e which he
sends out from time to time.

There are other classes of books, however, in which the wholesaler
must interest himself and which cannot be treated so easily; here
perhaps his service to the community and the publishing field are the
greatest. Only the select few among books are big sellers; the
majority do not sell largely, and only a very small percentage of the
many thousands of books put forth annually make a stir in the world. A
novel by an unknown author, a biography of an eminent man, a modest
work of travel or adventure, technical books and those that add to the
world's knowledge, cannot be given a wide distribution or an inviting
display on the shelves of the trade. The smaller bookseller cannot
afford to carry them. His profits are small and his investments in
books of this class have to be very carefully considered. His margin
of profit is too small for him to take more chances than he has to,
and consequently he relies largely upon his jobber, from whom he in
most cases picks up these books as he needs them. The wholesaler has
to be a bureau of information concerning this part of his business.
His mail brings him in all sorts of inquiries for books that have been
out of print for years. Somebody wants them, can they be obtained by
advertising for them or otherwise? The jobber must know this and give
the information to his customer promptly. Books not yet published.
When will they be issued? What will be the cost? An approximate price
must be given. What are the best books on certain subjects, and how do
they compare with other works in the same field? Hundreds of inquiries
similar to these are constantly received. Sometimes titles are garbled
and twisted all out of shape, taken down perhaps by the rural
bookseller phonetically and confidently forwarded to the wholesaler,
who will certainly know. The right book is usually sent, and not often
is the jobber found to be at fault. Curiously enough, the majority of
people are very careless in regard to titles of books, and many
conundrums of this kind are daily solved by the trade.

Peculiar in many ways is the book trade, and the ordinary laws of
commercialism do not always apply to the book business. The book
market is fickle to the utmost degree. The books that should sell
sometimes do not "move" at all, and those that apparently have but
little to recommend them turn out to be the best of the bunch so far
as sales are concerned. A jobber has to be