Continuity Marketing: Pleasures and Pitfalls

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the British Publisher, Marshall Cavendish, brought its partsworks to this country and began marketing them by mail as a book continuity series where four or six of the original pamphlets were combined into an individual volume.

Time-Life

Around this time, Time-Life took a look at its vast archives of intellectual assets—particularly its treasury of great photographs dating back to the 1920s—and decided to form a book publishing group under the guiding genius of Jerome Hardy. Hardy had two choices: simply recycle the old stuff or use the massive archives as the basis for creating brand new product. He wisely chose the latter course and started a vast empire that for a time was more profitable than the magazines. Among the subject areas Time-Life Books dealt with: cooking, gardening, the Old West, home repair, World War II, Ancient Civilizations and a slew more. In recent years, books have taken a back seat to Time-Life recordings which are promoted heavily on television.