Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-29
MAKING CHEAP BOOKS.
Five thousand Cheap Novels nm Hour
Printed in One Place I'm New York.

Five thousand Cheap Novels m Hour
Printed fn One Place I'm New York.
From the Baltimore Sun.
Books of 100 to 300 pages printed in clear
type. on reasonably good paper, and fairly
well bound in cloth, with decorated and gilt
backs, can be bought for Is cents apiece,
and in some stores at two for a quarter"
AS rule, they are either standard works
or else novels which, without being stand
ard, are favorites with a great many peo-
pie Before these books can be sold at such
price they must be manufactured in very
large quantities. Photo-engraving and like
devices have greatly cheapened the cost OF
making books by wholesale, SO that the
book which is either good enough OF bad
enough to be commercially worth manu-
featuring by the ten thousand can be put
on the market for almost nothing 1t may
be added. however. that this does net en-
courage literary activity to the extent that
might be supposed, for it costs about as
much to manufacture few hundred or
few thousand copies OF a book now as II
ever did. And most hooks never get be-
ycnd a few thousand copies at the outside.
1t is in the manufacture of the cheap
novel that the modern science OF book
makin, vindcates itself most triumphant
ly. The Minneapolis Times says: A contem-
porary gives highly interesting descrip-
ton of the modern machinery for making
the cheap novel. There Is an establishment
in New York which prints 1900 novels an
hour. 1t says: They have a machine con-
.sting of two cylinders on each OF which
l ID pages may be screwed, and as the long
strip of paper goes through one side Is
printed and then the other, making 1t pos
sble to print 80 pages at every revolution
The strip OF paper, after being carried over
rollers which dry the ink, is cut, folded and
brought together in the shape of volume,
with the edges all trimmed. Every time
the great cylinder goes round novel ID
printed, folded and trimmed 1t is easy
TO turn out 5000 all hour from such press,
and the number can be increased to 1900
These can be bound at the rate OF nifty
minute, and the total cost OF each VIII not
he over 3 cents. When new these books. IL
they are novels of specially sensational
character are put on the market at 80
cents EACH but the price falls as the sale
grows slower, until at last they find their
way to the Scent counters OF the second
hand dealers. -. $685. ...
Every now and then book that is
neither very good nor very bad Will nave
a run that will justify printing large edi-
tons, but as a rule only standard works
held in universal favor can compete Tor
place on the fast presses Of the sensational
novel "Pilgrim's Progress, FOR instance
can morr than hold its own with the class
of books that are TO be seen at the railroad
and hotel news stands, but no second-rate
book can. L. is only the very good that
can compete with the very bad Tor pubic
favor. The cheap book means a great
deal. 1t is silently and rapidly cooperating
with the newspapers to produce great
changes i'm the whole structure and haDits
of society Some Of them may be for the
worse at least for the time being. Most OF
them will be for the better. AT any rate
they are bound to come The only way 10
stop them would lie to stop the presses
that can print 5000 books an hour Ana
the world has got past that t-fs-f