Frontier book deals? Novel ideas

19th century Florida newspapers gave away
books to readers who subscribed. The
papers also sold books alone at low prices.

I'm giving away ebook novellas and selling
ebook novels for 75% off, but only for July 2024
 and only on the Smashwords online store.

First, the disclaimer: This post evolved from my plans for a promotion of my books. During July 2024, my novellas in ebook form are free and my novels in ebook form are 75% off. The deal is good only on Smashwords from July 1-31. Use this link -  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/gerribauer - or do a web search for the Smashwords website and, once there, put "Gerri Bauer" in the search box.

So how did I manage to connect a pioneer Florida blog post to a modern promotion of digital books? Even I'm surprised at the outcome.

Florida newspapers in the 1880s and 1890s and maybe later gave away books and sold them at low prices. There was a catch - you usually had to buy a year-long subscription to the newspaper. I was intrigued at the promotional idea so I read the fine print.

I found book giveaways in statewide and regional newspapers in northern, central and southern Florida. The books ranged from classics to then-current popular novels to nonfiction and how-to manuals. Here's a look at some of the deals:

• The Weekly Press (Fort Myers), February 1887 - Despite being the earliest on my list, this offer was the costliest - $2.50. For that price, readers received a year's subscription to the newspaper and 45 books. That's a lot of books. This offer even allowed the reader to just buy books and forget the newspaper subscription! A reader could order any five books for 25 cents or all 45 books for $1.50. I like to think the editors were helping settlers gain access to reading material, likely in limited supply in pioneer towns. Writers in this and subsequent offers included still-familiar names -  Bronte, Eliot, Scott, Shakespeare, Dickens, DeFoe - and a whole lot of fiction authors I've never heard of.
• Florida Agriculturist, December 1889 - Readers paid $2.20 and received a year's subscription and 39 books free. Readers chose their books from over 100 selections. Titles were categorized into 8 sections that ranged from popular novels to religion to history to classics. Each subscriber chose three sections and received all the books in those sections. They could add extra sections (13 books in each) to their order for 35 cents per section, or pay 5 cents per single title or 10 cents for three books. As with the Fort Myers deal, this offer allowed readers to just buy books and not subscribe.
• Pensacola News, December 1890 - Subscription offers changed by the year in this newspaper and sometimes within the year. Earlier in 1890, this newspaper offered 25 books with a subscription. Then, in December 1890, readers who subscribed received the complete works of Charles Dickens in 12 volumes. The total cost was $1.75, which was 75 cents more than the subscription alone. The newspaper cited the 12-volume set as worth $10 or more.
• Pensacola News, December 1891 - The 1891 subscription offer from this newspaper featured the  inclusion of "Ten of the Greatest Novels Ever Written." I regret I recognized only two of them: Vanity Fair, which I've never read, and the ever-excellent Jane Eyre. Inflation didn't seem to be a factor, as the promotion's price remained the same as the year before: $1.75.
• Pensacola News, December 1892 - Maybe the earlier deals didn't pull in enough subscribers. Maybe leisure reading time was limited. The 1892 offer from this newspaper featured a lower price - $1.50 - and practical books helpful for the self-sufficiency required on a frontier homestead. The "Six Great Books for Rural Homes!" promotion gave subscribers a poultry book, livestock manual, law book, combined cookbook and medical guide, a book on artistic embroidery and a condensed encyclopedia of "useful knowledge."

Gotta say, nobody's offering books today with newspaper subscriptions. Plus, the price differences are eye-opening. In 2024 dollars, the 19th century prices for a year's newspaper subscription and numerous books ranged from $50 to $85. But at least books are thriving in our modern world, despite periodic despair over fewer people reading. 

There was despair over the future of novels a century ago, too. More than one newspaper carried an article in 1902 about a talk given in London by author Jules Verne. I saw one of the articles in the August 1,1902 edition of Florida Star (Titusville). In his talk, Verne predicted the demise of fiction. 

Yes, the author of Around the World in Eighty Days, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth and many more predicted novels would disappear eventually. He believed the growing sophistication of newspapers would supplant novels. Newspapers would have that much a grip on the modern reader.

I had a career in print journalism and I cringe at the bias in today's media. I read all persuasions to find truth in the middle somewhere. It amazes me that the same, single event can be described so differently by different media. I worry that uninformed readers might not realize that none of the versions contains the entire truth. Or that any of the versions could contain falsehoods. In other words, fiction. Maybe Jules Verne was right.

A Pensacola newspaper gave away sets
of Dickens' works in 1890.