Can Young Ladies Sell Books? by H. H. Hall

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 16, 1906

Can Young Ladies Sell Books?

By H. H. Hall

It has been generally admitted that young ladies can sell papers and small holiday books, but can they sell subscription books and make it self-supporting? Well, let us see. Nine young ladies went out from the Healdsburg College canvassing institute about the beginning of June. Their records up to July 20, for “Heralds,” are as follows:—

NAME	HOURS	VALUE
Inez Hoiland	71	$405.25
Bessie Hart	236.5	277.25
Lylon Hart	218.5	263.25
Elizabeth Gregory	204	256.75
Ella Olsen	198.25	231.25
Susie V. Barker	175.25	213.30
Esther Geer	128.25	155.00
Kathryn Metcalf	110	148.50
Gertrude Hildebrand	103.5	142.60

Average sales, $1.44 an hour.

These records are being made in various portions of California—in the suburbs of San Francisco, the business and residence sections of small towns, the business portions of cities, in mining camps, and out in the oil fields, which are located in the hottest part of the State.

In looking over the preceding report, remember you are not examining the work of experienced agents, but of a class of girls only one of whom had sold books before. Perhaps you will say, “Will they deliver?” The largest deliveries have already been made, and they averaged almost one hundred per cent. “Well,” you may say, “California territory is particularly good.” Not so. In southern California, where the population is largely a floating one, made up of sightseers and health seekers, the reports are almost as favorable. And this is also true of the young lady workers in Oregon and Washington.

The fact of the matter is, the Lord has said that the canvassing work is to be revived, and he is using instruments usually considered too weak for such work to fulfil his word. And now the fall season is drawing on apace. Are there not hundreds and thousands of children, young men and women, and older ones too, who will take up our periodicals and our popular forty-per-cent books and gain an experience that will enable them, a little later, to do successful work with our large subscription books?

H. H. HALL.