Collection (publishing)
In the field of book publishing, a collection or, more precisely, editorial collection, is a set of books published by the same publisher, usually written by various authors, each book with its own title, but all grouped under the same collective title. The collective title is the title of the collection and must be mentioned on each book.
The books that make up an editorial collection can be published in a specific order or not. When each volume in the collection has a serial number, it is called a numbered collection.
A collection generally uses distinctive, common formats and features. The title of a collection can be accompanied by the term "series" or its equivalents in other languages, such as in the English-speaking world; for example, the "Bibliothèque de la Pléiade", "Découvertes Gallimard" and "Que sais-je?" are all termed "book series" instead of collections. Conversely, Thames & Hudson's "World of Art" series was published as a collection in France and Spain.
Brief history
In France, the concept of "collection" was invented by Louis Hachette, a 19th-century publisher, under the name bibliothèque, which means "library".In 19th and early 20th-century Spain, literary collections such as "", "", "" and "" increased in popularity. The "Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig", created in 1851 in Madrid, is notable for its encyclopaedia-like contents. It contains not only literary works, but also reference work : Comte de Buffon's Histoire Naturelle, Cesare Cantù's Storia Universale, Juan de Mariana's Historia general de España, as well as the Bible in Spanish.
In Italy, the first editorial collection was the "Collana historica", which included vulgarised works of twelve Greek historians, edited by the 16th-century humanist Tommaso Porcacchi and printed in Venice by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari from 1563 to 1585. The use of collana in the title is metaphorical: each work is a "ring" or "joy" of the collana.
In Portugal, the ""—a collection of science fiction novels and short stories—appeared in 1953. The Portuguese publisher,, aimed to pioneer the popularization of the genre in the country.
In Brazil, the "boom of collections" took place in a context of impressive growth of the publishing market. Though the publication of collections was still thin on the ground in the 1920s, it would eventually rise and spread in the 30s.
In Romania, the "Biblioteca pentru toți", a pocket-sized collection, was created by the folklorist in 1895.
Definition
A collection is characterized by uniformity in presentation as well as a certain affinity of content. Each book may use the same dimension, type of cover, and type of spine; further, the same colours may be used on the cover, though sometimes different colours or details are used in a systematic manner. Generally, the grammage of paper for each collection is always the same, as well as the typography applied, the cover design and page layout. Certain collections also standardise the number of pages; for example, the books in the collection "Que sais-je?" each have 128 pages. A collection can be further subdivided into several series or sub-collections; for example, the collection "Découvertes Gallimard" contains seven series as well as several sub-collections.The volumes of a collection are also characterized by a defined content or style. Thus, a literary collection will have, for example, novels in their original language, translated works, works with literary value of national authors, or regroup texts of a certain subject or a certain genre. In terms of reference works, there are collections of school or university textbooks, collections of research works and of practical books. Some collections are distinguished by a very strong orientation towards specialisation, such as collections on the study of Egyptology, on jurisprudence, on pharmacy, astronomy. Others are distinguished by an encyclopaedic tendency. Some collections include both literary texts and reference texts, such as "Le Livre de Poche", while others are specialised in classic books.
Marketing is a major consideration for publishers of collections. Given that a collection is characterized by a visual unity, with successive editions and with the help of promotion, successful marketing can even lead to a degree of fidelity of the public that ultimately supports the collection's commercial success. In many publishing houses, the tasks of selection of works and programming in general fall under the orbit of the "director of collection".
Certain collections have gained sufficient fame, that they are sometimes considered to be independent publishing houses, such is the case with the "Bibliothèque de la Pléiade" edited by Éditions Gallimard.