[Advertisement] Why Not Paper Bound The Question That So Many "WHY don't publishers issue books in paper bindings?" is the ever recurring complaint of American book buyers, "I don't want to pay $2.00 for a novel," they say, "I want to be able to get six or eight books for that amount of money." Booksellers faced with this widespread demand now have an answer to that question is now a publishing house that is going to specialize in producing reprint paper bound novels selling for twenty-five cents each. for there For several years past the Garden City Publishing Co. has been experimenting to meet the demand for this type of book. Their first project was a series of twe've short paper bound stories by Conrad, Edith Wharton, Hergesheimer and others. This Famous Authors series was made in the nature of a test but immediately proved SO popular that it was expanded to take in Western, Adventure and Mystery stories as well, and last year several million copies of these fifteen cent novelettes were purchased by the American public. Rider Haggard, Jack London, Anna Katharine Green, Thomas Dixon, Stewart Edward White and others, and each author is represented by a full length story of from 80,000 to 100,000 words or more. The books themselves are marvels of quality that could only be accomplished under the large scale production methods of America. Each book is the full size of a regular novel, 5" by 73" bulking a full 11" in thickness. Instead of being printed on a dirty grey paper and bound together tightly with wire stitching ... two things which make So many cheap books and many magazines so uncomfortable to read these "25c novels" are clearly printed on a very fine quality of white book paper and strongly bound with glued reinforced backings of canvas so that they may be opened wide and read with the utmost convenience and so durable that you can not only bend them flat and read them but bend them double and still not break their backs! To cap all these features, each one of these novels has a striking picture cover in full color. This not only protects them from thumb marks and soilage but at the same time gives these "25c novels" all the same sales attracting appearance of a two dollar "best-seller." Hundreds of thousands of Americans travel- More recently this same organization announced their first venture for the Trade the Star Dollar Books a series of reprint non-fiction titles selling for $1.00 each that have won instant favor and wide popularity. Now capitalizing on their valuable past experience of selling paper bound books, the Garden City Publishing Company is announcing its plan of reprinting novels by best-selling authors in paper bound books selling for twenty-five cents each. and es pecially designed for Book Store sales. These new twenty-five cent books represent remarkable quality. There is nothing cheap about them except the price they are distinctly not the "dime novel" variety of the paper bound book. The titles have been wisely selected from the books of such famous, popular "best-sellers" as Kathleen Norris, H. Backed by the vigorous merchandising plans the Garden City Publishing Co. already has under way, these new "25c Novels" will from the very start answer for once and for all the long standing widespread demand for paper bound books. During the traditional bargain months of January and February when small prices have their big appeal every bookseller will want to lead off with the really extraordinary bargain value these books represent. There is no doubt that the Garden City Publishing Co's announcement on the following page is the most important bookselling news of the year. The PUBLISHERS WEEKLY THE AMERICAN BOOKTRADE JOURNAL NEW YORK, JANUARY 2, 1926 January for Travel! During This Month the Railway and Steamship Companies, the Savings Banks and the Book Publishers and Retailers Will Combine in a Campaign to Push Travel Books F NEW words stir the imagination of the average person so persuasively as "travel." It is associated in our minds with escape from everyday routine, and the lure of far-off, colorful things. During January, three associations, the railway and steamship companies, the savings banks, and the book publishers and retailers, are to combine in a month's campaign to encourage Americans to read more travel books and to save more systematically for trips abroad. The foreign railway posters pictured on this page are typical of the series offered by the Trans-Atlantic Passenger Conferences to all bookstores and libraries interested in making special displays of travel books during January. The twenty-five hundred steamship offices and one thousand railway offices thruout the United States are to take part in the "ReadSave-Travel" promotion campaign, and will be glad to post notices of library and bookstore travel exhibits. The banks which are members of the Save-to-Travel organization, encouraging travel savings accounts similar to the popular Christmas savings accounts, will be interested in borrowing books for displays in windows and bank lobbies. These banks recognize the publicity value of travel book exhibits. Reading about foreign countries will persuade many people to open travel savings accounts. Find out which banks in your city are members of the Save-to-Travel Association and offer to plan a cooperative publicity campaign. The National Association of Book Publishers is distributing three new window signs, specially designed for travel windows in banks and bookstores. The signs are "Take Along a Book," "Read Before You Travel," and "Read-Save-Travel." These are being furnished on request. Bookstore exhibits should increase sales, not only of guide books and illustrated travel books, but also novels and short stories with foreign settings, biographies, foreign language textbooks and dictionaries, books on European and Oriental history, art and architecture. As many travelers go on Mediterranean cruises during January and February, a Mediterranean window would be particularly appropriate. Ship models, attractive luggage, maps, foreign passports or travelers' checks may be used as accessories to add interest to a travel display. There are always a few confirmed globetrotters in every town. A newspaper story of their experiences, mentioning the books they recommend for "armchair travel," and the guidebooks they found most helpful, would be read by a great many people. If possible, arrange to have a travel talk in the bookstore, library or schools, or over the radio, during the month. A display of "children's books from many lands" would emphasize the relationship of books to international sympathy and understanding and would attract the attention of newspapers, teachers and club The foreign railway posters shown on this and the preceding page are typical of the series offered by Trans-Atlantic Passenger Conferences to bookstores interested in making special displays of travel books during January. Buying for the Bookshop CHAPTER X Budgets and Buyers John Loos, Brentano's, Chicago HE careful and efficient housewife allots so much per week or per month to spend for household necessities. She keeps a record of what she spends from day to day and is able to determine pretty accurately from past records the exact amount of money involved. Her expenditures must of necessity vary slightly according to circumstances and conditions, but in the main, she manages to keep within the bounds of the amount she has set aside as being sufficient to cover her requirements. This in brief is the Budget System, the setting aside of a certain amount of money to be used in the purchase of merchandise or service, the amount being determined in advance by a survey of past expenditures coupled with future plans. On a more extensive scale, the thought which governs household budgeting has been applied to modern business until today we have the same principle everywhere applied in slightly different ways. The manufacturer wishes to put a new product on the market. He calls in his advertising man who draws up a schedule. of expenditure for advertising, based on the cost and appeal of the product, plus the sales possibilities in the section or territory in which the product is to be offered. In the department store, a certain amount of money is allotted to the buyer for each department, based on his or her sales for the previous year and the margin of profit shown. The total purchasing must be kept within these limits, and if for any reason the buyer spends more money than usual in the purchase of one particular line, the balance must be kept by a retrenchment in some other direction. The sanity of such a policy cannot be questioned, and I cannot too strongly urge upon book buyers or prospective buyers the necessity of adopting some such plan to govern their expendi tures. Assume that your plans call for the maintenance of a ten-thousand dollar inventory (at net cost) and that you can reasonably expect to do a business of fifty thousand dollars in your business year. If your discounts average one-third, your purchases during the period should run about thirty-five thousand dollars or less, to maintain the same stock level. Should they run over this figure, you are simply adding to your inventory, and cutting down your turn-over, barring, of course, an undreamed of increase in sales. Don't indulge in haphazard buying. Make a definite decision as to the amount of money you want to spend in a year, and then divide it as accurately as you can according to the exigencies of the various seasons and the merits of the books shown to you. You may say, well, its a physical impossibility to allot a certain amount of money to be spent on each particular line shown me, because they vary in possibilities from year to year. Quite so, and for that reason your buying must be flexible. But you can still adhere to the principle by cutting down your purchasing in one direction to offset the increase in another. For years I made it a practice, when buying for Brentano's, New York, to jot down in a loose leaf book the amount of every purchase made from salesmen during the day. These amounts were totalled for me, not only daily, but weekly and monthly so that at all times I knew exactly where I stood in regard to my purchase totals, and had in addition what amounted to a pretty accurate inventory. If I found that my totals were running too high, it was then a perfectly simple matter to trim sails a little and cut down on the buying |