in the binding of a book
but in its contents. True collectors and book-fanciers still strove with
one another to obtain choice, beautiful, and fabulously expensive
volumes. But for the most part the book came back to its original
purpose and took its place as a mouthpiece of literature."

"Do you mean that books became cheap?" asked Paul.

"Not what we should consider cheap--that is, not for a long time. You
see, the thing that makes a book cheap is not alone the material put
into it, or the price for which it can be obtained of the author; it is
largely the size of the edition printed that reduces the expense of
production. It is practically as much work to print fifty copies of a
volume as several hundred. The labor of setting the type is the same.
The circle of readers was not large enough in olden times to justify a
volume being manufactured in large numbers; nor were there any methods
for advertising and distributing books broadcast as there are now."

"Oh," exclaimed Paul, "I see. Of course there weren't."

"Advertising and distribution play a very important part in our
present-day book trade," his father went on. "To-day publishers
frequently announce and advertise the book of a well-known author before
the manuscript is completed, sometimes even before it is written at
all. They get a scenario or resume of the story, and take orders for the
book as if it were really already finished. Or with the manuscript in
their hands they will often begin 'traveling it' long before it is
printed. The reason for this is that in a large country like ours it
takes a long time for salesmen to get about and secure orders from the
various selling houses of our large cities. It means spreading a book
from coast to coast. While the publisher is getting the book through the
press, correcting proof, having illustrations and the colored jacket
designed and printed, perhaps having posters made for advertising, his
salesmen are taking orders for it by means of a condensation of the
story and a dummy cover similar to the one which later will be put on
the volume. Then, when the books are ready, they are shipped east and
west, north and south, but are not released for sale until a given date,
when all the stores begin selling them simultaneously. You can see that
this is the only fair method, for it would be impossible, for example,
for San Francisco to advertise a book as new, if it had been already
selling in Boston for a month or so