ENCYCLOPAEDIA SELLING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 990, 3 December 1910, Page 9

ENCYCLOPAEDIA SELLING.

\ The'publication in a month or two of the eleventh edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," by the Cambridge University Press will be, of course, tho event of tho season. The question being considered just now, however (says an English paper) is how to put tho work upon tho market in a. way that will be satisfactory to the publishers, the booksellers, and the public. Tho truth is, when a. book running to twenty-eight enormous volumes has to bo presented to tho public the ordinary . machinery of distribution breaks down. It cannot be bought orcr tho counter like an ordinary book; tho mere packing would tax tho resources of a shop; while if tho , work 'is to be handed on to tho purchaser in tho publisher's packing, why should it pass .through the bookseller's handset all? Moreover, the prico is so considerable that a purchaser may urge that a mero payment to account is 110 nioro than a reasonable concession. The proposal the publishers make, accordingly, to tho booksellers is that the latter will push the salo among their customers; they will send the names of intending purchasers to the publishers, who will forward the work direct from , the printing-house, and for trouble they will be regarded by a a per cent, commission on the, price. Jvow the booksellers are making a stand against those terms for on© or other of the three reasons following. Tlie instalment system of, payment is objectionable. 'Those who avail themselves of ,it do so because .they cannot /afford tho lump sum, and, to conceal that fact, avoid the, local dealer;-and go to the publisher direct, in this way, it'is urged, large sums of money havo gone, past the middleman, further, the sending of purchasers' names to tho publisher is of doubtful policy. It excludes the retailer, and £.ay. he end of . the wedge." • I'inally, the 5 per cent, commission is too small;-. Tho last' is tho strong contention.' It does seem handsome remuneration indeed that in return for a post-card with an address on it a bookseller should receive, say, £1 os. ; (supposing the cost of tho work to bo -25), but the proportion is so small i as compared with that on other books' I that there is an appearance of injustice. Oil the whole, it is just possible, that the proportion may he in-' ; creased, even at. tho expense of tho purchaser. ! ' ' i : : ' 1 ; 1 i [ :