By Charles S. Olcott.
The business of selling books may be divided, in a general way, into
two divisions, one seeking to bring the people to the books, the other
aiming to take the books to the people. The first operates through the
retail book stores, news-stands, department stores, and the like. The
other employs agents, or advertises in the newspapers or magazines, to
secure orders or "subscriptions," on receipt of which the books are
delivered. The latter method of selling has become known as the
"Subscription-book" business.
The agent usually calls at the office or home of his prospective
customer and shows samples of the text pages, illustrations, bindings,
etc., bound together in a form known as a "prospectus." Sometimes he
exhibits a number of different prospectuses. The customer signs an
order blank, which the agent turns over to the publisher, who makes
the delivery and collects the money. To cover the entire country, the
large publisher establishes branch offices in many different cities or
sells his books to so-called "general agents," who secure their own
canvassers.
It may be asked, why does such a method exist? Do not people know
enough to go to the book stores and ask for what they want? And why go
to a man and urge him to buy a book he does not want? The answer goes
deep into human nature. People have to be urged to take very many
things which they know they ought to have. The small boy knows he
ought to go to school, but has to be coaxed. Parents know he ought to
go, but compulsory education laws have been found necessary in many
states. The churches are good, but people sometimes need urging even
to go there. Life insurance, honestly conducted, is one of the
greatest blessings a man can buy with money, but the principal
expenditures of the great companies are the vast sums spent in
pleading with the people to take advantage of it.
Experience has proved this to be true of books. Men and women must be
employed to show the people their value. The latest novel, if popular
and well advertised, will sell fairly well in the retail store, but an
encyclopaedia, or any extensive set of books, must be taken directly to
the people and explained by competent salesmen if the publishers hope
to pay the cost of the plates within a lifetime. This is strikingly
illustrated in the case of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." The sales in
England of the original ninth edition were less than ten thousand
sets. In America, where subscription methods were adopted from the
first, and in England, after some enterprising American
subscription-book men took it in hand, the sales may be fairly
estimated at something like one hundred and fifty thousand sets.
Twenty or thirty years ago, by far the most common form of
subscription book was the variety labelled "Manual of Business," or
the "Complete Farm Cyclopedia," or the "Road to Heaven." The publisher
did not advertise for customers but for agents. The books were sold
directly to the agent, and he in turn delivered them to his customers
and collected the money. Anybody out of employment could take up the
business. The aim was to get as many agents as possible and sell them
the books. The agent canvassed with a "prospectus" after committing to
memory his little story. The subscribers signed their names in the
back of the prospectus. Sometimes the young and inexperienced agent
ordered as many copies as he had signatures or more. Woe unto him if
he did, for oftentimes they would not "deliver." Many years ago I
remember calling at a modest little home in the Middle West. While
waiting in the parlor, I noticed how peculiarly it was furnished.
Every corner of the little square room contained a monument of
symmetrical design, all different, but each some three or four feet
high, and all built of books, as a child might build a fairy castle
out of his wooden blocks. A closer inspection showed that all the
volumes were copies of the same book bound in "half morocco"! The
explanation came later when I was incidentally informed that "Willie
had tried canvassing, but most of 'em backed out."
This reminds one of the remark of Thoreau when, four years after the
publication of his first book (at the author's expense), the publisher
compelled him to remove 706 unsold copies out of the edition of 1000,
and he had them all carted to his home. "I now have," he said, "a
library of nearly 900 volumes, over 700 of which I wrote myself." It
is an interesting fact in this connection that the successors of that
publisher are to-day, fifty years later, successfully selling by
subscription an edition of Thoreau's writings in 20 volumes, the set
in the cheapest style of binding costing $100.
Among the famous books sold by this method have been Blaine's "Twenty
Years in Congress," Stanley's "In Darkest Africa," and Grant's
"Memoirs." The handsome fortune which the publishers of the latter
were enabled to pay to Mrs. Grant was made possible only by the
application of the subscription method of reaching the people.
Another form of subscription book, now fortunately obsolete, was the
book in "parts." A "part" consisted of some twenty-four or forty-eight
pages, or more, in paper covers. These were delivered and paid for by
the buyer in instalments of one or two at a time until the entire
work was complete. Then the binding order was solicited. It was an
expensive and unsatisfactory makeshift, intended to reach those who
could pay only a dollar or two a month. The theory was that the people
could not be trusted, and therefore the book must be cut up and
delivered in pieces. Later the publishers learned that "most people
are honest," and the modern method is to deliver the complete
publication and collect the price in monthly instalments. This plan
has proved far more economical both to subscribers and publishers, and
the losses are few if the management is careful and conservative. One
house which carefully scrutinizes its orders has suffered losses of
less than one per cent on a business of several millions of dollars
covering a period of fifteen years.
In late years by far the greatest part of the subscription-book
business has been done with complete sets of books, usually the
writings of the leading standard authors. These books are sold
directly to the subscriber who gives a signed order, and the publisher
makes the delivery, pays the agent a cash commission, and collects the
payments as they fall due. The old, worthless, "made-up" books are
rapidly disappearing, and the subscription-book of to-day is as a rule
a vastly superior article to that of a score of years ago. In fact
some of the oldest and most reliable publishing houses in America now
offer their choicest output by subscription. A large investment of
capital in plates, illustrations, editorial work, etc., such as is
necessary in many of the extensive editions of standard works, could
not be made unless there, were an assured return. The subscription
method of selling makes such undertakings possible, and the result of
its adoption has been the issue of many superb publications which
never would or could have been undertaken, had the retail book store
been the only outlet to the market. The subscription business has in
this way proved a marked benefit to the lovers of fine editions of
their favorite authors. The book-lover has been benefited, too, in the
matter of prices. The agent's commission under the modern methods is
no greater than the bookseller's profit, and no extraordinary
allowance is made for losses, as many imagine, for the losses are
comparatively small. The desire to extend his business leads the
publisher to make his books more attractive, while there is plenty of
competition to keep the prices down. It is a fact that the buyer is
to-day getting a far better book for his money than ever before.
The personnel of the canvassing force has also undergone a change. A
business such as the best houses are now doing requires agents of
intelligence, tact, and judgment. The callow youth cannot succeed as
he did once. The man who has failed at everything else will fail here.
There are now men and women engaged in selling books by subscription,
who possess business ability of a high order. Many of them have
well-established lines of trade,--regular customers who depend upon
them to supply their wants and keep them informed. The old jibes about
the book-agent fall flat when applied to them. They do not bore their
customers or tire them out. They serve them, and the customers are
glad to be served by them.
I have taken care to point out that these observations apply to the
business as conducted by the older and more conservative book
publishers, who value their reputation. In a consideration of the
subject a sharp distinction should be drawn between such publishers
and a class of irresponsible schemers who by various ingenious devices
seek to gain the public ear and then proceed to impose upon their
victims to the full extent of their credulity. In recent years many
schemes have been devised,--a few honest, some about half honest, and
the rest miserable "fakes."
One of the earliest and most successful "schemes," not dishonest but
certainly ingenious, was that of a publisher who had a large stock of
unmarketable books whose retail price was $6 a volume. He organized an
association and sold memberships at $10, the membership entitling the
subscriber to one of the $6 books and the privilege of buying
miscellaneous books at a discount. The discounts really were no
greater than could have been obtained in any department store, but the
"association" thought it had a great concession and multiplied so
rapidly that the unmarketable book had to be reprinted again and
again.
The next "scheme" to come into prominence was the so-called "raised
contract." The process was simple. The order blank read, for example,
$5 a volume, but the publisher wanted "a few influential citizens like
yourself" to write testimonials, and had a few copies for sale to such
people--only a very few--at $3, merely the cost of the paper and
binding. By paying cash you could get another reduction, and as a
special favor from the agent still another, and so on, until you found
the price whittled down to the ridiculously low sum of $2.65. When the
customer woke up and found that all his neighbors were also
"influential citizens" who had bought at the same price or possibly
less, and that the book would be dear at $2, he mentally resolved to
"buy no more from that house." The figures are given merely to
illustrate the idea and are not quoted from any particular
proposition. It is unfortunately true, however, that the plan here
illustrated is now in daily use by many concerns, although there are
indications that it is gradually dying as the result of overwork!
Another scheme is to advertise a "a few slightly damaged" copies of a
book for sale at barely the cost of the sheets--to save rebinding. A
publisher once confided to me that he was doing a "land-office
business" selling "slightly damaged stock." "How do you damage the
stock," I asked,--"throw the books across the room?" "No," he replied,
laughing, "we haven't time to do that."
Some of the schemes are so ludicrous as to cause one to wonder how
anybody can be made to believe the story. Such was the one which
soberly informed the prospective customer that he had been selected by
a committee of Congress as one of a few representative citizens to
whom the United States government would be willing to sell some of its
precious documents. He was not asked to subscribe, but merely to "let
us know" if he didn't want it, for "another gentleman" was quite
anxious to secure his copy, etc. Of course the fortunate
representative citizen made haste to secure the copy which Congress
intended him to have. I am told that the originator of this scheme
made a fortune out of it.
All these schemes, from the laughably absurd to the contemptibly mean,
should be regarded merely as an excrescence upon the legitimate
subscription-book business. They are like the "get-rich-quick" and
"wildcat" banking schemes which flourish in prosperous times, but have
nothing whatever in common with legitimate financial affairs. It is
unfortunate for the book trade that these schemers selected books as
the particular kind of merchandise upon which to exercise their
ingenuity. They admit that their agents are expected not to canvass
the merits of the book, but to "sell their story." They might have
done the same thing had they chosen jewelry, bric-a-brac, rugs,
paintings, stocks, bonds, or anything else as the subject for their
exploitation. The reliable publishers are hoping that at no distant
date the schemers will take up some of these other lines, although
they bear no grudge against the latter.
If any prejudice exists in the public mind against subscription books,
it is caused by the illegitimate use of books as a means of "fooling"
if not of swindling the people. There are many honorable men and many
houses of the highest class who are engaged in the subscription-book
business. These should no more be classed with such schemers as I have
described than Tiffany's with the diamond merchants who ornament the
fronts of their stores with the three balls. The leading legal lights
of the world and the gentry who frequent the police courts are all
called lawyers; the eminent surgeon who performs marvellous operations
involving incredible knowledge and skill and the half-breed who used
to pull teeth in front of the circus, the brass band drowning the
shrieks of his victims, are both called doctors. The eminent divine
and his ignorant colored brother may both be preachers. Intelligent
people know how to discriminate between these, and do not condemn the
one for the faults of the others. And so the intelligent and honorable
book agent who represents a thoroughly reliable publishing house
deserves to be differentiated from the fellow who comes with a lie on
his tongue, for which an unscrupulous schemer is directly responsible.
The subscription-book business, in the hands of honorable men, has
performed a great service to the whole country, by putting good books
into thousands and hundreds of thousands of homes, where, but for
them, there would be little to read beyond the newspaper or the
magazine. The best publishers have found it the most practicable
method of distribution for their more extensive productions, and
thousands of thoughtful men are glad of the opportunity to receive the
representatives of such houses and to have the best of the new
publications promptly brought to their attention.