BOOKSELLERS' GRIEVANCES.
AREVOLUTION has been slowly, but steadily, taking place in the Bookselling Trade of this country. The symptoms of the disease have long been evident to those in- terested in the matter of Books, and even outsiders can scarcely have failed to notice that something unusual was occurring in the shops of the booksellers. In the country, the bookseller pure and simple has almost ceased to exist ; and when one does find a shop more or less devoted to the sale of books, it nearly always sells extraneous articles as well. Fancy goods, stationery, pictures, artists' colours, umbrellas, walking-sticks, and even tea, china, or stockings, are a few of the articles, out of a host of others, that may be obtained now-a-days at many a country or suburban bookseller's shop. This used not to be the case. The old-fashioned bookseller stuck to books. He knew his business, and he knew something, at least, of the books he sold. He was frequently a well-educated and a well-read man. His customers could rely upon his opinion as to the merits of rival works, and could depend upon his advice as to the best books to obtain in any particular line of thought. If he happened to read and approve of a work, it was a lucky thing for the author. For instance, we find a member of the fraternity writing that of one author's books alone, by reading, recommending, and pushing, he sold over 20,000 copies to his customers, and those, too, mostly retail. The modern bookseller apparently, to use a simile of one of the trade, deals with books as bricklayers with bricks, and knows no more of the nature of the books handled than if they actually were so many bricks.
For some time past, the pages of the Bookseller—the recog- nised organ of this particular trade—have been full of the most desponding and comfortless letters we ever had the misfortune to come across. There is no hone, no cheerfulness, no light,— in short, universal gloom would appear to be rapidly enveloping the sellers of books in every part of Great Britain. They seem unable to make the least practical suggestion to remedy the existing state of things. The propositions which they do bring forward are singularly old-fashioned, and, we are confident, would be quite futile, if carried into effect. For example, one of the suggestions is to boycott those publishers who supply books to any but booksellers. But suppose, for instance, the publisher of Tennyson's poems were among the number ostra- cised. Then the only effect of this ingenious arrangement would be that, as the public must be supplied through some channel or other with the Laureate's works, the butcher or the baker would find it advantageous to keep a stock of these and other books tabooed by the booksellers. In short, so far from such a proceeding benefitting the booksellers, they would find this course of action operating in still further driving trade from their doors and diminishing their turn-over. A perusal of the correspondence referred to leaves the impression upon the mind that, at present, the booksellers are in the stage of sitting and bewailing their loss, rather than cheerily seeking how to redress their grievances._ The burden of the mournful wail now ascending from the pages of the Bookseller is that Bookselling„ as a separate trade, has disappeared; that no living can be gained by selling new books. Retail profits have been gradually lessening, nail profit has become a thing of the past. A bookseller writes :—" I could without difficulty prove that the last hundred thousand pounds' worth of new books that I sold, before I relinquished business, did not produce sufficient profit to pay its quota of working expenses." Doubtless, many causes have been in operation to produce this sad state of things among the book- sellers at the present moment. Several of these may be readily understood. Every book has a fixed published price, and this each buyer of books can ascertain for himself, through the advertisements in the journals, or through the publisher's catalogue. And books, like all other commodities, are naturally purchased by the con-
sumer in the cheapest market. The bookseller who allows twopence in the shilling discount cannot blame his customers, if they leave him, and purchase where they obtain a discount of threepence in the shilling. At the same time, we greatly sympathise with the bookseller. He does not stand on the same ground as, for instance, the glover. The goods dealt in by the latter, having no fixed price, are sold merely according to the style of the neighbourhood in which his business is situated and the wealth of his customers. Few persons can estimate the relative values of gloves seen at different shops. But every one knows where new books can be obtained for the least money. The style of shop or the respectability of the locality matters not, the book is identically the same whether purchased in Mayfair or in Whitechapel. Much more on a par with the bookseller is the retailer of patent medicines and proprietary articles (as they are called), who, equally with the former—and. we 'mention it to show that in this particular the bookseller is not alone unhappy—is now feeling the pressure of the times. The Co-operative Stores and immense universal-supply concerns to be found in most of our large towns are rapidly absorbing the trade of the small retailers, and when the Parcel Post comes in— which will enable people in the remotest parts of the country tobuy direct in the cheapest market—things will, we fear, be even still worse for the small shops, whether they be in the country or in the town. In every trade the tendency of the day is more and more to cut down the middle-men who stand between the consumer and the producer or the manufacturer, as the case may be. To illus- trate the nature of the competition which has for years past been raging among the booksellers, an example may be given. The published price of a book is, say, five shillings, and its trade price will then be three shillings and sevenpence. If the bookseller be a "twopenny-discount man," he makes a gain of sevenpence by selling a copy of the work ; but then the " threepenny-discount man" cuts him out, and sells it with a profit of only twopence. The margin of profit in the latter case is clearly insufficient to cover the expenses of ordering from the publisher, collecting, and perhaps delivering at the private house of the customer. There is a curious old custom in the wholesale bookselling trade, which is to give thirteen copies of a work for the payment of twelve. Thus, to continue the case above mentioned, if the bookseller cares to speculate to the value of a dozen copies of the work, he gets thirteen for the same money ; supposing he is a " three. penny-discount man," he will make a profit of five shillings and ninepence when all thirteen copies have been disposed of. But then he runs a risk of some of the copies remaining on his shelves for a considerable time, which would tnra this chance of gain into loss.
The present discount system of retailing books is not really advantageous to the public, because it inclines the book- sellers to keep in stock only indifferent and job lots of books, which they obtain from the publishers on lower than the normal terms, and which can consequently be sold to the public with more profit than the ordinary run of good and standard works. For it must be borne in mind that the great proportion of the public only buy the books which they see displayed in shops. A book is wanted for a gift; a prize, a wedding present, or that treats of some foreign country, or may be, simply for amusement ; and the customer will, in nine cases out of ten, purchase that work which is most strongly recommended by the shopman. Naturally, the latter only recommends those books which are upon the shelves of the shop. If, therefore, the book stocks of the country continue for any length of time to be largely made up of inferior works, the bad. results will sooner or later be apparent. This twenty-five- per-cent. system does not, for another reason, react to the benefit of the public. The publisher prices his books con- siderably, higher than he would do, were it not in exist- ence. This absurd custom has a tendency, therefore, to keep the price of books high, and to prevent those vast benefits which accrue to a country where the best books are within the reach of the masses. The United States are far better off in this respect than Great Britain. Why should not the published price of a book which can be purchased for ninepence, be nine- pence, instead of a shilling, as it is at present ? The only answer is that a few country shops can still get ten pence for the volume, and the railway book-stalls a shilling. But the places where anything higher than ninepence for a shilling book can be obtained are very rapidly decreasing in number. The general public rightly regard the published price as an absurd anomaly. It is to be hoped that at least one outcome of the present
agitation will be that publishers and booksellers will see their way to more closely approximating the selling and published prices.
Bnt the booksellers have other grievances. They complain that drapers and certain other tradesmen are combining book- selling with their businesses, and underselling them ; and they blame the publishers for supplying any persons except book, sellers proper. But publishers must somehow or other dis- pose of their "wares ; and the public, somehow or other, will obtain the books they require. The trade of his customer matters not so much to the publisher, as the fact that his books are sold. The public, finding more or less difficulty in obtaining what they require from the bookseller proper, tarn to those quarters where their wants are most easily and cheaply supplied. The remedy for this grievance lies with the booksellers themselves. Let them more carefully select the books they place upon their shelves, and endeavour to obtain at least some idea of the scope, style, and ability of the various authors whose books they are constantly handling. If the know- ledge of their trade thus becomes more of a reality than it is at present, the public will not be slow in discovering the fact, dud will be only too ready to desert the draper, who cannot possibly give the same care and attention to what is merely an offshoot of his legitimate business, and to return to those who, having studied their wants, know exactly how best to supply them. The booksellers apparently have not sufficiently moved with the times, and have been trusting to the past and conservative customs of their trade, rather than keeping pace with modern requirements. That they are now waking up is evident; but we should recommend them also to take courage, for they seem to us to be showing more despondency than is called for by the situation.
But there is another grievance. The bookseller is grumbling because schoolmasters, who consume large quantities of certain classes of books, are in the habit of buying direct from the publishers. The bookseller seems to forget that there is great competition among the publishers, and that many school-books of rival publishers are, in the eyes of the school- master, equal in merit. Were the publisher to refuse to supply a schoolmaster, as likely as not the schoolmaster would obtain -the books he required from another publisher.
In short, these matters connected with the book trade which -are intruding themselves upon the public notice are purely and simply questions of supply and demand. It is the old, old story, that is continually being retold. Publishers have been printing larger numbers of books than the legitimate demand has required, and in, order to dispose of the heavy stocks that they have held from year to year, have been offering larger dis- counts than have been customary in the trade, to any one who would buy their books in moderate quantities. Drapers and others, as well as booksellers, have availed themselves of these offers, and then the natural result follows. A fierce competition ensues among the various retailers, and it is not long before the lowest possible selling price is reached. An outcry is then raised, as the profits, in spite of the tempting discounts given by the publisher, are found in practice to be, after alb extremely small. But another and a deeper cause for this over- production has also been in operation. The printers have been busily competing amongst themselves for the printing of books, and as their prices get lower and lower, so does the publisher's thirst for the production of books increase.
Publishers will do well in the future to look more carefully to the demand than they have been doing. No book should be published that does not meet a distinct want of the day, and- publishers should, as much as possible, abstain from making boas, like the famous razors, simply and solely for selling. There should be a reason for, a distinct object in, each work that is published. Though publishers may at one time be able to force upon the market, by means of tempting discounts, a vast amount of literature which they could not dispose of otherwise, the system cannot eventually react to their benefit. The booksellers, and others, who so warmly met their large discount advances, will come to distrust the innovation, and refuse to purchase books negotiated en such terms.
It is evident that just now the natural balance of supply and demand in the bookselling trade is disturbed, but the public may take comfort, in the fact that in all other trades there have been similarly stormy periods. We believe that the agitation will shortly settle down, and the storm which has been raised render the bookselling atmosphere clearer and healthier than it
has been for some time past. Whether the phoenix that will arise from the ashes of the conflict will be the bookseller proper, or the bookseller who combines his business with some other trade, is another question. Be this as it may, we cannot help pointing out to the booksellers the futility of attempting—as is now seriously proposed by several writers in the Bookseller—to make the trade of Bookselling a close guild. Anything ap- proaching to protection of this kind will never be suffered by the public in this country. Besides, " Rings " to keep up prices always break down; and restrictions, such as some booksellers would apparently like to see placed upon the sale of books, are as likely to be imposed as the Corn Laws to be reimposed.
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