THE BOOK TRADE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19980, 23 December 1926, Page 6

THE BOOK TRADE.

In common with practically all other businesses, booksellers had a good time this year while the Exhibition was on, and then experienced a certain flatness for a month or two until business gradually built itself up again. The Christmas trade had hardly started at the beginning of this, week, but leading booksellers were expecting to do quite as well this holiday season as last, even without the stimulus of the Exhibition this time. Fiction lias been exceedingly popular, and proportionately’ even more so than in past years. With not a few booksellers Shiela Macdonald’s “Sally in Rhodesia” has been the best seller of the year. At the same time there has been good inquiry for a more serious type of book like Lord Frederick Hamilton’s writings; and memoirs, travel, and biography generally have been selling well. There has been a good run on prize and reward books. There is a tendency for the prices of leather-bound poets to come clown, but juvenile fiction is still 6s, and annuals are still at the same prices as in previous years. There is a tendency for. the ordinary’ school reward book to come down in price. There h,ns been a big run on modern plays, and a large increase both in the issue and in the demand for them. The three volumes of modern one-act plays have been very popular. A number of books about New Zealand ancl about the Maoris have come out during the year, and have attracted considerable attention. One bookseller described the past year as a fair average one with nothing startling about it. The reaction from the Exhibition had been felt for a considerable while. The chief demand of the people is for fiction, and not always of the highest class. There has been a very marked falling off in the demand for theological works and for the more serious type of book generally. However, classical works ancl works by standard authors still maintain a fair sale, and there has been a fair demand for poetry and particularly for modern drama by such authors as Barrie and Drinkwater. Several novels and books of poems by New Zealand authors have been published, but there has been no special demand for them., There has been an increasing demand for neat pocket editions instead of the big books. The number of novels poured out by the English publishers has been perfectly bewildering. Some publishers, such as Hodder and Stoughton, Putnam’s Sous, the Student Christian Movement, and Duckworth’s arc allowing Dominion booksellers a discount that enables them to sell here at the English published price.