’ needs recognizing at the end that he failed to do so. Although he identifies the importance of his reading audience, he does not define it. It is, in that context, of research interest what ‘public taste’ exactly meant and which was that audience. Considering the kind of text, we understand that public taste was considered by Accetto probably as the taste of scholars, including members of the Academia degli Oziosi and of other academies existing in Italy, noblemen and those who could read a treatise. The popular reading audience, although widening, in a time in which illiteracy was still high, is certainly to be further defined. Public taste, public sphere, reading public: their emergence and development during Renaissance and the Baroque has to be further exhibited. The ways by which public taste was defined and approached by authors and publishers (mostly in paratext material) reveal issues beyond reception related to complex networks between patronage, scholarly communication and mass market.

Regarding the Baroque era, we read that ‘a culture prone to attach the highest aesthetic value to surprising readers and spectators must have had a hierarchy of values, different degrees of measuring the level of surprise a creative technique could attain’ (Cherchi, 2005, p. 63). This ‘surprise’, which prevails as a key word (although obviously not the only one or the most significant one), meant rather obviously promotion strategies, list building, and new business models for the publishers. ‘To surprise’ readers meant innovation, risk and success, meant to introduce new elements regarding both content and object. Books had to be more economic and friendly, combining illustration with content, word and picture, combining the expected with the unexpected.

The transformation of the reading audience took place with the invention of printing and is still continuing. Renaissance and the Baroque are interesting and challenging eras, between mass consumption and manuscript influence, between oral tradition and silent reading, patronage and popular reading audience, hand illumination and woodcuts; in that context, reading habits, consumer behaviour, and printing culture were emerged and established. And reader participation started to prevail altering concepts in the publishing chain–circle.

From this point of view, the errata list was a new part of the book that encouraged readers to participate and offer to the edition. Furthermore, comments on the quality of printing or on the illustration/book decoration helped the publishers and the author to obtain a better result in the next edition. Readers wrote to the publishers and/or to the editors and/or to the authors; in their correspondence they reported, mentioned, indicated, commented, revised, proposed on certain aspects of the edition, of the book as text (quality of the edition or the translation, typographic errors, etc.) and as object (illustration, decoration, printing types, frontispiece, etc.) contributing thus to the development of the edition. Publishers took under consideration the corrections and comments in the revised editions. Thus, readers had a dynamic, active role through

It is mentioned that ‘books annotated by famous scholars were sought out for purchase in learned circles precisely for their annotations and corrections’ (Blair, 2007, p. 40). This offers to the history of the book but mainly to trends of scholar communication, and book editing and production.

It must though be noted that ‘we have a far greater record of one side of this conversation (what publishers printed) than the other (what readers did to books)’(Saenger, p. 4). Proofreading and corrections in the printing shops were done under pressure and often in difficulties (of time, conditions, noise, collaborations, expertization, competition, etc.). Authors and editors corrected the sheets, whereas correctors proofread the compositors’ work before printed.

Nowadays, comments, reviews, corrections, proposals and other ‘interventions’ to the text are made shortly not only after the publication but even during the publication process. Readers participate to the publishing activity by expressing attitude, deciding, judging, proposing, adding, commenting and intervening. Questions about limitations and boundaries come next.

The crowdfunding market is still growing and experimenting. More specifically, in crowdfunding in publishing people pool their resources, via the Internet (specific platforms), so as to support the publication of a work. In that framework, though, questions are set regarding the role and relationships between stakeholders and changes in the publishing chain, the quality of the book both as text and as artistic object, reader participation and engagement, the role of social media and online communities, as well as marketing and promotion trends. Crowdfunding is an alternative way mainly for supporting financially the edition, but it goes beyond that. Reader engagement and participation is strong: people may interact, share, offer, propose, intervene and influence. They are informed for every step of the publishing process being active members of an online community that, apart from offering, can also promote, discuss, communicate and intervene. From this point of view, it is a democratized patronage medium deriving from the past.

The origins of crowdfunding in publishing have to be remotely recognized on the one hand in preorders and subscriptions mentioned above, and on the other in current publishing models such as self-publishing. From this point of view, crowdfunding and self-publishing may be assumed to go hand in hand, when it is difficult for the author to publish his work at a traditional publishing company. Storytelling has also to be taken into consideration as well as personalized copies and personalized publishing services. In that framework, the publishing chain-circle-circuit has to be reconsidered.

‘Crowdfunding typically contains three participating stakeholders: the project initiators who seek funding for their projects, the backers who are willing to back a specific project, and the matchmaking crowdfunding platforms acting as intermediaries’ (Bruntje and Gadja, 2015, p. 10). It is noteworthy that all definitions recognize Internet as the basic tool and medium. Besides, social media influence the decision and behaviour of supporters/backers/capital givers/readers (Gierczack et al., 2015, p. 10). In the past, the basic medium for subscriptions was the printed text, the printed word in introductions and other paratextual parts of books, as well as in advertisements and announcements at the Press. Nowadays, the medium has been changed; it is faster and gives immediate access bringing together authors and readers–supporters. The printed word of the past has been transformed into the virtual word, but it is always a word, a message, a text aiming to gain support and engagement. Aims and values are the same in the digital environment that further and better encourages participation and provides information, managing also small-scale economic transactions.

Regarding crowd we may distinguish between (1) the wide reading audience of supporters–contributors of the edition, (2) friends, relatives, and colleagues of the author. Certainly, communication between the author and the reader is further encouraged, whereas the reader is fluently informed about the publishing process. In that context, information seeking behaviour in crowdfunding is a challenging topic for further research.

Crowdfunding may offer, apart from financial support, feedback to the author and an active community of readers who expect and promote through social media the book even before it is published. Furthermore, it can be proved to be a good marketing tool. Under discussion are certainly the boundaries of reader participation and the degree of innovation of such titles. As Micic states (2015, p. 11): ‘crowdfunding can be viewed as more than just a form of financing; it is an important point of reference when estimating the market for future products or services, a source of collective wisdom and feedback during venture development and a foundation for future community of lead users.’ Obviously, readers engaged in the edition through crowdfunding have already decided (or think they have decided) on the quality of the publication which share with others. Thus, online reading communities will probably be deeper influenced by this taking into consideration the ‘experience’ and the choice of the already engaged financially readers.

Pros and cons of crowdfunding should further be outlined and examined according to a number of trends including the expectations created, the quality of the produced book, the participation and communication between stakeholders, the role of editing and the artistic identity of the book. Regarding reader/user engagement, we have to distinguish between the two options that the author has: (1) platform providing direct communication with the reader and (2) publishers that use crowdfunding. If the book is not published, the funds are returned to supporters. But what about if the book was not the one that the reader expected?

Return types vary (Gierczack et al., 2015, pp. 12–13), and can be distinguished in hedonism, altruistic and for profit. The profit-oriented type is difficult to be found in publishing till now. On the contrary, return types and ‘profit’ of the readers are more connected with preordered products and rewards that range from personalized information, signed or advanced copies to membership. In that framework, hedonism as ‘a type where backers pledge for innovative and creative projects… and receive a non monetary return in form of preordered products or rewards’ is the most popular (Gierczack et al., 2015, p. 13). Readers are not so much interested in monetary returns but in rewards connected with the value of the book and from membership deriving from concepts of prestige, access and taste.

Crowdfunding encourages the publishing of works which would be difficult to be published otherwise covering the expenses for publishing services, such as editing, proofreading and design of the edition. It is actually noteworthy that these ‘traditional’ publishing services are high in the priorities of the authors. These alternative publishing models though further add value to services provided by the publishing houses. It has also to be pointed out that the vast majority of self-publishing authors sign contracts with a publisher when discovered and been offered this.

Questions raised regarding the boundaries and limitations of crowdfunding include the following: Why readers crowdfund and what do they expect? Why they cannot find it in the already published works? Are there emotional and psychological concepts or a matter of intervention of deciding in a process and activity in which traditionally the publisher and the editor decided? Is it a matter of prestige for the reader? Thus, crowdfunding as well as personalized copies go deeper to trends related to the relations developed, decision-making, reader engagement, prestige and power, taste and pleasure, reward and recognition.

In that framework, concepts of crowdfunding can be exploited and used in reader engagement regarding social media, platforms and communities controlled by publishers and booksellers. Key point is obviously the recognition of the support of the reader that in turn encourages him/her to be more active and further promote the book. This recognition can be achieved through rewards beyond discounts and gifts that are exploring engagement such as intervention in the plot.

In the case of crowdfunded personalized copies the production of books is restricted and limited to a specific number of copies for informed and already engaged readers/users (MacWilliam, 2013) who are rewarded not just from the copy, or the participation to the publishing procedure but also from the recognition by the author or of the author who is often a friend and relative. This goes certainly back in time at patronage times, although references nowadays to the reader–subscriber–supporter are not as illustrious as in the past.

Crowdfunding, apart from financial support, presupposes participation and probably emotional attachment especially in cases of friends; rewards are related to psychological and social factors bringing about a new kind of communities of readers. In this way aspects of ‘patronage behaviour’ survive in a more democratized framework supported by new information technologies, whereas the support of the readers may be used as a promotion method indicating the receipt of the edition and proclaiming this book as viable and worth published. ‘Public taste’, or even better an aspect of it, is thus exhibited and developed serving thus marketing methods and satisfying stakeholders.

In that context, storytelling has also to be discussed. Nowadays, there is the opportunity of creating an edition that has the function of a family or a friend memoir: such a dedicatory edition/gift may use ghost writing as advertised (Tagholm, 2015). Like patrons in the past, readers or friends nowadays offer financial support and information, provide the memories and the material for these stories and editions, and sometimes collaborate and even cocreate. Personalized editions financed and developed by the authors or by their friends, relatives, supporters set questions regarding not only the publishing activity and the literary and aesthetic quality of the edition, but also creation, consumer behaviour, reading habits, prestige and cultural concepts. It seems that everyone thus can be – if not a writer – a hero in the story or a ‘patron’ for his family and himself/herself. Is there just a matter of prestige? Finally, regarding publishing, which is the value of that procedure? Does it create readers and further encourage reading, or is it limited to the value of a unique and expensive gift?

These business and publishing models obviously are successful by satisfying the readers’ needs and desires offering at the same time new perspectives and cultivating new expectations. From the point that ‘everyone has a story to tell’ new models have proposed that everyone can publish his/her story in which he/she can be the author, the hero/heroine, the supporter, the patron. The combination of storytelling, crowdfunding and ghost writing may develop a successful model for applying to the wide reading audience. ‘Tradition of storytelling’, according to Papacharissi (2015, p. 4) existed and ‘newer media follow, amplify, and remediate that tradition of storytelling’. New forms of the book may further encourage this tradition.

Going back in time we can trace storytelling not only during the Industrial Revolution in the Press, but also in the first decades of printing. The ‘Peregrinatio in terram sanctam…’ discussed in the previous chapter can be an example. Also, memoirs, autobiographies and epistles were a kind of storytelling as in the case of Aretino who published his correspondence as mentioned above. Nowadays, new media provide new opportunities in storytelling further encouraging the dynamic role of the reader who is rewarded in various ways among which we have to recognize the social and aesthetic concept. Beyond these, every book is a battle with time or a struggle against time: the story or the person will thus not be forgotten; and this is probably the greatest reward.

At the second chapter we focused on personalized copies during the first decades of printing; unique hand-decorated and hand-illustrated copies, specifically bound and often printed on parchment or on better quality paper added value not only to the copy but to the edition as well. These personalized copies were offered as a gift or commissioned mainly by collectors–noblemen who often served as patrons, reminding to the reader not only and not mainly of the previous form of the book (the manuscript) but also of the new medium that could be transformed into something unique. According to the kind of text and its readership, printers/publishers and editors tried to engage readers at introductions, dedicatory letters, epistles, epilogues and other parts of the paratext, whereas the emergence of the Press brought about a new medium for this dialogue. In that framework, reading communities were raised and built.

‘Not unlike other media preceding it, the internet reorganizes the flows of time and space in ways that promise greater autonomy but also conform to the habitus of practices, hierarchies and structures that form its historical context’ (Papacharissi, 2015, p. 7)’. This happens today and obviously happened in the past; it can be recognized in print culture as well. Publishing promised and provided greater autonomy to all stakeholders leading to the democratization of taste and of knowledge, as mentioned earlier. At the same time, though, to certain publishers–printers and editions it conformed to the hierarchies; innovation and tradition coexisted and different publishers served different aims and purposes according to the place, date, strategies and values.

Regarding reading, a short text presupposes an economy of time and specific management of place; the text can be read and be finished shortly and everywhere being usually portable and friendly (small sized). Furthermore, a culture of series may be created so that the reader is getting used and engaged by knowing the heroes, the plot, the historic background, etc., as well as being familiar with the artistic identity of the book. These short forms may be economic (although special editions have sometimes collective and bibliophilic interest), and, if in series, they develop consumer as well as collective cultures: the reader wants to acquire all the titles so as to complete the series which probably can exhibit and share. Readers, including children, recognize and trust series which have the same recognizable artistic identity and texts are of the same quality. The publisher through the production and success of short forms often expands audience penetrating in groups not easily accessible. Nowadays, new information technologies and the devices on which we read seem to further encourage short forms, which are recognized as a feature of our era (Phillips, 2014).

During the industrial 19th century, when the new dynamic reading groups (women, working class) read mainly novels, the French publisher Louis Hachette ‘created seven special series for the railway bookshops. Each one was cheap, relatively short, in the portable in 16o format, contained inoffensive material for a wide public, and was colour-coded, including his “bibliotheque rose” for the schoolchildren’ (Lyons, 2008, p. 57). These series were popular and successfully establishing consumer and reading habits. Hachette’s bookstores everywhere (in the railway stations across France) also sold books published by other publishers but at Hachette’s prices. Thus, Louis Hachette exploited two opportunities: (1) he opened at every railway station in France a bookstore and he came to own as much as 750 bookstores in the second half of the 19th century (Barbier, 2000) creating thus a publishing “empire” that still prevails; (2) he developed a series of friendly books exploring as well, but not only, short forms. It is noteworthy that in an era of novels and multivolumed literature Hachette systematically proposed to the public the opportunities of shorter works. These short texts though have to be examined and discussed in a wider framework considering social, educational, economic and cultural conditions.

It seems that short forms and multipaged, even multivolumed novels went hand in hand during the 19th century when the ‘revolution of reading’ took place. Publishers had the privilege of a wide and constantly widening reading audience with augmented needs, expectations and desires that were influenced by their publishing strategies and the press. Accessibility was a key point; readers wanted access to many texts: this was obtained by libraries, reading societies, reading groups, subscription libraries, but also by cheap books easy to be found, bought and been circulated/lent between readers. Publishers developed and established works and series of such editions satisfying the readers’ needs and creating in turn new ones, whereas magazines and newspaper were also used for publishing on series, as in the case of the works by Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy.

Nowadays, short forms seem to be an emerging trend for the publishing industry. ‘Already we can see a return to shorter forms of writing, such as short stories and novellas, and serialized fiction which responds almost in real time to the market’ (Phillips, 2014, p. xiv). One explanation and motive may be the medium on which we read. Reading on mobiles and tablets often presupposes a short or relatively shorter text according to the concerns and needs of the reader. Obviously questions set include the following: Do readers really need something shorter? And how is this shorter defined considering the profile of each reading group? How does technology redefine short forms?

Probably emotional and psychological motives can initially be traced; readers, especially the potential ones or those who do not read much, feel convenient with content that they think they can manage to read (and finish) in their (often spare) free time (especially when reading in public transport or as waiting or in small breaks between other activities). Practical, functional issues may also be recognized: some readers admit that they are tired of reading large texts on the screen; short forms give them the satisfaction of having finished the text on time. Furthermore, short forms are more convenient for the creation of series that keep readers engaged; concepts of taste, specifically literary taste, have to be identified as well. Creating taste and developing a kind of tradition regarding content and artistic identity are a strong motive for both readers and publishers. Readers can easily make reviews, share opinions or even content in online communities/social media, introduce authors, discuss with other readers. Publishers create a culture of endurability: readers return to the publishing series of short texts identifying the quality of text and of aesthetics, feeling thus satisfied.

Reading on mobiles–smartphones or on tablets has certainly changed the artistic identity of the book/publication: how should the fonts – typographic types, the cover and the typology of the page be developed so as to be readable, friendly and convenient for the reader? Illustration, decoration, cover and the making of the page continue to have to satisfy readers’ needs. We shall focus on these immediately after.

Thus, nowadays the desirable number of pages is influenced by both the medium and the kind of text as well as of the already developed and still developing needs and expectations of the readers. It has to be considered that over the last 15 years the average number of pages has grown by 25%, according to a survey recently carried out. More specifically, ‘a relatively consistent pattern of growth year on year has added approximately 80 pages to the average size of the books surveyed since 1999’ (Lea, 2015). Thus, two ‘opposite’, conflicting trends can be recognized in the publishing industry nowadays. But, the question that inevitably arises is if they are really conflicting or if they are rather combined according to the needs and expectations of the readers.

In that framework, we may wonder what ‘short’ means in a broader context; for example, readers in the industrial 19th century read quickly and consumed novels that had a considerable size extending to a certain number of pages. In that context, relatively short texts or serialized content were also introduced. ‘Relatively’ has to be underlined demonstrating that the definition of ‘short’ ranges according to the era and to the kind of text.

Although these attitudes and trends seem probably conflicting, they are not as they cope with different groups or with the same group but at different periods and for different purposes (information, education, entertainment…). And obviously they are not new as in the past novels and multivolumed books coexisted with short forms. Striphas analyses (2009, pp. 119–120) the core of the choices made by Oprah Winfrey explaining thus the success of these book proposals in defining trends and issues in both publishing and reading. The number of pages seems to be a strong factor in association with the time available for reading. Striphas (2009, p. 119) writes for the books proposed by Oprah Winfrey: ‘that she repeatedly referred to specific selections as summer books, holiday books, and so forth, indicates that both time and page length are criteria she carefully considers. Longer books have tended to coincide with the summer months, when Oprah viewers presumably have more time to devote to reading. Shorter books have tended to coincide with occasions (e.g., the winter holidays) when women are assumed to have more responsibilities and thus less time to read’. Thus, the same reading group has different needs, expectations and desires according to the period of the year and the available time for reading. In accordance with them, recommendations have been made creating and further establishing at the same time consumer and reading culture.

Furthermore, we can observe that nowadays bestsellers are mostly novels of a considerable size. Practical factors though (due to the new devices the reader does not have to carry a heavy book) do not play the most significant role. Most important seem to be the psychological factors related to the book itself and to its printed origins. In our digital age, we download and collect a lot but we just read what is of interest or useful to us: we often do not finish the text and mostly we do not read it from the first to the last page. In that context, reading multipaged books, whether printed or not, creates a concept of what we can call the ‘luxury’ of reading, thus the luxury of having the book, the time, the convenience, the ‘equipment’ (whether ebook device or armchair) to concentrate on reading as a threshold to research, relax, learning or enjoyment. Taking this a step forward, the book is also a threshold to communication, to be a member of a community of readers, to discuss and intervene (mainly through social media), to be better informed and evolved. Then, the reader waits for the next title of the author or of the series or of the tetralogy, trilogy, etc.

Two can be identified in the above as the strongest issues. The ‘luxury’ of the book means mainly the ‘luxury of time’. The reader will choose something worthwhile, valuable, tested; regarding fiction, bestsellers are often being intended for this. The valuable time is the key point; the time for reading as an ever winning time. The book had been a commodity, being often sometimes connected with specific reading patterns and book collection. Macchiavelli, for example, had described the way he was reading during his walks with small in size, ‘pocket’ books and the way he studied at his office when he returned home (Grafton, 1999, pp. 199–211). He then wore other clothes, he sat at his desk with his books (of another size) and with these ‘adequate’ clothes and furniture had his threshold in the world of ancient glorious writers where he felt no fear neither of poverty neither of death. Grafton, starting from this letter by Machiavelli, enlightens the uses, trends and concepts of reading and studying of the humanist readers during Renaissance.

George Steiner (1996), taking as starting point the work of the French painter Chardin Le Philosophe lisant, further recognizes and discusses this management of time, place and other conditions in accordance with the typology of the book as well as with reading practices related to social, economic, educational, psychological and cognitive issues. Nowadays, in a highly competitive environment, publishers have to persuade for the promoted book that it deserves the valuable, available time of the reader.

Author Anthony Trollope, in one of his lectures in Edinburgh in 1870 said: ‘the web of complex interactions uniting the writer, the reader and his publisher will have inevitable effects on the finished product, repercussions which must be considered in any complete evaluation of the work’ (quoted in Delafield, 2016, p. 4). It is noteworthy the word ‘web’, before the web we all know, referred to ‘complex interactions’ between stakeholders. Trollope recognizes the influence on the ‘finished product’ considering probably the book both as content and as material object. Going a step forward, he comments on the evaluation of the work. Undeniably, serialization altered the creation, consumption, reception and evaluation of literary texts creating also a consumer and reading culture. Furthermore, the role of the reader was upgraded further democratizing the publishing activity.

Serialization, apart from engagement, means endurability in a competitive environment. The illustrious, but certainly not the only, example of Harry Potter exhibits the readers’ need for continuing the story, for enjoying the familiar and tested that still seduces and surprises in a known framework. Moreover, serialized works published online offer to the publishers the opportunities for specific strategies for both content developing and promoting. If text is delivered weekly or daily, the reader is engaged. Even in bestsellers the reader waits for the next title to be published; anxiety for the plot is the one aspect; the other derives from emotional, psychological and practical factors as readers are used to reading certain works, are familiar with the characters and create their own options of the fictional world.

Serialization has undoubtedly been a used method that has revived nowadays and provides to publishers:

Serialization in the digital environment may encourage further engagement of the reader who can (1) communicate directly with the author, publisher and other stakeholders, (2) participate, (3) review, (4) share content and (5) be a member of reading online communities.

It is though noteworthy what Delafield (2016, pp. 3–4) writes regarding the serialized novels in mid-Victorian magazines: ‘the boundaries of the novel text were redrawn with the volume edition of the novel and were also restated in a new context by the volume edition of the periodical in which the reprinted serial then appeared’ recognizing that ‘the novel in its revised volume format still bears the imprint of its serialized original’. These boundaries related to literary taste, consumer behaviour, participation, communication, reading cultures and intertextuality should be traced and highlighted nowadays. A study on how and to which extent the works after their serialization are published as independent works is of further research interest.

Furthermore, Frost (2015, pp. 12–15) in discussing the coordination of economic and aesthetic practices, refers to serialization and the viability of periodical publication taking into consideration reading and consumer patterns in the emergence of new publishing forms.

Thus, serialization can be developed into a strong marketing tool and promotion method converging media and mostly converging needs and desires of the reader. As a used method, having been accepted after criticism in the Victorian Age (Delafield, 2016), it can be applied to all publishing sectors, mostly fiction and children books. Serialized content may be implied to smartphones: short forms can be read easily without tiring the reader, whereas the development of series by creating anxiety and engagement can be a competitive advantage for publishing.

Familiarity regarding the artistic identity of the book is connected with the design of the edition, whether printed or digital:

The size and the cover/jacket make books recognizable.

Regarding series, the reader (Scheme 3.3) recognizes the title which respects and trusts due to previous titles of the series. Then he reads and recommends it. This seems simple but a series should be recognizable and respectable both as content and artistic identity; and this has to be obtained in a competitive environment in which, as Thompson (2010, p. 11) has written, the publishers ‘must compete both in the market for content and in the market for customers.’

Meanwhile, during the 19th century we have to recognize strong factors behind the spread of these series: the development of literary and artistic taste, new reading habits, the rise in book consumption, the spread of mass education, the use of lithography and stereography, as well as changes in book production (mechanization of printing and papermaking) and distribution. Furthermore, the impact of the press was strong, whereas the bookstores in the centre of the cities and the development of the ‘free to all, open to all’ libraries led to the development of new reading behaviour and new ways for accessing books. As the social, political and economic conditions were changing, the printed material (books and newspapers) was still the medium for education, entertainment, social improvement, communication, access to information and knowledge. Series, as recognizable and trusted, created tradition and a consumer habit that empowered experience sharing.

‘When Kurt Wolff, a century ago, published young prose writers and poets such as Franz Kafka, Robert Walser, Georg Trakl, and Gottfried Benn in his “Judgment Day” series, those writers immediately found their first few readers because there was already something attractive about the appearance of those books, which looked like slim black exercise books with labels and came with no program announcements or publicity launches. But they suggested something that could be already sensed in the name of the series: they suggested a judgment, which is the real acid test for a publisher’ (Calasso, 2015, p. 131). Judgment by the publisher is obviously behind and beyond the decisions, strategies and motives in the scheme above. The creation of series, introducing authors and works in a preset framework, creates a threshold to certain kind of texts and to literary as well as aesthetic experiences.