In a bold experiment designed to sell more books, the publishing house of Putnam last week brought out a novel entitled The Sable Lion ($3.50) with this message attached to its jacket: "This book is sold with the publisher's unqualified guarantee of reader satisfaction . . . If you do not thoroughly enjoy it ... we will replace it with any book of your choice [of similar price] on the current bestseller list."
Two publishing houses, Putnam and Coward-McCann, have decided to test in their own business a merchandising plan that has long been effective in other fields. As a starter, they...