The semi-weekly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1879-1882, 1881-08-18
A SECOND LITERARY
RETOLUTION,

ture at from one.third to one-tenth Of
their former cost.
The second literary revolution con-
sists in still further very great re-
duction (conditionar even from the
revolution prices, while at the same
time, the average quality of the books
will continue to be materially improy-
ed
HOW CAN THESE THINGS BEL
To attempt an impossibility could
Of course result only in failure, and it
would be useless, 10 cur own interest,
OF in that Of the many thousand Gus
toners who have shown US such earn-
est favor, and have given US such
great patronage, to announce or prom
Use what could not be performed We
have dealt frankly with our customers
in giving facts concerning costs and
profits 10 the past, and we do it now,
by giving facts and figures illustrating
how We can affrd to still further re-
duce prices.
FACTS AND FIGURES.
Please note, at the start, our apol-
oev for not having done heretofore
what we now propose to do and con-
slider
lst-We published our first book
only SO long ago as January, 1879.
Previous to that time We were entire.
ly without experience ia book pub
fishing. What knowledge we had Of
the business was gained in Newspaper
publishing, and in book selling.
2d-We were also at that time al
most entirely without capital, and
until SO late as February, 1881, we
labored under the difficulty Of being
without capital even approximately
adequate for the magnitude of the en-.
terprise we were undertaking
3d-Our entire scheme was in oppo-
sition to all previous methods of pub
fishing and book selling. And from
the beginning TO the present, We have
had the combined bitter opposition Of
almost the entire book publishing and
book selling classes Of the United
States.
sh-StartiDg thus, with minimum
Of knowledge, and less capital, and
with such immense opposition, we
thought It best, in the interest ofboth
the reading public and ourselves, that
we undertake too little, rather than
too much; partial success would be
better than total failure.
5th-In spite Of our want Of rssour-
oes and Of experience, and In spite Of
opposition, and with the necessity Of
organizing and training Of our new
forces, and necessarily trying many
experiments, all of which no one
could expect would be uniformly suc-
ceaful, we havs from January l,
1880, to January 80, 1881, manufac.
tured and sold nearly 100000 vol
umes Of standard books for which we
have received the considerable sum of
$7Os,52l.a2
6th-In I circular issued in Janu-
airy Of the present year we made the
following statement: "The public
have 90 long been taught 20 believe
books to be expensive Injuries and
low prices impossible that incredulity
has from the first been the greatest
obstacle to the progress of the Liter
airy Revolution. 1t was easier to
make good books cheap than to make
people believe it could be done. We
coullreadily have made prices even
lower than they have been, but for
the terrible tax we were compelled to
pay to this incredulity."
We have during this period, from
January l, 1880, to june 80, 1881,
paid for advertising, the large sum of
S14O,s7895 This immense item
necessarily has to come out of the
profits we make on the books sold.
7th-Although our scheme original
ly embodied the principle of selling
directly to the consumer, and doing
away with the exorbitant cost of mid
dlemen, we have not undertaken to
put aside the book seller and the book
agent altogether, because large por-
ton of the book buyers of the coun-
try have got into the habit of looking
to them for their supplies, and if we
were to supply the wants of such GUS
toners at all, we were compelled to do
it through these ordinary channels.
But we have endeavored to induce or
compel these middlemen to work, as
we have been doing on more reas-
oDably small percentage Of profit
(the immensely increased sales at the
reduced prices, even with the smaller
commissions, really give the book