Writing by Numbers

This book examines the nineteenth-century practice of publishing fiction in serial form, and discusses its effect on the imaginative development of contemporary writers. in particular, it shows in detail how one novelist, Trollope, coped with writing novels that were going to be published as serials. Dr Hamer brings together current work on the subject in order to explain why serial publishing originated, how publishers and authors responded to it, and what technical and financial implications it had for them. Trollope is singled out for extended study because he was the only novelist who used serial form to construct his works, even when a publisher had not specified a format. His working methods are described and explained, using the evidence of his working papers and the manuscript of his first serial.