Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1895-01-29
MAKING CHEAP BOOKS.
ONE PUBLISHER WHO TURNS our 5000
NOVELS AN HOUR.
South Paris.

Books Of 10 or 800 pages, printed In
clear type, on reasonably good paper,
and fairly well bound in cloth, with dec
Grated aud gilt backs, can be bought
for fifteen cents apiece, and In some
stores at 1.-TWO for quarter" As
rule they are either standard works or
else novels which without being standard
are favoritas with great many people.
Before these books can be sold at such
n price they must be manufactured in
very large quantities. Photo-engraving
and like devices have greatly cheapened
the cost of making books bv wholesale,
so that the book which Is either good or
bad enough for manufacturing by the
ten thousand can be put on the market
for almost nothing. 1t may be added,
however, that this does not encourage
literary activity 10 the extent that might
be supposed, for IL costs IA much To man
ufacture a few hundred or a few thou
sand copies of u book now as II ever did.
And most books never get beyond few
thousand copies At the outside.
IL Ia in the manufacture OF the cheap
novel that the modern science OF book
making vindicstes itself most triumph
antly. The Minneapolis Times says: a
contemporary gives highly interesting
description OF the modern machinery for
making the cheap novel. There is an es-
tablishment In New York which prints
5000 novels sn hour. IL says: "Ihey
have machine consisting OF two cyiin-
ders. on which OF each 40 pages may be-
screwed. and az the long strip OF paper
goes through. one side Is printed and
then the other, making II possible TO
print $50 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
around novel Is printed, folded and
trimmed" Ii Ia easy TO turn out oOoo
an hour from such press, and the num-
Der can be increased 10 700. These can
be bound nj the rate OF 30 minute, and
the tot,l cost OF each will not be over
three cents. When new these books, II
they are novels Of specially sensational
character, are put on the market at 90
cents each, but the price falls as the
sale grows slower, until at last they find
their way to the five cent counters OF the
secondhand dealers.
Every now and then a book that Ia
neither very good nor very bad VIII have
a run that will justify printing large
editions, but as rule only standard
works held in universal favor can COM
pete for place on the fast presses OF the
sensational novel. "Pilgrim's Progress,
for instance, can more than hold It's own
with the class OF books that are TO be
seen at the railroad and hotel news
stands. but no second-rate book can IL Is
only the very good that compete with the
very bad for public favor. The cheap
book means a great deal. IL Is silently
aud rapidly cooperating with the news
papers TO produce great changes In the
whole structure and habits OF society;
Some of them may be for the worse, at
lesst for the time being. Most OF them
will be for the better. At any rate they
are bound 10 come. The only way TO
stop them would he 10 stop the presses
that can print 5000 books an hour. And
the world has got past that.-Baltimore
sun.