Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-04-02


1t is very remarkable that in year
| so bad for trade generally as the last
| was. there should have been an in
crease of nearly twenty per cent. in
| the number of new books published, as
compared with the year Immediately
| previous, which was one of much more
prosperity in other departments of in
dustry. But it must not be inferred
that because more books were pub
| lished, 1884 was, a more profitable year
for the book trade.
1t was instead a very unsatisfactory
year, and, although NO publishing
houses of Importance came to grief, it
showed decreased profits. The number
of new books published may be great
er, and yet the total of books sold may
be less. Beside, the trade was suffer
ing from cause that has for several
years past tended to impair its pros
perity. which was before iniuriously
affected by custom of giving discounts
to retail dealers SO great as to enable
them to sell books much below their
advertised prices.
The great cause of the trouble is the
publication of reprints and translations
of past and contemporary English,
French and German fict Oh at ten and
twenty cents each. Formerly such
books brought fifty cents and dollar,
and the profit on them was large, for
they supplied large part of the de-
mand for reading, three-fourths of
which is for novels. Now the profits
are insignificant at the prevalent prices
unless the editions sold are immense;
and houses which make a spec atty of
issuing such cheap literature draw off
business from the general trade. The
native novelists also suffer, for. as a
rule, publishers are afraid to touch
their work, no matter how good it NAV
be. when copyright stories must come
in competition with reprints selling for
a few cents each.
The works of fiction published were.
of course, chiefly foreign; and, proba-
bly,, of the native moves not few were
issued at the expense and risk of their
authors. who could not get their books
before the public in any other way.
Those who knew most about the subject
as, for instance, the experts of our
great publishing houses, say that never
before was the number of manuscript
novels of exceptional merit in their
hands so Large AS it is now But the
state of the book market is such as to
deter publishers from ventura NO to risk
money on them They find that the
public have grown SO accustomed to
cheap literature that they hesitate
about giving more than twenty-five
cents for q novel, unless it comes from
some native author of extraord nary
popularity.
1t is bad, very bad time, for the
American novelist who has not ALREADY
won his spurs; and were it not for the
magazines and the fore On market. even
the men of great reputation would fare
pretty poorly. At the best, the aver.
age yearly gains of even the most sue
cessful native novelist are much less
than they are commonly supposed to
be-
The table shows that works devoted
to specialties are publ shed with espec-
ial confidence. If they are well select
ed, their sale is sure. though it NAV be
limited. and the prices can be made re-
munerative. For instance. next to fic-
ton the largest number of publications
in a single branch of literature were
those devoted to the law. Then fol-
lowed theology and rel gion, books in
numbers by societies supported hv
churches. Many such works are also
published at the expense of their an.
thors. who think that the world needs
to know what they have to teach con-
corning the duty and destiny of man.
These authors books, as they are called
in the trade, are very numerous. and
doubtless the totals in the table above
are much increased because of them.
AS 1t is now. periodicals excepted.
the most profitable and the surest bns.
hness investments of the publisher are
those he makes in works of the more
serious and more expensive kind.
Novels and miscellaneous books Are
doubtful things to touch.-N. Y. SAN.