Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1888-10-27
ways OF RooK.AoENrs
my Do a Rushing Business ana on
Accommodate Snug Enrtnnna.

- ~ @ftN~fNNA h-NNNN -
my Do n Rushing Business and Omen
Accumulate Snug Fortunes.
Il any one by chance, having nothing
better to do, should read this article
let them not be possessed Of the spirit
Of restless ambition. Not every unan
can succeed as a book agent. II you
know all the best Books BY heart (and
you do MOTH ii-you have a passion for
n'eraturei and if you can expound---
none 80 wisely as you-on the merits
OF 2 catalogue of authors, you thereby
3ltord no proof of your own merit as
canvasser. Does the wisest critic enact
Hamlet, or paint MadonnaP Not by
so much as ''cue,n or a shadow of a
hair And the most successful of book
sellers may be the least of book-read-
ers. Some Of them are. There is a
man who stands high in his calling OF
pSoS-agent, who could not tell you
whether Shakespeare or Lord Byron
wrote "A Midsummer Nights Dream"
There is clever fellow who sells sets
OF Thackeray and other leaders of the
century''s fiction, and he could not for
his LIES sake tell you in what
book to find Colonel Newcome, or
whether Becky Sharp figures in "Dan-
lei Deronda" or Vanity Fair and
yet this same solicitor earns as large an
income as Rev. Phillips Brooks. What
then is the principal requirement in
book agentP Check" more than all
else.
Subscription books are the money.
makers. And the higher the price
the better for master agent. His COM
mission is goodly percentage--it
would be revealing sacred secret OF
the trade to tell how much-and if he
hnds half dozen customers day,
he is more than satisfied. With some
books, three or four customers a day
are sufficient unto his needs, which
are never modest.
Within the last decade the subscrip-
ton book trade has grown to enor.
nous proportions But the harvest is
reaped by publishers and agents, be-
cause, as a general thing, there are no
authors rights" to be considered.
Editions are prepared Of works that
are open to all corners. To be sure,
there are occasions when living
authors or their heirs find the subscrip-
ton field rich one. General Grants
book and Mr.. Blaine's Twenty Years
Of Congress- are cases in point. But
Dickens, Scott and Thackeray lead in
the order named. Ten years ago a
Now Yorker started in the business Of
publishing and selling Dickens works
by subscription. He is now million
alre. One agent, young man, has
sold 5000 sets of Dickens's works in
two years. AS subscription books sell
at a higher price than their fellows
that are to be bought in the shops-not
infrequently at 80 per cent. advance
the source of profit is evident. For all
that, one has yet to hear of the sub
scription-book buyer who grumbles at
the price. Ten chances to one he
rarely enters book shop. In these
ruShing days people want every thing
brought to them-meats, vegetables
and books not excepted-and for the
privilege they have to pay. This is a
consequence that follows naturally
upon the possession Of privileges.
NOtyc1c 4ba hoe4 ro11s,.. 1ooI-.
and there are but few cases in which it
does not hold that the novels of dead
authors sell better than those of the
living. Dickens, Scott and Thackeray
hold their own against all corners, and
here, at least, it will be seen that
the world pays some heed to the
advice: when new book is pub
lished read an old one" Some authors
MARK Twain is one of them) own their
''plates" and publish for themselves,
but the stamp of success is required
before man can venture upon that sea
of enterprise. E. P. Roe's books sell
at a.prodigious rate. Lew Wallace has
tne satisfaction of knowing that one OF
his books-''Ben Hur'-has been sold
to over 200, 900 readers, and more than
that, he has the supreme satisfaction
of solid proceeds. But "Ben-Hur' was
unstable when first put on the mar
ket. The copies lay in the book-shops
uncalled for and undistlrbed in 1880.
One Boston establishment alone has
sold over 1900 copies of the book
since then, and the demand still in
creases. Happy author, to whom such
recognition comes while he is still
alive and in the enjoyment of all his
faculties; happy, too, in knowing that
an edition Of his book has been pre-
pared for which as many people can
get them are willing to pay $40 a copy.
Boston Herald.