The Worthington advance., 1881-09-01

Il 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 con-
sists in II still further very great reduc-
tion (cOnditionai} even from the revO-
luton prices, While, ut Tie same time,
the average quality Of the books viii
continue to be materially improved.
HOW CAN THESE THINGS DE?
To attempt an impossibility could of
course result only in failure, aud it
would be useless, in our own interest,
or in that of the many thousand GUS
toners who have shown us such earnest
favor, and haye 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 it now,
| by giving facts and figures illustrating
how we can afford to still further re-
duco prices.
FACTS AND FIGURES.
Please note, at the start, our apology
for not having done heretofore what
1st. We published our first book on.
ly so long ago as January. 1879. Pre-
vious to that time we were entirely
without experience in book publishing.
What knowledge we had Of the busi-
ness was gained in newspaper publish
ing, and in booksel,ing.
2d. We were also at tic time almost
| entirely without capital. and until SO
late as February, 1881, we labored under
tho difficult; OF being without capital
even approximately adequate fer tie
maguitndc of the enterprise we were
| undertaking.
Sd. Our entire scheme Was in oppos-
ition toall previous methods OF publish.
! ing and booiselling. And from tho be-
ginning TO tl!e present, we have had the
combined bitter opposition of almost
! the entire book-pUblisll;ng and book
selling classes Of the United States.
4th. Starting thus, with minimum
| Of knowledge, AID less capital, and
| with such i'm nense opposition, we
thought it best, III Tie interest Of both
the reading public and ourselves, that
| We undertake too little, rather than too
| much; partial success would be better
! tiian total failure.
9Th. III spite OF OuI want Of resour-
| Ces and OF experience, and in spite of
opposition, and with the necessity of
organizing and training oar neeo forces,
and. necessarily trying mary expert
! ments, ali OF whicl, no one could expect
wonld he uniformly successful, we have
from january l, 1886. 10 June 80. 1881,
manufactured and sold nearly 2.0CO, 600
volumes OF standard books, Cor which
| we have received the considerable sum
Of 500 so. 81.
9th. III crcu!:ir issued in January
OF the present: yea: yea: we made tie follow
| ing statement: THE pubic have SO long
pensiye !;.:.u-- les and low prices ilnpcs-
sible, thai Incredibly has f~om tie
first been the greatest obstacle to the
progress OF the Literary Revolution.
1t was easier to make good books cheap
than il WAS to make people believe it
could be done. We could readily have
made prices even lower than they have
been, but FOR the terrible tax we have
been compelled to pay to this ircreduli-
IT,"
We have during this period. from
January. !, 1880, 20 june 80, 1851, raid
for advertising, the large sum OF S1tO,-
S7G. S3. This ii.lnanse item necessarily
has to come out of the profits We make
OH the books sold.
7t!,. Although orr scheme o:igi-
rally embodied the principle OF So!ling
directly to the cons u:ne:, and doing a.
way with the eXoi :t;:nt cost Of middle
men, Wo have not undertaken TO put a
slue the book seller H:ld ;!.e book agent
;eltogeti:e:, i.cC:is;se = IL sc portion OF
the boc;s-buSeG. {: t:e country have
got into the habit OF looking to them
Tor tI!c;:' :,t:::i is. a.:d K We were to
supply tie Wants ot ssvi. customers at
all, we wee compelled TO do it through!
these o:di'lGi:y channels. E;.t we lave
endp;tYC:e:l - ii,ttrce cs compel t;:es5
midd;cmn1: to work, IS We haya been
doing, on i more reasonably small per-
centage of profit (the immensely in
creased sales at the reduced prices, even
with the smaller commissions, really
give the bookseller q larger net profit
:!.an he formerly I'ad.) Accordingly,
we have during this period. from Jaou-
'ary ], 1886, to June SO, 1881, allowed
commissions averaging aGont 25 per
words, in addition to the S;709, ,52l SO we
have received from the public fox our
books, the public has also pad to the
simply for handling these books maxi
ing the total cost of the books to the
consumer $3.50. .65.
8th. From these statements you can
readily see that if
From the tot?' amount
which the pubic has
paid 'O~ our bOOks,.. 398G. .9Ol .65
We deduct the amount
we have paid for ad-
vertSirE .HcS2 books. *!!O.9 S.93
Add nc ?mnr't NJ ::
to n'ilue1nen f.
handling t'7 Doc 5. l'',:sa.::33 ::33
We have 'ot2l ti., uc.io o:... SO, 1926
And ;cn,aisty; nf $3.50 l2 80
Thus it IS evident t;lat if the public
| had bought these hooks dir,Htly trcn1
us. the unnecessary expenses Of adver-
sising, and of paying mi<ldlemen for
| handling them, heiEg avoided. the books
would have cost them only $5GS. .642 50.
being aim ost 3G per cent less than the
1856, sol. IS which they have paid for
them, and our net proceeds would have
been none the less.
\ BETTER ILLUSTRATION.
The above figures Ssi wv clearly the
possibility OF Il great redtlct ion from
| our prices rs heretofore given without
iniS,iing our net income, but they
do not necessarily show that it is pessi-
bic Tor Us to manufacture and sell books
| at suc! low prices ,c;:I:0ut loss to Us,
as we have never made pretense Of pub
fishing hooks from charitable or phi
lanthrOpio motives, and do not wish
| our friends to think we are doing bust
ness at /. loss, we will give I, cons'usive
And interesting Illustration Of how we
can afford these low prices.
LIBRARY OF UNIV EESAi, E%OWLEDGEI
After a labor Of nearly Two years by
an able corps Of American editors and
writer's, for whose services We have lMid
nearly $50, 900, we have within the brief
period OF less than ten months n,au: e.
lActrAtXn l,iatas nf tl.t. .ilu:ru laf !Iui.