APPENDIX.
Our apology for inserting, just before the title in this volume,
the page (if torn out by interested parties, as possibly it may be, we
will supply it upon application) containing a caution to persons
wishing to procure the work, and also for calling your attention to
some matters pertaining to the business of publishing and introducing
books, is, that we can devise no other means which we deem
so effectual to protect our business from the aggressions of dishonest
parties; and although this method may seem in bad taste, yet we
feel warranted in using it, hoping hereby to aid in correcting certain
existing evils pertaining to the business.
In this country there are two ways in which books are introduced
to the public: one is, where they are sold through bookstores, which
is known as the trade method; the other is, where they are sold
only (or intended to be) by canvassing agents, which is called the
subscription system.
We are engaged in the latter; and what we complain of, not only
in our own interest, but in the interest of others who have exhausted
every expedient they could devise to keep their publications from
being sold in bookstores, is this: That some booksellers (there are
many honorable exceptions), in collusion with dishonest general and
sub-agents, or professed agents, for subscription books, are persistently
and maliciously warring upon it by unfair and fraudulent
means, with the avowed purpose of injuring the business of the subscription
publishers as much as possible, and at the same time making
a profit in the transaction. They recognize the fact that for
introducing certain classes of books it possesses great advantages
over the other method, and hence should be strangled lest it takes
too large a portion of the loaf they desire to monopolize; and to do
this they resort to various means that will not render them amenable
to the law, without regard to fairness or honesty.
That it does possess such advantages is best evidenced by the fact
that almost every extensive trade publishing house in America has
brought out and introduced more or less books in this manner.
As booksellers are able to procure most subscription works only
through a dishonest channel, except possibly occasional second-hand
ones, a few of them make tools of some general and sub-agents, or
professed agents, and thus obtain this class of works with which to
supply the trade. These agents are usually the most culpable parties
to the transaction, as they know the publishers of most, if not all, of
such works intend them to be sold only by subscription, and generally
these parties who betray subscription publishers, are either under
bonds, or bound by a written or verbal agreement, to furnish the
books only to bona fide subscribers, and not directly or indirectly to
booksellers; and the latter usually know the fact, but notwithstanding
all this they have practised for years past this method of obtaining
subscription publications to sell from their counters. We have
known them, when unable to find an agent sufficiently pliable for
their purposes, to induce a party engaged in another pursuit, and
who had no intention of canvassing, to take the agency, under an
assumed name, and though under agreement to sell the books only
to bona fide subscribers, which they well knew, to represent to the
publishers that he had secured many genuine orders, procure of
them a large number of books, and immediately turn them over to
the instigators of this fraudulent transaction. We have also known
them to induce a clerk, employed in their store, to take an agency,
under a like agreement, for a subscription work published at some
place
remote from them (if too near home the danger of detection is
so great as to check this practice), and to obtain the books and dispose
of them in the same way.
We have likewise known of a bookseller, who, under a fictitious
name, secured an agency by representing that he wished to canvass,
and then in due time pretending that he had many subscribers, to
obtain the books and dispose of them in part at retail in his store,
and the balance to other booksellers. In fact, these and similar dishonest
expedients for obtaining this class of works to be sold in this
manner, are continually practised, and most of them so sold are
thus obtained. We have known instances where agents were engaged
in selling new and popular subscription books at the regular
retail prices, and the same works at the same time and place were
being conspicuously exposed for sale in bookstores, with labels on
them offering them at a price fifty cents a volume less. We apprehend
the profit in such cases was not the object the booksellers had in
view, for they might just as readily have obtained the regular price,
as the books were in great demand. This and other facts induce us
to believe and affirm, that some booksellers are deliberately doing
all they can to work injury to the subscription business.
The chief reasons why we, and others likewise engaged, object to
our publications being sold in bookstores, are, first, it negatives
the theory on which the business is based; second, it seriously
interferes with the success of canvassers by greatly diminishing their
sales, and otherwise; and third, many of the best agents in the country
will only introduce a book while it is kept out of bookstores,
and as soon as it gets to be generally on sale there, they decline
longer to solicit for it. When this condition of affairs arises, the subscription
publisher not only loses many of his best agents, but is
otherwise materially damaged. The public are also unfavorably
affected in several ways.
Aside from our own interests, we particularly desire, in the interest
of our best agents, to keep our publications from being sold in bookstores.
This class of canvassers never annoy people, but in all
respects conduct their business as they should. It is the least
efficient class — only those who do not understand their business —
that render themselves offensive; and the condition of things of which
we complain tends to make such agents, and to sustain them.
We protest against these unfair, disreputable, and dishonest practices.
If we expend thousands of dollars in making stereotype or
electrotype plates of a book, we claim the right to introduce the
book printed from them in the manner which the best interests of
our business require, without interference from booksellers, who can
only obtain them (unless they be second hand) through some one
of these channels; not otherwise. Were it possible for our books to
reach them through any honest channel, then they would of course
be justified in selling them.
As possibly the reader may infer from the position here taken by
us, that we desire to deprive people of books they may wish to
obtain, we will state that so far from that being the case, on the contrary,
we would gladly put our publications into every household in
the country, but wish to do it in our own way, that the true interests
of the public, as well as our own, may be subserved. Any person
wishing a book has only to inform us, and we will request an agent
to call and deliver it, and we have no doubt all subscription publishers
will do the same.
It was not our intention to press this matter farther; but lest any
should get the impression that subscription books are sold at a
higher price than trade books, and that on this account we are unwilling
to compete with the trade in open market, we offer the following
facts, leaving the readers to form their conclusions.
Books are printed from stereotype or electrotype plates. The type
is first set up, and from it solid castings, called plates, are made of
type-metal, one to every page. The illustrations are designed by one
class of artists, engraved by another, and castings from them also
made. This is a very expensive process, the castings from which
to print a well-illustrated subscription book, of ordinary size, costing
several thousand dollars. These castings, aside from their value for
this purpose, are worth only their weight as old metal. Those costing
five thousand dollars are worth about a hundred dollars as
metal; hence, speaking in a general way, the cost of these castings is
money absolutely lost, if the book does not sell; if it does, then the
publisher must put such a price on it as will repay this outlay, in addition
to making a legitimate profit. Now, suppose the castings for
a book to cost five thousand dollars, and ten thousand volumes to be
sold through bookstores; each book must pay a profit of fifty cents,
to repay the original outlay. The same book, properly managed
and sold by subscription, if of the class suited to that business, can
be given a sale five times as large (we speak much within bounds),
and therefore the profit requisite to repay this outlay is but ten cents
a volume, which makes a saving of forty cents on each book.
Again, authors are paid a copyright, generally of a certain sum on
every volume sold. They know the immense sale usually given a
subscription book, and that they can better afford to receive a small
copyright per volume, on a book so sold, than a large one were
it introduced through bookstores. However, as the copyright is
usually the subject of a special bargain, varying, perhaps, with every
book, we have no sufficient basis from which to draw absolutely
correct conclusions; but we think it fair to assume that an author
whose book can be given by subscription a sale of fifty thousand
volumes, when through bookstores it would only be ten thousand,
will take a copyright of ten cents a volume, if sold in the former, as
readily as he will thirty, were it sold in the latter way; for even
then his receipts will be nearly double. Here is a saving of twenty
cents, making in all a saving of sixty cents a volume in favor of the
subscription publisher. Further, a book introduced through bookstores
usually has to pay the following profits: First, that of the
publisher; second, that of the jobber; third, that of the retailer; and
often the publisher is compelled, at great cost, to advertise it extensively,
or it does not sell. Moreover, these parties generally occupy
fine stores, on popular thoroughfares, in expensive localities,
besides employing high-salaried clerks. All these expenses the
book has to bear before it reaches the public.
Now, contrast it with our subscription books. We make our
profit, and so does the canvasser. Usually, the agent is the only
party between the producer and consumer. The canvassers advertise
our books by showing and explaining them, thereby saving us the
expense of advertising in newspapers, which we do to a very limited
extent, and then only for agents, and not to create a demand for our
books. The agent has no rent to pay for a place of business, and
we occupy unostentations warerooms, in comparatively inexpensive
localities; our business requires no better, for our dealings are mostly
with canvassers through the mails; and, finally, we do not have
to keep, to wait upon customers, a corps of clerks receiving good
salaries, who are idle a part of the time. Besides all this, the sale
of subscription books being so large, they can safely be manufactured
in large editions, and a saving thus be made.
We trust the reader can now understand how we can at least afford
to give the public books as good in every respect, and at as low a
price, as publishers who sell their works only through bookstores.
We believe subscription publishers, if the works they issue are suited
to that business, can afford to give the community a better book for
the same price, or one equally good for a lower price, than other
publishers.
To sum up, we will state our conviction that for introducing many
classes of books the subscription system has numerous advantages
over the other method. It is best for the author, because he knows
that if he produces a valuable book, it will not only be published, but
will be given a large sale, and his copyright will yield him a large
sum; hence, it acts as an incentive for him to produce the best work
possible; the better the book, the larger his returns. Best for the
publisher, because he knows that if he has a good book, he can afford
to illustrate it well, and bring it before the public in the most attractive
and desirable form, all of which will tend to increase its sale and
his profits. Best for the agent, because it affords him a lucrative,
honorable, and pleasant calling, that may be followed for life in a
chosen territory, protected from intrusion by others. He not only
gets the profit that would otherwise go to the retail bookseller, but
also a portion of the large sums that would be expended in advertising
to bring it to the attention of the public. And finally, best
for the buyer, for he gets many excellent books whose authors could
not afford the time to write them, were they dependent on the sale
through bookstores to be repaid for their labor — many first-class
books, that otherwise would not be published, for no trade publisher
would risk the necessary outlay of many thousands of dollars, and
trust to the sale through bookstores to reimburse him; and, moreover,
usually they are works of a better class, better written, more
profusely and elegantly illustrated, and better gotten up generally,
than many “trade books” that are sold for the same price. Besides,
they are brought to the door of the purchaser, which is a great convenience
to persons living in the rural districts.
I. N. RICHARDSON & CO.
