Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-09-09
The Evening Star Weekly Review Of Books
Umbstaetter No Less Admirable a Writer Than Publisher, as
Is Amply Proven by His Red Hot Dollar.

sells books and ask one question
What ;s the latest best seller that
you've got?
There are few brighter people on
Garth than the heads of book depart
monts In hook stores or department
stores. They read all the literature
that tbe publisher sends them-read
every important book in stock ana
know whether to recommend it or not.
No man can fall down by presenting
q gem from Tiffany's-nobody can
find fault with that. Thai is one thing
we want to avoid-criticism. And TO
buy a book-to present a book that
will be generally acceptable all tha'
Won need do is buy a book that every
body is talking about-be sure, now
ever that it is not Three Weeks
and then go ahead.
If | were going to make a Christ
mas present of a book to one OF my
little reading business friends l Woulu
select the very best detective story
that had come out within the last SIX
months. He would be intensely inter
ested In it and he would probably feel
proud of having read it, and, what ~
more, would be delightfully."- surprised
when on recommending it to other peo-
pie to find that 1t was a very we'll
known book. 1t is always we'll and wise
to present to people of whose taste
YOU are not quite sure a modern novel
with plenty of action-a rapid reader.
Do not misunderstood all this. II you
are a discriminating reader, or your
friend is, you may select many su-
perior books that are not best sellers
and that are not we'll known; but just
as you ann make any mistake In
giving somebody the finest linen hand
kerchief you can buy, so you cannot
make any mistake, as q rule, in BUY
ing one of the latest best sellers-pro-
vided it is unobjectionable-and you
can get the authentic information from
anybody who sells books.
GO
Did 1t ever occur to you that the
great majority of people who go into
the book department Of a department
store actually do not know what book
to buy or what books there are for
sale? 1t may be safely stated that In
a very large proportion of cases the
book seller picks out the book. It Is
his decision and not the buyers that
results in the sale.
60
Again reference may be made here
to the cheap editions already men,
toned a week or two ago. The very
best sellers reappear a year or SO later
in the form of a cheap edition, which
sell at forty-five cents. These, as has
been said, are bound in cloth. have the
same cover and the same general APP
p%earance as the original edition. Many
people have an idea that a cheap edi-
ton is necessarily bound in yellow
paper. This idea was actually held
until recently by n Of the literary
advisors of one of the publishing
houses. He had never seen a cheap
edition and was astounded to find that
he could hardly tell the difference be-
tween the original edition and the
cheap one. He supposed that the latter
was a yellow paper book. Where the
original edition costs you $1.25 a vol
ume you can buy two or three of the
cheap books, and you can rarely make
a mistake in buying one of these cheap
books, because 1t is only the most
popular novels that ever go into cheap
edition. Better buy a forty-five cent
book, which has been the best seller
in the United States, than buy a book
for $1.0S hat nobody ever heard of and
which has nothing to recommend 1t.