ents (many of them fearfully and wonderfully
made), and eventually, after much debate, gives his order. Having
ordered all the new books that he wishes, he goes over the catalogue
and gives what is called his stock order; that is to say, he orders
the books on which his stock is low but for which there is still a
demand.

Perhaps the salesman has reserved for his final battle the sale of
"Last Year's Nests." As prices cut some figure in this argument, we
are driven, for a moment, to the dry bones of prices and discounts.

Listed in the publisher's catalogue at $1.50, the ordinary discount to
a dealer ordering two or three copies is thirty-three and one-third
per cent, or $1.00 net, the bookseller paying transportation charges.
Competition, however, has increased this discount to forty per cent,
so that we shall assume that in small quantities the book can be had
at $.90 net. In larger quantities extra discounts are given; some
publishers give forty and five per cent on fifty copies and forty and
ten per cent on one hundred copies; others increase the quantities to
one hundred and two hundred and fifty copies respectively for the
extra discounts. But, as has been pointed out, the growing tendency is
not to overload the bookseller, especially in view of the fact that it
is the publisher who loses when the bookseller assigns.

Assuming that the "Last Year's Nests" is likely to have a large sale
and that the salesman wishes to sell Mr. Bookseller two hundred and
fifty copies, he quotes the extra discount of forty and ten per cent
on that quantity. If he can persuade the bookseller to take two
hundred and fifty copies, he has not only swollen his sales by that
amount, but he has forced a probable retail sale of that quantity. For
once on the bookseller's tables, the very size of the order inspires
every clerk to help reduce the pile, not to mention the fact that the
books are bought and must be paid for. Had the bookseller bought five
copies, extra efforts toward sales would not be forthcoming; the
energy would be applied to another novel. Hence the salesman's efforts
to effect a large sale.

There is another reason for this extra quantity. Two hundred and fifty
copies of "Last Year's Nests," piled in a pyramid, is a gentle
reminder to the bookseller's customers that it is a mighty important
book. Such an argument is often more potent than the disagreeing
opinions of critics. Here is a case in point.

A novelist wrote