By Joseph E. Bray.
In the process of manufacture a book passes through so many hands that
if the finished product is exactly in accordance with the plan that
existed in the mind of its designer, he is justified in looking upon
it with the satisfaction felt by an artist who has worked well. After
a book is issued, however, it is quite another and equally important a
matter to sell it, and this part of book publication requires as much
thought and perhaps more dogged persistence than the other. There are
some books, such as "Ben Hur" and "David Harum," for instance, that
make a market for themselves, and the demand for such successes,
though starting perhaps in a rather circumscribed locality, moves
onward and outward, gathering force all the time like an avalanche.
These are rare exceptions, however, and for most books a market must
be created. No matter how good the book, it is not enough to view the
finished product with satisfaction and expect that the public will buy
it in the proportion that it deserves. It has to be marketed like any
other article of commerce; and a book is only on the market properly
when you find its selling points known to the trade, and the volume
itself temptingly displayed on the counters in the bookstores
everywhere, ready to become the property of any one who may be
attracted by a reviewer's description, a clever advertisement, the
polite recommendation of a well-posted clerk, or any other of the many
reasons that induce people to buy books. This condition of course
obtains in all large cities on or soon after the day of publication of
a well-managed book--but urban publicity is not sufficient. The whole
country must be taken care of, and the several thousand booksellers
scattered over this great land must be placed in the same relative
position as their brethren in the large cities. How they are supplied
with the book, posted as to its merits, and enabled to take care of
whatever demands arise, is the wholesale, or "jobbing," side of book
selling.
This class of booksellers relies mostly upon the wholesaler for
information and supplies. Everyone knows when Winston Churchill and
Mrs. Humphry Ward are writing books, and what they are about; but when
a dealer in a small town gets a call for "The Sands of Time," author
unknown, a book he has never heard of before, he usually transmits the
order just as he has received it to his jobber, who supplies him with
the book if it is on the market, or with the necessary information
regarding it if he is not able to supply it. The jobber's work,
broadly speaking, is twofold: To see that a book for which the demand
is certain to be large and immediate is in the hands of all his
customers promptly after publication, and to take care of all
inquiries that arise throughout the country for lesser-known books.
His establishment must be a very temple of learning, and he has to
know everything in the book world, from the plot of the latest "best
seller" to the relative importance of a work on the differential
calculus.
Let us take his first duty. A book is to be published by a noted
author, and a large sale is confidently expected. It will be widely
advertised, and the press will feature it in the review columns. His
first move usually is to distribute descriptive notices among his
customers, telling them what he knows about it and inviting them to
send in their orders. His travellers are also notified and are advised
as to how the book is likely to be received by the people, and whether
it is accounted better or worse than the author's previous works. The
jobber has therefore to size up a book early in the game, without
perhaps having seen anything relating to it except the publisher's
advance notices. He has to be very careful not to "over-sell" the
book, and yet at the same time he must distribute it in sufficient
quantities, so that no sales may be lost through dealers not having
supplies. Orders generally begin to come in quickly, and sometimes the
advance sales of popular books are enormous. Then comes the question
of buying a first supply. The suave, persuasive agent of the publisher
waits upon the jobber and tells him what a wonderful work it is, that
the demand is without a doubt going to beat all records, and he had
"better hurry up and place a large order before the first edition is
exhausted," and all that kind of thing. The jobber takes into
consideration the facts he has been able to learn concerning the book,
and places an order accordingly. Then his own travellers are supplied
with dummies or advance copies, and the work of arousing an interest
in the book in all sections of the country proceeds actively. Not only
are all the towns canvassed thoroughly, but even the smaller villages
are visited or the modest orders solicited by mail, though the stocks
of the local booksellers may embrace only a few of the best sellers.
It is generally arranged so that the stock of the book of the kind to
which we have alluded is delivered to the jobber on or before the day
of publication, and he in turn tries to place it in the hands of his
customers early, usually on or within a day or two of the date of
issue. From Maine to California, and from the northern boundary to the
Gulf, there is no town of importance, and no village where a bookstore
exists, that has not copies of, or information concerning, the book
within a short time of its coming from the press. After this is done,
patience is necessary and a period of comparative inactivity ensues.
The book is before the people, and it is necessary to wait for their
verdict. There are many ways of "puffing" a book. Clever advertising
will do much. Window displays and all the other arts resorted to by
bookseller and publisher sell copies; but unless the people take to
it, unless it appeals to them, unless they talk about it, and pass it
along, none of these ways will do more than give a book a very
temporary period of demand. The wisest publisher sometimes issues
books that never reach a second edition. They awaken no responsive
echo in the hearts of the people, the stamp of public approval is not
put upon them, and although hailed with a flourish of trumpets and a
blast of advertising, they die an early death, the author and the
publisher perhaps being the only people that regret their demise.
In the case of a work that does meet with public approval, this
approval is soon shown, and it is not a hard matter to care for the
demand. The wholesaler aims to keep a stock on hand sufficiently large
to cover all calls upon him, and does what he can to push the good
thing along, through his salesmen and the circular literature which he
sends out from time to time.
There are other classes of books, however, in which the wholesaler
must interest himself and which cannot be treated so easily; here
perhaps his service to the community and the publishing field are the
greatest. Only the select few among books are big sellers; the
majority do not sell largely, and only a very small percentage of the
many thousands of books put forth annually make a stir in the world. A
novel by an unknown author, a biography of an eminent man, a modest
work of travel or adventure, technical books and those that add to the
world's knowledge, cannot be given a wide distribution or an inviting
display on the shelves of the trade. The smaller bookseller cannot
afford to carry them. His profits are small and his investments in
books of this class have to be very carefully considered. His margin
of profit is too small for him to take more chances than he has to,
and consequently he relies largely upon his jobber, from whom he in
most cases picks up these books as he needs them. The wholesaler has
to be a bureau of information concerning this part of his business.
His mail brings him in all sorts of inquiries for books that have been
out of print for years. Somebody wants them, can they be obtained by
advertising for them or otherwise? The jobber must know this and give
the information to his customer promptly. Books not yet published.
When will they be issued? What will be the cost? An approximate price
must be given. What are the best books on certain subjects, and how do
they compare with other works in the same field? Hundreds of inquiries
similar to these are constantly received. Sometimes titles are garbled
and twisted all out of shape, taken down perhaps by the rural
bookseller phonetically and confidently forwarded to the wholesaler,
who will certainly know. The right book is usually sent, and not often
is the jobber found to be at fault. Curiously enough, the majority of
people are very careless in regard to titles of books, and many
conundrums of this kind are daily solved by the trade.
Peculiar in many ways is the book trade, and the ordinary laws of
commercialism do not always apply to the book business. The book
market is fickle to the utmost degree. The books that should sell
sometimes do not "move" at all, and those that apparently have but
little to recommend them turn out to be the best of the bunch so far
as sales are concerned. A jobber has to be something of an optimist;
he must keep his ear to the ground, and, like certain types of
politicians, must be prepared to give the people what they want when
they want it. He can of course help along the demand for good books
and check that for poor literature, and, to his credit, he usually
does this, but the book-buying public is truly democratic and in the
main people are pretty definite in their wants. Oftentimes they can be
led, but it is rarely that they will consent to be driven.
Another important part of the jobber's business is the supplying of
public libraries and similar institutions. Here his knowledge of books
and the resources of his establishment are put to the severest test.
Libraries use a vast quantity of books, and the demand from this
source is extremely varied in character. Librarians are also very
shrewd and careful buyers, and much work in the way of pricing of
lists, answering inquiries, etc., is demanded. Margins of profit here
are very small, but there is practically no loss in the matter of
accounts, and a librarian is very satisfactory to deal with, as he
usually knows what he wants. The popular novel has been pushed so much
to the front of late years and advertised on such a colossal scale,
that one not versed in the reading demands of the people might very
well think America was reading nothing else. In the orders sent in by
public libraries, however, "solid reading" is very largely
represented, and, as a matter of fact, that class of literature is
making just as great an increase in public demand as the lighter kind.
The wholesaler therefore is a useful member of the book world and an
important factor in the distribution of books. He must combine the
acumen of the business man with a taste for literature for
literature's sake, have an enormous capacity for detail but be capable
of grasping an opportunity, possess the wisdom of Solomon, the
patience of Job, and the tact of a diplomat. He must be, in short, a
business man, a scholar, and a philosopher; and even with all these
accomplishments he is not likely to endanger the peace of the
community by accumulating an enormous fortune.