Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1881-08-18
4 SECOND LIrRRARY REVOLUTION.

A SECOND LITERARY REVOLUTION.
The first literary revolution consisted
in the publication Of standard books in
every department Of literature at from
one-third to one-tenth Of their former
cost.
The second literary revolution consists
in still further very great reduction
(conditionaD even from the revolution
prices, while, at the same time, the ay-
erage quality Of the books will continue
to be materially improved.
HOW CAN THESE THINGS BE?
To attempt an impossibility could Of
course result only in failure, and it would
be useless, in our own interest, or in that
of the many thousand customers who
have shown us such earnest favor, and
have given us such great patronage, to
announce or promise what could not be
performed. We have dealt frankly with
our customers in giving facts concerning
costs and profits in the past, and we do
1t now, by giving facts and figures illus
trating how we can afford to still further
reduce prices.
FACTS AND FIGURES.
Please note at the start, our apology
for not having done heretofore what we
new propose to do, and consider
1st-We published our first book only
SO long ago as January, 1879. Previous
to that time we were entirely without
experience in book publishing. What
knowledge we had of the business was
gained in the newspaper publishing and
in book.selling.
2d-We were also at that time almost
entirely without capital, and until so late
as February, 1881, we labored under the
difficulty of being without capital even
approximately adequate for the magni-
tude of the enterprise we were undertak-
ing.
3d-Our entire scheme was in opposi-
tion to all previous methods of publish
ing and bookselling. And from the be-
ginning to the present. we have had the
combined bitter opposition of almost the
entire book-publishing and book-selling
classes of the United States.
4th-Starting thus with minimum of
knowledge, and less capital, and with
such immense opposition, we thought it
best, in the interest of both the reading
public and ourselves, that we undertake
too little, rather than to much; partial
success would be better than total failure.
5th-In spite of our want of resources
and OF experience, and in spite. of oppo-
sitlon, and with the necessity of organi-
zlng and training our nelC forces, and .nec-
essarlly trying many experiments, all of
which no one could expect would be uni
formly successful. we have from January
l, 1850, to June 30, 1881. manufactured
and sold nearly 1900, 900 volumes of stan
dard books, for which we have received
the considerable sum of $709, ,521.32.
6th.-ln circular issued in January of
the present year we made the following
statement: "The public have so long
been taught to believe books to be ex-
pensive luxuries and low prices impossi-
BILE. that incredulity has from the first
been the greatest obstacle to the progress
of the Literary Revolution. 1t was easier
to make good books cheap than it waslto
make people believe it could be done. .xWe
could readily have made prices even low
er than they have been. but for the ter
rible tax we have been compelled to pay
to this incredulity.'
We have during this period. from Jan
uary l, 1880, to June 80, 1881, paid for
advertising, the large sum of $40, ,S7S.9
This immense item necessarily has to
come out Of the profits s0e make on the
books sold
7th-Although our scheme originally
embodied the principle of selling directly
to the consumer, and doing away with
the exorbitant cost of middlemen, we
have not undertaken to put aside the
bookseller and the book agent altogether,
because large portion of the book-buy-
ers of the country have got into the hab-
If nF IOnl-inrr tn than, for fhair cy1ny1ia,
and if we were to supply the wants of
such customers 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 reasonably
small percentage of profit (the immensely
increased sales at the reduced prices,
even with the smaller commissions, real
ly give the bookseller larger net profit
than he formerly had. Accordingly, we
have during this peeiod, from January 1,
1880, 10 June 80, 1881. allowed to the book
sellers and book-agents commissions av-
eraging about 25 per cent of our total re-
ceipts. In other words, in addition to
the $709,521.S2 we have received from
the public for our books, the public has
also paid to the middlemen the large sum
of SIT, 3S0.33 simply for handling these
books, making the total cost of the books
to the consumer 1886, 901.6
Sth-From these statements you can
readily see that if
From the total amount
which the public has
paid for our books. SSS6,901 65
We deduct the amount
we have paid for ad-
vertsing these books. .$140,S7S.93
And the amount paid
to middemen for
handling the books. 171,3SO33
We have total deduction off,. 3lS,25926
And remainder of of..................$ $56S, $40. 80
Thus it is evident that if the public had
bought these books directly from as, the
unnecessary expenses of advertising, and
of paying middlemen for handling them,
being avoided. the books would have cost
them only 1868, ,642.39, being almost SO
per cent. less than the 1886, 901. .65 which
they have paid for them, and our net pro-
ceeds would have been none the less.
BETTER ILLUSTRATION.
The above figures show clearly the pos
sibility of great reduction from our
prices as heretofore given without dimin-
necessarily show that it is possible for us
to manufacture and sell books at such
low prices Vithout loss to as. AS we
have never made pretense of publishing
books from charitable or philanthropic