Bookstores: A Main Distribution Agency For Books

Epstein, Louis

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1546 Copy

Description

Title

Bookstores: A Main Distribution Agency For Books

Author(s)

Epstein, Louis

Issue Date

1967

Keyword(s)

Publishers and publishing --United States

Abstract

"I am neither a librarian nor a publisher, and the topic originally assigned to me, ""Main Distribution Agencies for Books,"" is so vast that I know of no single person qualified to deal with the whole of it. However, one sentence in the invitation to participate in this conference put some limit to my assignment and gave me hope of being able to fulfill it; although, the invitation said, ""you are particularly interested in bookstores, ... we feel that your experience and point of view qualify you to discuss this topic for an audience of librarians. "" Those are the terms I accepted and those are the terms on which I must be judged. I am not an authority on book clubs except where they hurt the bookseller. I am not an authority on wholesale booksellers except where they are inadequate. I am not an authority on discount houses and price-cutting booksellers except to the extent that they are vultures on the main body of bookselling. I am not an authority on college bookstores except where they take advantage of their tax-free, rent-free status to compete with me. I am not an authority on library jobbers, nor on technical or specialty book stores. I do know some things about retail bookselling. And I am interested in practically everything pertaining to the book. It is worth remembering that librarians and booksellers are both at the final end of the book distribution system. They are the only ones in the system who face the ultimate reader across a counter. They have problems in common. They each have to choose their stocks from the vast number of available titles, they each have the problem of adequately housing the publisher's product, and they each have to find ways and means of paying for their stocks, either from a budget or from a cash register. Both are directly affected by publishing trends."

Publisher

Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Series/Report Name or Number

Allerton Park Institute (14th : 1967)

ISSN

0536-4604

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1546

Copyright and License Information

Copyright owned by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1967.

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