How is the bookseller to tell what, in an enormous output, will prove sale able, before the full weight of unsold items affects the balance of his business, and how is he, at the same time, to hold a stock large enough to enable the public to choose freely? He may seek to escape from this dilemma by becoming the passive sales representative of large publishing houses or distribution networks, but he is then no longer a bookseller. He may take refuge in the sale of safe items to a restricted circle of customers, but he thereby cuts himself off from all that is vital in his trade and dooms himself to mediocrity and stagnation. On the other hand, he may protect his business from the danger of idle stock by speculating on the latest publications, but this is a dangerous game in that it implies a constantly changing clientele: readers remain faithful to their own discoveries and failure to follow up a book; an author or a type of literature means dismissing the public responsible for their success. This brings us back to the fact that books are indefinable.