Text Production

Medium

• carved into wood or stone
• handwriting on leather, parchment, paper
• dictation to stenographer, amanuensis
• written with fountain pen
• typewriter [from late 19th C]
• dictaphone [from early 1900s]
• word-processor [from 1980]
• World Wide Web [from 1990]

Author

• legibility of handwriting
• spelling irregularities
• punctuation [subjective]
• revisions to draft
• multiple versions of a text

Compositor

• mis-readings of the text
• 'regularisation' of author's spelling or punctuation
• in line with 'house style'
• on compositor's whim
• commercial requirements of space

Printer

• choice of typeface
• choice of font size
• page layout
• page size
• paper quality
• binding

Editor

• choice of copy text
• editorial policy on corrections, spelling, substantives and accidentals

Publisher

• paper and binding quality
• print run (number of copies)
• selling price
• number of editions
• advertising and promotion

Context

• genre (type) of publication
• its relation to others of its type
• social status of such publications

Audience

• readership and its expectations
• reader's 'purpose'

Reception

• Critical comment on the text
• 'reputation' of text
• context in which it is read

If you're interested in tracing the history of publishing from clay tablets to modern times, this site offers an in-depth, dated chart that'll walk you through time, step by step. From Western Asian scrolls to the first paper mill in Stockholm and the introduction of the first ink jet printer in 1976, this collection of dates and facts is pretty impressive.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~knops/timetab.html