How to Sell a Book

Chain Publisher Frank Ernest Gannett, who has fought many a long and bitter campaign (against the Supreme Court packing plan, the $25,000 salary limit etc.), began another last month. He warned U.S. booksellers of probable libel suits if they handled a new book: pseudonymous Author John Roy Carlson's Under Cover, a history of Bundists, Kluxers and assorted nightshirters (see p. 97}. The book declares that the Committee for Constitutional Government, founded by Frank Gannett, had tie-ups with the fellow travelers of Fascism. The Chicago Tribune also began to attack the book.

The moves made the book sell with remarkable speed for Publishers E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. In Manhattan, Under Cover was hard to buy; in Chicago Marshall Field's book department sold 500 copies, all it had, in a few hours. Total volumes to date: 80,000, a remarkable number for a book of its kind.

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