The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-08-12
BOOK AGENTS.
They Do a Rushing Business and Are Objects
of Envy.

They Do q Rushing Business and Are Objects
Of Envy.
A kind-hearted individual was heard the other
day lamenting the fate of 'the poor book agent
who had just left the premises after an unsuc-
cessful visit. ITO think of q man having to tote
about books for q living. Hard lines. l call il"
Hard lines" rosrsd a byssander. with a from
bonish outlaw, why, my dear fellow, that poor
book agent as you call him, makes SIS, 900 a
year. and never works more than four hours .
day!'
Our friend did not stretch the point. A clever
book agent is the last man in the world upon
whom pity should be expended. There are men
Of this calling who make their S10. 600 and $l5,-
600 a year. They are the kings Of their race.
and being kings, OF course there are not many
OF them. Three years ago q young Polish Jew
came to this country; he knew q few dozen
words of English, and these he disguised so
skillfully that he might have been taken for an
apostle of Volapuk. Like tho shrewd fellow he
was, he began at once to increase his vocabu-
larry and decrease his accent. In q few months
he started out as a book-agent. Two years ago
he undertook to sell subscription sets of Dick
ems in New York. Beginning at the Battery,
he has not yet gone above Grand street in his
daily rounds. but he has already cleared go. 600
by his operations. This il ore OF the pleasing
facts of the subscription book trade
1t 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 man can succeed as a book agent IL
you know all the best books by heart land you
il you can expound-none so wisely as you-ou
the merits of q cataloeus Of authors. you there
by afford no proof Of your own merit as a cam
vasser. Does the wisest critic enact Hamlet, or
paint q Madonna Not by 30 much as q 'cue,n
or a shadow of a hair. And the most successful
of booksellers may be the least of book readers.
Some of them are. There is q man who stands
high in his calling of book agent. who could
not tell you whether Shakespeare or Lord Byron
wrote "a Midsummer Nights Dream" There
is a clever fellow who sells sets of Thackeray;
and other leaders of the century's fiction, and
he could not for his life's sake tell you in what
book TO frd Colonel Newcome, or whether
Becky Sharp figures in Daniel Deronda" or
VANITY Fair and yet this same solicitor earns
as large an income as Rev. Phillips Brooks.
What then is the principal recurrence in o book
aeenti 'Cheek." more than all else.
Subscription books are the money-makers.
And the higher the price the better for master
agent His commission is a goodly per centage
it would be revealing q sacred secret of the
trade to tell how much-and If he finds half q
dozen customers q day, he is moro than salts
fed. With some books, three or four customers
a day are sufficient unto his needs. which are
never modest.
Within the last decade the subscription book
the harvest is reaped by publishers and agents.
because, 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 occa-
sions when living authors or their heirs
find the subscription field o rich one. General
Grants book and Mr.. Blaines Twenty Years
of Congress" are cases in point But Dickens,
Scott and Thackersy lead in the order named.
Ten years aRoa New Yorker started in the bust
ness Of publishing and selling Dickens's works
by subscription. he Is now q millionaire. One
agent, a young man. has sold G. 900 sets of Dick
ensls 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. advancs-the source Of profit 10
hear Of the subscription-book buyer
who grumbies at tho price. Ten
chances to one he rarely enters q book shop. In
these rushing days people want everything
brought to them-meats. vegetables, and books
not excepted-snd for the privilege they have to
pay. This is q consequence that follow natur-
ally upon the possession Of privileges.
Novels are the best selling books, and there
are hut 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 q new book is pub
lished read an old one" Some authors Marx
Twain is one of theml own their plates
aud publish for themselves, but the
stamp OK success ID requrec oeiolo
q man can venture upon that sea
of enterprise. K. p. Roeis books sell at q
prodigious rate. Lew Wallace has the satisfac-
ton OF knowing that one Of his books-"Ben-
Hur--has been sold to over zoe, 900 readers, and
more than that. he has the supreme satisfaction
Of solid proceeds. But "Ben-Hur' was unsala-
bic when first put on the market The copies
Law in the bookshops uncalled for and updis-
turbed in 1880. One Boston establishment alone
has sold over A, 900 copies of the book since then,
and the demand still increases. 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 prepared for which as many peo-
pie as can get them are willing to pay $40