Problems of to-day from the point of view of a psychologist / by Hugo Münsterberg.
- Hugo Münsterberg
- Date:
- 1910
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Problems of to-day from the point of view of a psychologist / by Hugo Münsterberg. Source: Wellcome Collection.
199/336 page 183
![trade which adds the profit of the dealer to the price. What the publishers have to offer we know sufficiently from their advertisements in the papers, and from their pretty, attractive catalogues, and from the reviews and critical articles. And finally, there are the subscription agents, who certainly lack no patience in bringing their books to the prospective readers. We have therefore stationery shops, and department houses, and publishers’ advertisements and selling agents, and in addition the rail- road counters and the hotel-stands,— what more can be desired? All this Is granted. But what is the result? Buying books has become to a high degree a matter of passing i fashions, and these fashions are essentially determined [ by the advertisements of the publishers. Everybody I buys the latest book which the fashion pushes forward, ; and the chances are great that It Is just that kind of a : book which five years later nobody will read, and which ! will be a dead weight in the home library. No publisher 1 can afford to give equal chance to all his publications. : To bring a book, only for a few weeks, to the attention of the magazine or newspaper readers is extremely ex- \ pensive; it is possible only for the books which, by the ^ name of the author or by sensational features or by special i timeliness, promise unusual sale. Any other book, too, j might be brought forward by extensive advertising, but r It would be ruinous; It may not be difficult to sell a one- l] dollar book If a two-dollar bill Is laid In every copy, but i the publishers do not like that method. As a result, most i 1 i](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28142330_0199.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
