The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-16

| IhEut 10 iuuCh ihOtC 0bci uiy ShipioyCo W
their own and the worlds good?
These questions were put by Sun re-
porter to s. 8. Mcclure Of Mcclure, Phillips
Il Co.. who has brought out some of the
most successful book, OF the last three
years. and, like oth'r New York pub
fishers. has adopted the new methods in
moderation to the great increase in the
business Of his house. Mr.. Mcclure didn't
| think that any of these dreadful things
| would necessarily follow.
Il don believe that there is any more
literary rubbish printed now in proportion
10 the number OF books turned out than
there ever has been.' said Mr.. Mcclure.
You can't push a poor book down the
public's throat by advertising it. no matter
how hard you try-that is. you can't sell
enough books to make the experiment q
success.
you see. advertising is expensive. You
may sell fair number Of copies OF book
by advertising II extensively, but that will
barely pay. il It does pay, for the outlay.
The thing that really makes book a sue
cess that sends It's sale up into big figures,
is to have some one who has read the bbok
recommend it to his friends, who will buy
il in turn and advise their friends afterward
TO buy II.
IF the book does not catch the public taste
this won't happen. Those who are attracted
to it by the advertising will read 1t and then
drop il. And the only result will be TO
leave the publisher in a hole
A good book that is a book with a great
popular quality In 1t will succeed anyway.
But ii will succeed more rapidly and its
success will be greater II 1t is advertised
rs good books are being advertised now.
There are many instances of it. Take
one of our own books, Monsieur Beau
caire;' 1t reached a sale of $1,000 copies
before we began to advertise IT, after that
1t went up into much larger figures.
A book Is like a baby. There are some
babies that will grow strong and healthy.
| however much they may be abused, and
there are some babies that are born weak
! lings and will die. however much you
! pamper them.
Its the same with books II a book has
| the strength in 1t that the public demands
| it will grow anyway, no matter whether IL
| is pampered and fed with advertising or
| not. II 1t hasn't the strength it can't sur
| yive. But, OF course. If 1t Is brought up
carefully and judiciously fed it will get along
| all the better
| Then you think the nev methods are
| for the benefit Of the publishing trade and
/ the public, too''
| Certainly l do" said Mr.. Mcclure. Il
p, think this will tend to harden the publish
ing business by shaking out of it the little
| fellows with insufficient capital to push
good book; It will benefit the author by
| increasing the reward for good book, and
4 "a. 10 IL.
bringing in more people who can write good
books and encouraging in the publisher
| a wise discrimination as to the books be
/ publishes"
|, l. interesting to note that 1t IL the gem
eral opinion of publishers that rather less
book advertising has been done this year
! than last. The reason for this, however.
/ /, not that any less effort Is being put into
pushing the new publications.
II is rather because the publishers. after
| emharking in a comparatively new field.
are now learning how best To spend their
! advertising capital 10 advantage and how
/ 20 get for a smaller outlay more iudiciously
distributed the same results a. year ago
they received for much larger eNpend-
iture.
The number OF new books published this
year i also likely TO show not so large an
increase over last year as 1901 did over its
predecessor, and for very much the same
reason. 1t has been learned. as Mr.. Nc
Clure said, that you cannot, by advertising
it, get the public TO buy any old kind Of
book, in sufficient quantity TO pay for the
outlay and return the publisher and the
author fair profit. The book must have
merit, or the publisher embarks in costly
speculation which will close with the bal
ance Oh the wrong side Of the ledger.
According to the Bookman the six best
selling new novels OF last month in their
order we're these: Owen Visitors The Vir-
ginian;' Smiths 'Oiver Horn;' Hegan's
Mrs Wigs of the Cabbage Patch" Hough's
"Thc Mississippi Bubble" McCutcheon's
Castle Craneycrow and Halle Erminie
Rives's Hearts Courageous How much
advertising has affected their sale n glance
at the newspaper advertising columns will
permit the reader 10 Judge for himself
II is also interesting to see that last years
great increase In publications was by no
means confined TO fiction and books IN
lighter vein, but was well dist ributel through
all classes of literature, as this table shows
I 1890 1907.