n the custom of a
joint investment in the production of books for both markets will
bring a very material saving in the first cost, a saving in the
advantage of which authors, publishers, and public will alike share.

It seems probable that the "courtesy of the trade" which has made
possible the present relations between American publishers and foreign
authors is not going to retain its effectiveness. Within the last year
certain "libraries" and "series" have sprung into existence, which
present in cheaply-printed pamphlet form some of the best of recent
English fiction. Those who conduct them reap the advantage of the
literary judgment and foreign connections of the older publishing
houses, and, taking possession of material that has been carefully
selected and liberally paid for, are able to offer it to the public at
prices which are certainly low as compared with those of bound books
that have paid copyright, but are doubtless high enough for
literature that is so cheaply obtained and so cheaply printed.

These enterprises have been carried on by concerns which have not
heretofore dealt in standard fiction, and which are not prepared to
respect the international arrangements or trade courtesies of the
older houses.

To one of the "cheap series" the above remarks do not apply. The
"Franklin Square Library" is published by a house which makes a
practice of paying for its English literary material, and which lays
great stress upon "the courtesy of the trade." It is generally
understood by the trade that this series was planned, not so much as a
publishing investment, as for purposes of self-defence, and that it
would in all probability not be continued after the necessity for
self-defence had passed by. A good many of its numbers include works
for which the usual English payments have been made, and it is very
evident that, in this shape, books so paid for cannot secure a
remunerative sale. It seems safe to conclude, therefore, that their
publication is not, in the literal sense of the term, a _business_
investment, and that the undertaking is not planned to be permanent.

A very considerable business in cheap reprints has also sprung up in
Toronto, from which point are circulated throughout the Western States
cheap editions of English works for the "advance sheets" and "American
market," of which Eastern publishers have paid liberal prices. Some
enterprising Canadian dealers have also taken advantage of the
presen