Satisfaction Guaranteed

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 are guaranteeing a total of twelve books on their spring lists.

Putnam's lead-off book has well-tested reader satisfactions swashbuckled in. The Sable Lion is a 17th century historical novel featuring a daredevil Flemish corsair. Born to command on the bridge or in the boudoir, Marinus De Boer ("Rinus" for short) is a hero who turns scuppers red with blood and rivals green with envy.

Four more historicals are scheduled to follow The Sable Lion, as well as three nonfiction books and four contemporary novels. All will stick to standard themes, e.g., one of the contemporary novels will be The Healing Oath, a new story of French medical life by Andre Soubiran, author of the bestselling The Doctors. The publishers expect few exchanges. Says a Putnam official: "A lot of good books get lost in the shuffle because the reviewers are looking for literature. But much of the time the public just wants a good yarn. With the guaranteed-book plan, that's what they're going to get."

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