The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-22
WHAT EVERY PUBLISHER KNOWS

WHAT EVERY PUBLISHER KNOWS
II VERY publisher knows that selling books as it
T. has mainly to be conducted under present
conditions is Just as much matter of merchandis-
ing as selling bonnets, bathrobes and birdseed But
this is one of the things that people outside the pub
fishing and bookselling businesses seldom grasp. A
cultural air, for them, invests the book business
The curse of the gentee hangs about it 1t is almost
professional, like medicine and baseball. 1t has an
odor, like sanctity All wrong.
Bonnets, bathrobes, brdseed, books. ALI are sale
able if YOU 20 about it right And how is that you
ask
The best way to sell bonnets is to lay great
foundational demand for headgear. The best way
to sell bathrobes is to encourage bathing The best
way to sell birdseed is to put canary in every
home. It might be supposed that the best way to
sell books would be to get people to read. Yes, it
might be far more valuable in the end to stimulate
and spread the reading habit than TO try to sell
100000 copies Of any particular book.
The Publishers League.
OF course, every publisher knows this and; Of
course, all the publishers associating themselves for
the promotion of common cause not ineonceivably
in the effort to make readers-not of Mrs HALCYoN
HUNTERS Love Has Wings or Mr.. CAsPAR CAR
TOUCHES Martin the Magnificent, but Of books,
lust good books Of any sort soever. Yes, OF
course.
This would be-beg pardon, is-the thing that
actually and Immediately as well as ultimately
counts: Let get people to read, to like to read,
to enjoy reading, and they will, sooner or later,
1a%a hNak
readers and book buyers. Sooner or later books will
cell as well as automobiles.
On the merely technical side of bookselling on
the immediate problem of selling particular new
novels collections Of short Stories histories books
of verse; and all the rest the publishers have, col
lectivey at least not much to learn from their fell
low merchants with the bonnets, bathrobes and
birdseed. The mechanism of merchandising is so
methods resemble the interchangeable parts Of
standardized manufacturers everywhere Suppose
we have a look at these methods.
The Hour to Publish.
The lesson of hexibility has been fully mastered
by at least two American publishing houses. With
their very large lists of books they contrive to
avoid, as much as possible, fixed publication dhtes
While their rivals are pinning themselves fast six
months ahead these publishers are moving largely
but conditionaly six and nine months ahead, and
less largely but with swift certainty three months
two months, even one month from the passing mo-
ment. And they are absolutely right and profit by
their Brightness. For this reason Everything that
is printed has in it an element Of that timeliness
that ephemerality if you like, but also that widen
ing ripple of human interest which is the unique
essence of what we call "news." This quality is
present in perceptible amount, even in the most
serious sort of printed matter. Let us take as an
example, DARwN's Origin of Species Oh exclaims
the reader, there surely is book with ephemer-
atty about i'll MOI But there was an immense
quantity of just that in its publication. 1t at