Publishers and Booksellers Protective Association Stamp

 



The Protective Association for Publishers and Booksellers was established in New York in 1888 in an attempt to help protect copyrights and enable publishers and authors to keep more of the profits. Regional publishers such as A.M. Thayer, were early pioneers in this effort. Authors such as Mark Twain were paid in royalties tied to the subscription orders. Twain, through his financially backed publishing company, Charles L. Webster & Company, also earned income this way from the publication of Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant.

  A number of publishers used a network of subscription agents to secure orders that they'd take back to the publisher for fulfillment. They were contractually forbidden to sell to retail stores, which in turn would undercut the subscription prices that were generally two to three times higher than similar publications in retail stores. The agents at times wound up with overstock and the temptation was too much to make a buck. Add the piracy issue with cheap knockoffs and the Protective Association for Publishers and Booksellers had its work cut out for itself—a virtually impossible task.

 These "Cinderella" stamps, which had nothing to do with the US Postal Service, served as a tracking device with an identifying overprint number that tied the book to a sales agent who may have sold the book to a contractually forbidden buyer. The scheme had limited success and failed to gain acceptance industry-wide. Enforcement was difficult at best, and the stamps were expensive to produce. 

Surviving examples of these stamps can still be found today, usually still affixed inside late-19th-century hardcover books.

 

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