Booksellers and bookselling -- Fiction; Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) -- Fiction; Mystery and detective stories
QUINCY--You remind me of something that happened in our book department
the other day. A flapper came in and said she had forgotten the name
of the book she wanted, but it was something about a young man who had
been brought up by the monks. I was stumped. I tried her with The
Cloister and the Hearth and Monastery Bells and Legends of the Monastic
Orders and so on, but her face was blank. Then one of the salesgirls
overheard us talking, and she guessed it right off the bat. Of course
it was Tarzan.
MIFFLIN--You poor simp, there was your chance to introduce her to
Mowgli and the bandar-log.
QUINCY--True--I didn't think of it.
MIFFLIN--I'd like to get you fellows' ideas about advertising. There
was a young chap in here the other day from an advertising agency,
trying to get me to put some copy in the papers. Have you found that
it pays?
FRUEHLING--It always pays--somebody. The only question is, does it pay
the man who pays for the ad?
MEREDITH--What do you mean?
FRUEHLING--Did you ever consider the problem of what I call tangential
advertising? By that I mean advertising that benefits your rival
rather than yourself? Take an example. On Sixth Avenue there is a
lovely delicatessen shop, but rather expensive. Every conceivable kind
of sweetmeat and relish is displayed in the brightly lit window. When
you look at that window it simply makes your mouth water. You decide
to have something to eat. But do you get it there? Not much! You go
a little farther down the street and get it at the Automat or the
Crystal Lunch. The delicatessen fellow pays the overhead expense of
that beautiful food exhibit, and the other man gets the benefit of it.
It's the same way in my business. I'm in a factory district, where
people can't afford to have any but the best books. (Meredith will
bear me out in saying that only the wealthy can afford the poor ones.)
They read the book ads in the papers and magazines, the ads of
Meredith's shop and others, and then they come to me to buy them. I
believe in advertising, but I believe in letting someone else pay for
it.
MIFFLIN--I guess perhaps I can afford to go on riding on Meredith's
ads. I hadn't thought of that. But I think I shall put a little
notice in one of the papers some day, just a little card saying
PARNASSUS AT HOME
GOOD BOOKS BOUGHT
AND SOLD
THIS SHOP IS HAUNTED
It will be fun to see what come-back I get.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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