Book Description

Excerpt from The Profession of Bookselling: A Hand Book of Practical Hints for the Apprentice and Bookseller The following is an attempt to put into accessible form direction and information of a practical kind that may be of service to the young recruit in the ranks of the book trade, as well as suggestive to those who may already have worked their way along without assistance of any kind. The chapters are restricted as far as possible to the practical side of the question, and based upon the experience of men whose good fortune it has been to serve their apprenticeship under the direction of masters of the profession. The matter presented, therefore, does not represent the notions of an individual, or of a theoretician, but is an epitome of the opinions of several who are now actively engaged in the profession. Much that is offered may perhaps strike veterans as trite, commonplace, or as something with which every one must be acquainted. This could not very well be avoided in an attempt to help beginners or the inexperienced to a proper understanding or appreciation of a profession in which, unfortunately for us, the opportunities for proper apprenticeship have become lamentably rare. Booksellers have become much too conservative; they have become much too reticent in the matter of communicating to their fellows their experiences in their practical every-day life; by persisting in which, I am inclined to think, they have lost much. They might well take a lesson from their co-workers, the librarians, who, in the first place, by associating themselves together and holding annual meetings to exchange notes and opinions, have given and received a stimulus that has carried their profession to the very front rank; and who, in the second place, by availing themselves of their organ, the Library Journal, to convey to one another their opinions, and the result of their practice and experience in the various branches of their work, are performing a service for their profession that is of the greatest possible value. Who will say that this is not within the range of our profession? There is no business in existence more difficult or trying than the book business. By this term, of course, is meant the business in all its branches. For the present we shall confine our observations to bookselling and not book-producing, as the two are so radically different that they call for almost entirely different qualifications. The retail bookseller should, and undoubtedly does, hold the leading position, as his requirements are many and of a higher order than are called for in the wholesale trade. Retail bookselling is beyond all doubt and in every sense of the term a profession. It is a calling that requires a scholarly education and long training. Some exception may be taken to this statement, but only by those who have given the matter little or no consideration. They would undoubtedly classify it with the ordinary mercantile business, asserting, with some show of correctness, that the book business is the handling of merchandise pure and simple, like hardware, household utensils and the like. A simple investigation, with only a slight knowledge of what is required of the retail book salesman would, however, the writer thinks, rapidly dissipate any such ideas. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com