y represented. It was decided
to extend further credit to the bookseller; his orders were taken and
sent in with full explanations. How many orders were rejected by the
publishers I do not, of course, know. But the judgment of the
travellers, as events proved, was justified.

The publisher is learning to regard his travelling man as more than a
salesman. He is asking him, now and then, to assist him in the
selection of a manuscript, to aid him in planning the letter-press,
and binding of a book. For by the very nature of his work the
traveller is the one man in the publisher's employ who has a
comprehensive grasp of the many branches of this alluring, but not
very profitable, business.

SELLING AT WHOLESALE

By Joseph E. Bray.

In the process of manufacture a book passes through so many hands that
if the finished product is exactly in accordance with the plan that
existed in the mind of its designer, he is justified in looking upon
it with the satisfaction felt by an artist who has worked well. After
a book is issued, however, it is quite another and equally important a
matter to sell it, and this part of book publication requires as much
thought and perhaps more dogged persistence than the other. There are
some books, such as "Ben Hur" and "David Harum," for instance, that
make a market for themselves, and the demand for such successes,
though starting perhaps in a rather circumscribed locality, moves
onward and outward, gathering force all the time like an avalanche.
These are rare exceptions, however, and for most books a market must
be created. No matter how good the book, it is not enough to view the
finished product with satisfaction and expect that the public will buy
it in the proportion that it deserves. It has to be marketed like any
other article of commerce; and a book is only on the market properly
when you find its selling points known to the trade, and the volume
itself temptingly displayed on the counters in the bookstores
everywhere, ready to become the property of any one who may be
attracted by a reviewer's description, a clever advertisement, the
polite recommendation of a well-posted clerk, or any other of the many
reasons that induce people to buy books. This condition of course
obtains in all large cities on or soon after the day of publication of
a well-managed book--but urban publicity is not sufficient. The whole
country must be taken care of, and the several thousand booksellers