all as compared
with those of other lines of trade.

SELLING BY SUBSCRIPTION

By Charles S. Olcott.

The business of selling books may be divided, in a general way, into
two divisions, one seeking to bring the people to the books, the other
aiming to take the books to the people. The first operates through the
retail book stores, news-stands, department stores, and the like. The
other employs agents, or advertises in the newspapers or magazines, to
secure orders or "subscriptions," on receipt of which the books are
delivered. The latter method of selling has become known as the
"Subscription-book" business.

The agent usually calls at the office or home of his prospective
customer and shows samples of the text pages, illustrations, bindings,
etc., bound together in a form known as a "prospectus." Sometimes he
exhibits a number of different prospectuses. The customer signs an
order blank, which the agent turns over to the publisher, who makes
the delivery and collects the money. To cover the entire country, the
large publisher establishes branch offices in many different cities or
sells his books to so-called "general agents," who secure their own
canvassers.

It may be asked, why does such a method exist? Do not people know
enough to go to the book stores and ask for what they want? And why go
to a man and urge him to buy a book he does not want? The answer goes
deep into human nature. People have to be urged to take very many
things which they know they ought to have. The small boy knows he
ought to go to school, but has to be coaxed. Parents know he ought to
go, but compulsory education laws have been found necessary in many
states. The churches are good, but people sometimes need urging even
to go there. Life insurance, honestly conducted, is one of the
greatest blessings a man can buy with money, but the principal
expenditures of the great companies are the vast sums spent in
pleading with the people to take advantage of it.

Experience has proved this to be true of books. Men and women must be
employed to show the people their value. The latest novel, if popular
and well advertised, will sell fairly well in the retail store, but an
encyclopaedia, or any extensive set of books, must be taken directly to
the people and explained by competent salesmen if the publishers hope
to pay the cost of the plates within a lifetime. This is strikingly
illustrated in the case of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." The