Tolkien’s Works on the Book Market
Call for Papers for the 21th DTG Tolkien Seminar
(31 Oct.-02 Nov. 2025 at Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany)
Paper requirements
“It is in fact hard to think of a work […] written with less concern for commercial considerations than The Lord of the Rings. No market researcher in the 1950s could possibly have predicted its success. It was long, difficult, trailed with appendices, studded with quotations in unknown languages which the author did not always translate, and utterly strange. It had, indeed, to create its own market” (Shippey 2001: xxiv), as Tom Shippey describes the situation in J.R.R. Tolkien. Author of the Century. Nevertheless, The Lord of the Rings proved to be a million-selling bestseller, new editions have been regularly published worldwide for 70 years and the epic has repeatedly been voted the number one favourite book in surveys. The Hobbit and other works by Tolkien have also become long-sellers. Not a year goes by without new editions of Tolkien’s works, including both lavishly illustrated volumes and luxury editions. The materiality of these books also plays a role in times of social media and cross-media marketing, for example when special Tolkien editions are proudly presented on YouTube or TikTok or publishers advertise Tolkien adaptations with new book covers.
Tolkien’s relationship with his publishers was not always easy, as his abortive attempt to change the publisher from Unwin to Collins or the unauthorised US editions of The Lord of the Rings in the 1960s show. This was partly due to Tolkien’s demands on himself and his texts, and partly due to the mechanisms of the book market. The fact that Tolkien’s works were nevertheless made accessible to a broad public and found a loyal readership is therefore not a matter of course.
The aim of this seminar is to bring together researchers from different disciplines and subject areas to explore the various questions and problems posed by Tolkien’s works on the book market.
Possible starting points for presentations would be:
- Tolkien and his publishers (Tolkien’s relationships with publishers, rights and license trading, etc.)
- Tolkien’s works on the German/international book market
- Tolkien film adaptations and the book market (effects of the adaptations on the sale of the works etc.; significance of the films and series for the perception of the books)
- The materiality of the editions and their paratexts (economic significance of the paratexts, design of the editions, etc.)
- Use of the book as a motif
- Cross-media marketing, book merchandise, Tolkien’s books on social media (BookTok, podcasts etc.)
Seminar and entry informations
The 21st seminar of the German Tolkien Society is supported by Walking Tree Publishers and will take place in cooperation with the Department of Book Science in a hybrid format (mainly in presence but with online options) from 31 October to 2 November 2025 at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Interested parties are requested to send a short synopsis (no longer than one page) and a short biography as well as their preference (attendance or online presentation) to Thomas Fornet-Ponse by 31 May 2025:
DTG Conference Scholarship
- Applicants must be students, PhD candidates, or PostDoc researchers with (at the time of application) no more than one academic publication in the field of Tolkien studies, and be no older than 35 years.
- Applications, consisting of a brief CV and a short presentation of any Tolkien-related research or other activities, can be submitted together with the abstract for the conference presentation.
- The Board of Editors of Hither Shore, in consultation with the Board of the DTG, awards the scholarship. The Board of Editors of Hither Shore decides about the acceptance of submissions for the conference independently, so that applicants who did not succeed in securing a scholarship may still be invited to present their paper at the conference.
- The scholarship is meant to cover all travel- and accommodation expenses connected to the conference, as well as the conference dinner costs, up to but not exceeding 500 Euro. The scholarship holders are reimbursed after the seminar and once the receipts have been submitted. Each scholarship holder receives a certificate of achievement.
- The scholarship holders are to submit their papers for publication in Hither Shore. They undergo the same peer-review process like all other submissions.
Selected publications on the topic:
- Bushell, Sally. 2016. “Paratext or Imagetext? Interpreting the Fictional Map.” Word & Image: A Journal of Verbal/Visual Enquiry 32 (2), 181-194.
- Carpenter, Humphrey. 1977. J.R.R. Tolkien. A Biography. Paperback edition 1995. London: HarperCollins.
- Croft, Janet Brennan. 2018. “Doors into Elf-Mounds: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Introductions, Prefaces, and Forewords.” Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review 15, 177-195.
- Groom, Nick. 2023. Tolkien in the Twenty-First Century. The Meaning of Middle-earth Today. New York, London: Pegasus Books.
- Hammond, Wayne G., with the assistance of Douglas Anderson. 1993. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography. Winchester: St Paul’s Bibliographies.
- Higgins, Andrew. 2019. “More than Narrative: The Role of Paratexts in the World-Building of Austin Tappan Wright, J. R. R. Tolkien and Ursula K. Le Guin.” Sub-Creating Arda: World-Building in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Work, Its Precursors and Its Legacies. Edited by Dimitra Fimi and Thomas Honegger. Zurich and Jena: Walking Tree Publishers, 395-414.
- Marchese, Shawn E. and Alan Sisto (2019). Why We Love Middle-Earth. An Enthusiast’s Book about Tolkien, Middle-earth, and the LotR Fandom. New York: Mango Media.
- Schürer, Norbert. 2023. “Interpreting The Lord of the Rings through Book Covers.” Hither Shore. Interdisciplinary Journal on Modern Fantasy Literature 20, 8-30.
- Shippey, T. A. 2001. J. R. R. Tolkien. Author of the Century. London: HarperCollins.
- Shippey, T. A. 2002. J. R. R. Tolkien. Autor des Jahrhunderts. Übersetzt von Wolfgang Krege. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.
- Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel. 1981. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Edited by Humphrey Carpenter, with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin. Reprinted by Houghton Mifflin (Boston), 2000. Revised edition 2023.
- Unwin, Rayner. 1999. George Allen & Unwin. A Rememberancer. Ludlow: Merlin Unwin Books.
Credits:
Titelfoto: Tobias M. Eckrich
