--Most valuable help indeed. We depend entirely on the reports the sales force turns in in these matters. The salesmen are in direct contact with the retailers and are naturally in a position to feel the public pulse, so to speak. Their help is invaluable. They can anticipate the demand very often.
I had reference more particularly to the way books are made.
--Oh, on that point too. We never make a final decision on a cover design, for instance, without showing it to the salesmen. They very often make valuable suggestions as to changes of colour, etc. They run largely to red.
--It would seem, then, that the designing of the books is very much in the hands of the salesmen?
--Are the office-boys often called into consultation?
--Mr. ---- finds his stenographer a very great help in passing upon certain points--illustrations, etc.
--Does it appear to you that the sales department would be the one best qualified to pass on points of design?
--Well, there, you see--the books have to be sold--that is what we make them for--and the sales department is the one in closest touch with the people that buy the books--that knows just what they want.
--The standards of quality, then, are set by the people who buy the books?
--Oh, absolutely so. How else would you move the books? It is a merchandising proposition, you must remember.
--But do you not think that people would buy decently made books as willingly as poorly made books?
At the same price, yes. No question about it. The book-buying public doesn't worry its head about the way books are made. It doesn't know anything about it. And well made books cost more. The trade is committed to a dollar-and-a-half article and can't risk going above it.
--Your opinion is that the price of a well made book would be so high as to prevent its sale?
--In the case of fiction, yes. The price has become almost a fixture.
--We shall have to go outside of fiction, then, to look for well made books?
--You have said that certain unproductive factors prevent you from spending what you otherwise might on good workmanship. What specific factors would you mention?
--Plates--electros. We plate everything on the chance of its running into several printings. 80 per cent of the books are not reprinted. You can see that the money tied up in plates is a very considerable sum, and, as I say, 80 per cent of it is dead loss. We are obliged to take the chance, however.