The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-05-28
BUSIEST OF BOOK AGENTS.
How School Books Are Sold by Diplo-
 natc Canvassers.


 The real. active book agents of the country are not the men who worm their way into office or parlor to lure gullible persons into buying editions they do not particularly desire More volumes are disposed of each year by the men who travel over every state and territory in the union in the interests of the school book publishers, and their task requires greater diplomacy than that of the man with the subscription publications, says the New York Sun.
 There are some eighty concerns in the United States that publish books for use in the schools and universities. The great majority of these are engaged only in special lines, but somewhere between fif-
 teen and twenty-five do a more or less
 wholesale printing and distributing of
 books of this character. Nearly all of these maintain state agents, besides a
 corps of specials who go from one sec
 ton to another as their services are re-
 qured.
 Most of the school books are the out growth of methods originated by clever
 teachers and employed by them in their work. A really active teacher seldom fol-
 lows the books in her work. She varies
 the methods laid down by the author and
 in time this leads to the evolution of an- other and different one which she puts into manuscript form.
 Some of the books are written to order. A publishing house finds that it's readers or spoilers are no longer popular-that is, do not sell as readily-while some other publisher Is supplanting them with some
 of his own make. A specialist is called 1.1.
 the popular publication with the one it
 is supplanting, make note of the superior
 points and endeavor to find out wherein 1t appeals the stronger to the men who do the buying This once discovered, eX- perts are called upon to produce some thing better.
 There are certain classes of books, how ever, that cannot be written or compiled to order One house will make a ten strike by publishing a book that revolu- tionizes the teaching say. of arithmetic. If the method proves it's worth on prac- tical trial and receives .favorabl recom-
 mendations from superintendents there
 is scurrying on the part of other pub fishers to get something still better. Most of these houses are in receipt of manuscripts or suggestions for books from educators. There is a thorough search of all on hand for the something better that is wanted. Rejected manu- scripts on the subject are sent for again, and possibly out of one of these the germ of a new one is found.
 In the distribution of the printed vol
 tunes comes the diplomacy. The big com
 panies maintain man in each state. He
 makes tho rounds of the county and city superintendents, getting acquainted and famiarizing those officials with what he has to offer. It seems to be an unwritten law in many states that school books
 shall be changed every few years This Is the opportunity of the school book himself with supplying the needs of those
 districts where he holds the contracts The publishing houses have various means of securing advance information as to changes. They patronize clipping
 bureaus; they have subsidized friends
 among the teachers; their travelling men keep in touch with conditions. Sometimes
 it will be a whole state that proposes to make a change or at least to enter into new contracts. Agents are hustled there
 from every state within 800 miles. sys- tematic campaign is carried out Usually the work of selection is made by county boards. The chief agents ap-
 portion these members among their staffs, and there is hurrying ana scurrying by team and railroad over the country to round up the members and impress upon them the virtues of the various publca-
 tions