Print Technology in Augustans
During the Augustan age, print technology developed by leaps and bounds. Up until then, books and printed materials were generally only accessible to the aristocracy and to highly educated and specialized groups like the clergy.
But in the Augustan age, advances in print technology made it possible to print books cheaply, and that meant that more and more books and other materials were printed and available at much lower prices. At the same time, more and more people were becoming literate.
Guess what that means? Yup: way more readers. Way more readers also means way more books. Put it all together, and you get the printing boom of the Augustan age.
Shmoops:
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe was a commercial blockbuster when it was first published in 1719, and that's in no small part thanks to the advances in print technology that had been taking place at the time. Read more about Robinson Crusoe's publishing success here.