The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1910-11-19
MONEY MADE IN TEXT BOOKS
ISSUES THAT put MOST best
SELLERS" TO SHANE.

SELLERS" TO SHANE.
Royalties May ne a. lathe a. Two Cents
avolume. but They Pile Up-Osd "a.
vsrttes the sale Of which Goes On for
: Books fer North and South.
Authors whose books sell by hundreds
OF thousands are supposed to he securely
perched upon the top pinnacle OF fame.
Not roomy plaoe. this top pinnacle.
but the authors whose sales run into six
figures are not numerous enough TO crowd
1t anyway.
Not all the best sellers. however. are
included in this pinnacle party. There
arc men and women whose names never
got into the glorious company Of tho six
best sellers who still have written books
which are going like hot cakes. and keep
ing IL up year after year at that.
Not to mako q mystery Of the matter
IL 10 the man or the woman who writes
. successful schoolbook who is really en-
titled to the prize for big editions. On
the title page OF a more or less succcssful
novel one sees sometimes tbs inscrip
ton second edition" or il may he even
the twenty second edition. Sometimes it
reads second printing. or whatever the
number may bs. Or there Ia whole string
OF printings. with date tackled onto each
one. And the reader says TO himself
-whew; this 10 n successful book
But il will be noticed that there IN no
mention OF the number Of copies which
constitute these various printin9s. Maybe
a thousand were run of at "a time. in
which case there could be quite a respec-
tabIy long string OF repeated printings
with a very modest total Of copies actually
sold An edition IL a very elastic term
Some editions are so slender that they
seem positively scrawny beside the
bloated output OF the schoolbook pub
Usher. When ono Of these publishers
was asked what Ia the largest edition his
firm turns out at time he said:
We'll. when you've run OF about 1000
copies you sort OF want to stop long
enough TO clean the presses and get your
breath
Twenty thousand copies at clip! Such
an edition would induce heart failure
from Joy in any except the hierarchy OF
seasoned best sellers But the school
book that succeeds doesn't stop with any
paltry 2O.OO copies The stream Of its
sales flows on and ON indefinitely The
/ income descends unto the third and the
fourth generation. That il literally true
in some cases. The publisher above
quoted is paying royalties now to the
grandchildren and the great grandchil
dren OF the author Of a certain series OF
arithmetics. An arithmetic In an odd
sort Of heirloom TO beoueath TO ones
posterity hut it is highly appreciated in
the few Of our best families that are
lucky enough to po~-ess it.
Probably no textbook -ells for more
than few years without being subjected
to revision There ara fashions in teach
ing just a. there are fashions in women's
hats. And" feelingly remark ed the
publisher. -one set il just a. Internally
foolish sometimes as the other The
perennial arithmetic series just referred
TO- which still puts forth green sprouts
Of royalties. has been revised innumer-
able times
A for the continued paying OF the
royalties the original copyright ran out
long ago SO that publisher with the
soul Of a pirate could and doubtless
would laugh AZ any supposed claims Of
succeeding generations Therefore IL be-
hooves persons contemplating leaving
textbook legace~ to select a publisher
Who has a standard Of obligation not
covered bv the copyright Law
Most schoolbooks are published on a
royalty basis. though few are sold out
right. The royalties are on n sliding
scale which differs materially from the
fairly TN iform percsnfag basis commonly
employed by publishers Of fiction. For
example. a nice fluffy little primary
snrh ior wno Se.s up pr%sr wn,Sh b will
and should be-perfectly satisfied to draw
the linimposing stipend Of two cents a
copy on the sales. n her primer In not
only good in the old fashioned way but
...,s. 81 II L.
to the young idea. many thousands OF
two centses will come trick ling her way
On the other hand n man Tor womenD
who produces an elaborate and carefully
considered grammar. a so page history
a laboriously perfected geography books
that will sell at from sixty cents to dol
lar-will receive and deserve royalties
ranging from five to ten cents a copy.
Roughly estimated the royalty In about
10 per cent: OF the wholesale price Of the
retail price less 10 per cent. o
These driblets 81 two cents and FIVE
cents and 50 on sound small: but when
those 10000 copy editions pile up year
in and year out the mounting total reaches
an astonishing figure in the end. Take
Biographies. for example. IL IL almost
impossible to pin n pubiiaher down 10
exact figures about the sales Of any one
series OF books. But q casual remark
made by one OF them ~ illuminating
There are perhaps ten series 81 geogra-
phies now in nae in the schools Of this
country. There are at least three million
children studying those geogTaphies. II
the geography fold were parcelled out
equally smoag tho ten series. IL would
mean the quite respectable total Of 200. 600
to each gsographer. Bat this In what the
publisher nusin ely remarked:
Yes. there are about ten series OF
biographies. I do not think that any one
SERIES has monopoly Of half tho field
Half the field That would mean a mil
lion and half children with desks yawn-
ing for geographic. He was dubious
all those rsceptacles. Well then, chop OF