The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-01-14
MAKING CHEAP BOOKS.
One Publisher Who Turns Out 5000 Novels
An Hour.

Books of 10 or 300 pages, printed in
clear type, on reasonable good paper, and
fairly we'll bound in cloth, with de-
cortated andkgilt backs, can be bought
for 5 cents apiece. and in some stores
at two for a quarter" AS rule, they
are either standard works or else novels
which without being standard, are fav-
orites with a great many people. Before
these books can be sold at such price
they must be manufactured in very
large quantities. Photoengraving and
like devices have greatly cheapened the
cost of making books by wholesale, SO
that the book which is either good
enough manufacturing by the ten thous-
and can be put on the market for al
most nothing. 1t may be added, how
ever, that this does not encourage liter
airy activity to the extent that might be
supposed, for it costs about as much to
manufacture a few hundred or few
thousand copies of book now as it ever
did. And most books never get Deyond
few thousand copies at the outside.
1t is in the manufacture of the cheap
novel that the modern science OF book
making vindicates itself most trlum phi
antly. The Minneapolis Times says: s
contemporary gives highly interesting
description of the modern machinery for
making the cheap novel. There is an es-
Establishment in New York which prints
5000 novels an hour. 1t says: "They
have machine consisting of two cylln-
ders, on each of which 40 pages may be
screwed, and as the long strip OF paper
goes through one side is printed ana
then the other, making it possible TO
print $50 pages at every revolution. Inc
strip of paper, after being carried over
rollers which dry the ink, is cut, folded
and brought together in tn shape of
a volume, with the edges all trimmed.
Every time the great cylinder goss
around novel is printed, folded and
trimmed 1t is easy to turn out 5000
an hour from such press. and the num-
Der can be increased to 1000. These can
be bound at the rate of SO a minute, and
the total cost of each will not be over
three cents. When new these books. ii
they are novels of a specially sensational
character, are put on the market at so
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 book that is
neiner very good nor very bad will 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. "PilQrim's Progress,
for instance can more til an 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. 1t
is only the very good that can compete
with the class of books that are to be
seen at the railroad and hotel newsstaLd DIS
but no second rate book can. It is
only the very good that compete with the
very bad for public favor. The cheap
book means great deal. It is silently
and 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
least for the time being. Most of them
will be for the better. A any rate, they
are bound to come. The only way to
stop them would be to stop the presses
that can print 5000 books an hour. And
the world has got past that. Baltimore
Sun.