The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1909-03-28
= "A Best Seller.
!. :. - T. + Z i. + . = + $.

Did yen ever her" asked the pub
Doomed: 1t was ip; only the Is. -;
seller If lis season bat i, sold $50 PEI
cent better than any other novel pub
lisIlt<l in Eve years.
II VAS just starting Into the bust
ness then and mighty ;InXi us 20 make
a strike thu, Wultd pu, me Vel OF
my feet. especially rs t" capital
read hundred lnaruscript Hoycls SO
lcctcI from y Thousand read by my
assistants and oft Of the hundred Sc
lectrd three that I concluded t" take 81
risk ON. The. were all DEAD failures.
They v.rcn', high 2ra,ir literary
works either. I knew cnGu"h not To-
put uut that l;iId Il stutf 10 MAX"
,nnu"y On. bat. CftH with stories OF
The ground ilcnr. ! c"ul:;n'1 make it
~.
some ,lars mraslv looking rdG'p came
into my office and said ne wished IN"
TO 90 int" Il scheme with him, f0r p.ll
fishing Il novel. told him that it il"
had u manuscript to submit ! would
have il re"d.
"'Y"u'rc beginning aa the wron"
end he said. The story isn't 'f any
Importance. It's making marked For
it that counts. Stake Your market iirSt
your eyes S'tu'.'
''rhcr" was somc,1lin. SO braZ"H
about his that II attracted my att"n-
ton 1rall,d lcr his plan, AND he gave
il. Iie admitted. that I've ran n risk Ct
arrest. and a":ec.s with linn. but
neither ii MS Thought mis- arrest would
hc Il very serious matter or inlu"c "a :
sale Of his novel took a week to
consider il, then told him That II"
might 90 ahead. hui my part would
depend upon whether he succeeded II
attracting the attention of tn" publ
to his book before il was issued. II"
consented to This. and fine deal Was
made
ut wasn't Ions. before ] began t. r.
ceive orders from dealers in various
places for ono or tw" copies each of Il
novel | waA,o issue called n Hand In
the Dark knew that this WAS the
name of the novel had agreed to
publish, but had never seen the manu-
script I put the orders on file, pay
ing no more attention to them. \erE
soon many of them We're increased.
new ones also coming in. began T.
get letters from people-m"Stly N"-
men-asking when a Hand In the
Dark was to be published and i re
quest to send Il copy rs soon rs ii wa :
issued. These orders also kept grow
in. till l had received a sufficient
number of them to pay all The eX-
pense of publication.
Il now began to think of getting oui
the book Calling fer the manuscript.
| read it and hadn't gone over fry
pages before ! regretted my contract.
l couldn't back out. for the fellow had
fulfilled his Cnly condition of making
a market. The stuff was the worst
ever read ] delayed having the plates
made, hoping for some way out of the
trap But the orders continued to
come in. l noticed they were more
scattered than these pertaining to any
book l had ever published. The in
dividual orders were enormous. But
saw at once that trouble was brewing
for me as well as for the author,
though l had nothing whatever to do
with his scheme for making mar
ket Some of the letters were covert
| threats, but most Of them indicated
! anxiety in greater or less degree to
get copy Of the novel.
AT last l made date Of publica-
ton. On the morning Of the day an
nOunced an enormous crowd Of people
waited before the store till the doors
should open. l was obliged to push
| my way through struggling mass Of
humanity to get into my own Office
The binders had disappointed me, and
| was unable to furnish the book. l
had notice tackled up outside to that
effect and that it would he ready the
next day. How many people went
away on seeing the notice l don't
know From u window saw num-
Der Of men approach, smile and leave,
but most Of the women stayed till the
| uOlNc WuS Put up SOtuc IuutlcIAAk,
some melancholy. learned afterwar,l
that the dealers all over the country
were besieged In a similar manner,
though the smaller the town the less
the demand.
Il hurried my binders, desiring to
get the book out rs soon as possible I
expected every day to hear Of the au-
thor's arrest, and IL he were arrested
feared l would he enjoined by court
process from publishing the book.
wouldn't have cared to be stopped
from issuing it had it not been for the
fact that there was now a small for
tune In 1t.
"Weli. the next day l got it out
Clerks were kept busy all day sellin:
single copies over the counter besides
those shipped to the dealers In three
days we had sold 100000 copies Then
there was lull, slight increase and
the sales died down to nothing. Ru'
they commenced again when 1t was
announced that "A Hand In the Dark