Technology of Book Production (from the Experience of A. G. Dostoevskaya)

The article presents an overview of the technical side of the publishing business of A. G. Dostoevskaya based on the materials of her notebooks. Special attention is paid to the period of the release of the Complete Works of F. M. Dostoevsky. The writer’s widow began the production process of publishing books with the purchase of paper from the “Trading House of A. I. Vargunina,” and negotiations with the Panteleev brothers printing house about the appearance of the book, the cost of publication, typing, proofreading, printing and booklets. The next stage was connected with the release of the book from the printing house until the time of its sale: first of all, the issue of storing a huge number of books (several tens of thousands) was solved; Anna Grigoryevna rented storerooms and developed accounting systems for this purpose. After the publication was released from the printing house, it was necessary to check the books for flaws; it was also important to notify readers through ads and booksellers about the appearance of a new edition. The final stage of the publishing process was connected with the sale of editions of the Complete works of Dostoevsky: correspondence with buyers and booksellers, forwarding of works, transfer of books on commission and endless accounting and recording of all volumes — all this required a lot of effort and time and had its own specifics, and if you did not know precisely what to do, you could face a significant loss. At each stage of the publishing process, unforeseen difficulties arose caused by the inexperience of the first Russian individual publisher, the negligence of the persons with whom she had to deal, or a combination of circumstances. It describes not only the problems that Dostoevskaya had to face, but also the ways to solve them, requiring the publisher to be reasonable and firm in spirit. The materials presented for the release of the Complete Works of Dostoevsky are given in the article in the context of the book publishing process and book business of the late 19th — early 20th century, which is a necessary historical commentary on the publishing activities of A. G. Dostoevskaya.