Publication by subscription

From the late 16th to the 18th centuries, books were published by subscription in English-speaking areas including Britain, Ireland, and British America. Subscriptions were an alternative to the prevailing mode of publication, whereby booksellers would buy authors' manuscripts outright and produce and sell books on their own initiative. The subscription model was not common and books published using the model were often about specialist subjects. Contemporaries sometimes considered subscription unseemly.