Publishing

In estimating the market value of books, considered as pub lishers' wares, we have to note that, despite the huge popular vogue of the novel, which enables it to be maintained at a fixed price, above its real value, literature and the classics of literature are now often priced relatively low. This is in spite of the greatly increased cost of production since the World War.

There are certain classes of books which must always be relatively expensive, because they appeal only to students of some particular branch of science or of art or of literature, whose number is not great. But these are books of enduring value. Their price is justified not only by their prolonged service, but by the erudition or the exceptional qualities which go to the writing of them, as well as by the frequently exceptional cost of producing them. But as regards the vast output of books which merely amuse an idle hour, the existence of a large body of readers is the only excuse for their appearance, and if they cannot be produced at a low price, ensuring an extensive sale, they ought not to be produced at all. Thus there is more than a mere money question involved in the contention about price. An artificial system of prices leads to the printing of a vast quantity of trash, which demoralizes the reading public and is a serious obstacle to the success of the better books. Such a system operates, in fact, as a protective duty in favour of mediocrity, and even of something worse.

Then there is the troublesome system of "remainders," that is to say, the unsaleable copies of thousands of books published every year. The editions are small enough—probably not more than i,000 copies—yet, in spite of circulating libraries, a third or a half of that modest number remains in the warehouses of the publishers. They are often sold for about the cost of their covers ; sometimes they simply go to be reduced to their original pulp at the paper mills.

Book Production.

Half a publisher's business, it is said, is taken up with the intricate details of book production. To pro duce a book well and in a comely or durable form, the publisher needs the eye of a craftsman, and stands to gain if he has had experience in printing, book-binding and all the allied processes of the craft. He must be learned in type, paper, illustrations;

in the book cloths, "jackets" and end-papers. It has been calcu lated that the whole time taken in the production of an ordinary book of about ioo,000 words, from the "casting off" and the com position to the machinery and binding, and from the first despatch of the "copy" to the printers, to the return of the completed books, is about 12 weeks in all. Even then, the business of actual publication has not been counted in the estimate. The actual selling is another intricate matter, because of the extent and varied demands of the market. The "publishers' traveller" is in this respect an indispensable assistant. In London, the "town traveller" usually takes a week to a fortnight for his rounds; while the "country traveller," who maps out the whole country in his area, may take six or seven weeks.

Publicity.

This brings us to the other means of making the published book known and creating a demand for copies, by means of advertisement and of press notices. "About the advertising of books," confessed an American publisher (the late Walter H. Page, United States minister to Great Britain), "nobody knows anything. The most that can be said is that some publishers are making very interesting experiments." To this may be added the still more recent comment of an English publisher, who says, "Does any author think his book has been adequately or prop erly advertised? The answer to that question will explain how dangerous it is for a publisher to mention, or even to suggest, that there are any limitations to what can be accomplished by advertising. Should a publisher ever be rash enough to do so, it is at once assumed that he does not believe in advertising, and he is dismissed as a bad publisher." As to the cost of advertising, no English figures are available, but for a German publisher 3 to 4% on the cost of production is given by Kliemann as the average amount. He adds that, in addition, German retail booksellers spend about 3% of their turnover on advertising. George H. Doran, the American pub lisher, claims to spend io% of his gross income on "promotion." In England the publisher's expenses on advertising are given as about 6% of the turnover.