A brief delay

[desperance]

People not involved in The Industry, as we like to call it, are often surprised by how long it takes a book to be published. The shortest interval I've ever experienced between delivery and publication has been eight months; a year is standard. When they ask why, there is a standard spiel about the process, but mostly it boils down to the insolence of office and the law's delay.

But anyway: delay, it appears, has been built into publishing since the Very Early Days. Cambridge University Press obtained its royal charter 'to print all manner of books' from Henry VIII in 1534.

The Press published its first book in, wait for it, 1584.

That's fifty years.

What were they doing?

Comments

[fastfwd.livejournal.com]

You know how crazy those editor lunches can get. Why, one time, I went out to lunch with jjarrold and--well, damn. You know, I'm still not back yet?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hee. Remind me to tell you sometime, 'bout the first time John and I had lunch...

[fastfwd.livejournal.com]

Hey, man, they say that if you claim you rmember the first time you had lunch with jjarrold, you weren't really there.

Or--no, wait--is that the 60s? Or the 80s?

I'll have to check when I get back from lunch...

:)