Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-10-27
Making School Books
BY Frederic J. Haskin

Cambrider, Macs, Oct. 27.-This city
is one of the country's fountain heads Of
learning. Aside from harboring the great
and awe inspiring Harvard University,
numerous leAser schools, and endless
bookshops specializing in all degrees OF or
udition, Cambridge possesses the factory
Of the largest schoolbook publishing COM
pany in the country. This plant regularly
keeps 2OOO,OOO schoolbooks in hand
in its storage bins, and even with this
huge reserve, the presses have to run
night and day at the busy seasons.
Right now, the factory is working at
the highest pressure. Schools from Florida
TO California send 10 the company's
offices in Boston for books, and while most
schools are opened by this time, orders
arc still piling in. Many school officials,
il seems, have a way of waiting until the
term is about to open and then deciding
on the books to be used and the company
10 patroni,c. This casual attitude of the
local powers is one of the chief causes of
white hairin the textbook business. Nc ouija
board has vet been located that can tell
firm how many physics or spelling books
Of a certain kind will be called for so that
IL has TO estimate a reasonable number
and then work at top speed if orders ex-
cccd expectations.
This company, with its stock Of 1000
900 books, finds it necessary TO Keep no
less than 1000 different titles on hand,
and these are all what might be called
current books; for as soon as a textbook
becomes antiquated or is supplanted by
n lstcr edition the old copies on the shelves
are torn up to be sold as Junk
Walking along the storage rooms you
catch Cltrpnccs ~ sy,cl1tnu hook and
arithmetic that call up pictures Of your
early struggles with culture. Less familiar
works are here too. such formidable af-
fairs as Application of Calculus to
Roman Sermo Plebeus," and "a Gram
mar of the Innuit Language" The guide
obligingly explains that Innuit means
Eskimo, that this particular work is
rarely called for and that il sells for FIVE
dollars, an unusually high rate for a plainly
bound schoolbook.
BOOKS THAT DO NOT SELL.
Books of this type arc the 'Jonahs' of
the schoolbook business. Some patien T.
scholar spends perhaps 20 years writing
an abstruse thesis on which neither he
nor his publisher can possibly make any
money, because few copies will be sold
Yet the demands of advanced scholar
ship require such books, and the larger
publishers must be the ones toproducc them
even though they often know in advance
that the books mean loss. Fonderous
works, however, make up only small
fraction of the plants output. The bins
for the most part are stacked TO the cell
ing with ordinary grammar and high school
books
The demand for schoolbooks increases
every year, and this means plenty of
trade for the publishers. They tell YOU,
though, that they are far from sailing
on smooth sea of prosperity. Certain
kinds of paper are about to advance
two cents a pound, which means that
the rates on schoolbooks will 60 up, as
II is claimed thst they are now being sold |
on as low margin of profit as is per-
missible. An advance will not cut down
business, for schoolbooks are necessity /
but publishers say that they dread an
nouncing rAise for the public, seeing /
sugar, leather and wool drop, is all the /
more loAth to part with larger sums for /
other commodities.
In the past, they say, schoolbooks |
have remained remarkably stable in price /
though publishers have been constantly |
increasing expenditures to improve the /
appearance Of their product.
Few people have any idea OF the ins and |
outs Of putting textbook on the market /
You may have paused to smile over the /
fancy that school children now have more /
history TO assimilsfe than when YOU pored /
over dates snd battles, but did YOU ever
think Of the schoolbook producer who |
has to keep up with the wandering bound /
aries of Europe and reduce the World War /
10 a few pages of text in language suit
able for children? Did YOU know, for IN /
stance that the more progressive publish /
crs are having their biographies prac- |
tlcally rewritten since the war In order |
10 bring, not only the maps, but the text |
up TO date?
REVISING IHE MAPS
An editor of the firm referred 70 in
this story says that his company spent
abut $l0( COO before single copy of /
its newest geography could be printed /
Now the book IS being run off the presses
hs rapidly as possible, and the firm cannot I
begin 10 ELI the dema nd for it.
Producing schoolbooks is in many wa,,s
entirely different from publishing Fiction
a best seller novel that would REQUIRE
an investment of three or four thousand
dollars and sell for 50 a copy has a boom
OF few months and then sizzles down
TO cheap editions and soon fades out
of sight and memory. The returns are
immediate and brief, and the author IS
then expected to grind out a new master
piece.
The initial cost of history such as
Is used in high schools. on the other hapd.
IS over flve times as much and a geogra-
phy 25 times as much as the novel, be-
~ i n