but good books that will sell. When a reader recommends his firm to publish a book, and the publication results in a loss of fifty pounds, the reader loses fifty pounds’ worth of reputation; and if this unsatisfactory phenomenon occurs once too often, he loses the whole of his reputation and his situation also. Therefore, when he likes a manuscript but fears for its popularity, he thinks first of his reputation and his situation. Being a child of Adam, he prefers to run the risk of refusing a good book than to run the risk of compromising his reputation and exposing his employers to monetary loss.
The vast majority of readers’ reports are either unfavourable, or favourable in a halfhearted, cautious way. Not once in a hundred times does a reader recommend a book with enthusiasm. Readers, when they like a book, are disposed to say, in effect: “This book isn’t half bad. On the other hand it isn’t brilliant. The author may do better. On the other hand he may not. It doesn’t really matter much whether you publish the thing or not I won’t prophesy a good sale, but on the whole I should be disposed to say that you would not be ill-advised in publishing it."
I will suppose that the reader has sent in such a report about your work. The report will probably annoy the publisher, who will remark satirically: “I wish these alleged experts of ours would make up their minds one way or the other! What do we pay them for?” If his lists are fairly full, he may unceremoniously decide against the book, despite the reader’s mild approval of it. But vacancies in his list, or some attractive phrase in the reader’s report, may induce him either to read the book himself or to submit it to another reader. In which case the martyrised manuscript has to undergo still another and perhaps more fearful ordeal.
Here I will quote from a letter written by one of the foremost publishers in London:—
“I generally take very great care over the reading of books, first looking at the MSS. myself, and then sending those that seem worthy of it to a very good reader. There remains a further ordeal in the shape of a second reader, who is also first-class, and the unfortunate MS. has sometimes to run the gauntlet of a third reader. It does not follow that because a book is declined, the refusal is on the score of literary merit or demerit. Readers are human, and they have their fads and follies. It must sometimes happen that a MS., though containing real merit, offends the idiosyncrasy of the critic, who incontinently damns it”
These sentences sum up the matter with fairness.
I have given considerable space to the probable adventures of a manuscript in a publisher's office, because it is extremely important that the timid beginner should realise with precision the nature of those adventures, so that he may avoid the indiscretion of being either vexed or discouraged when a manuscript of which he thinks well is refused over and over again.
A publisher should not be allowed to take more than a month in deciding about a submitted manuscript At the expiration of that period, he should be firmly and persistently dunned for either the manuscript or an acceptance. Years may elapse before a good manuscript finds acceptance. The beginner is inclined to say to himself that he will not commence a second book until he knows definitely the fate of the first one. This is a mistake. As an artist he should forget that the first one exists, and should enter upon a new enterprise immediately he has recovered from the slackness and depression which will be the natural reaction from the strain of completing the first.
A list of publishers, with their addresses and some more or less useful notes about their specialties and peculiarities, is included in The Literary Year-Book, published by Mr. George Allen.
The Agreement.
A publisher having at length expressed his willingness to publish the aspirant’s book, if terms can be arranged, the next step is to settle the details of the agreement
Now in certain circles of authorship a tremendous outcry has been raised that publishers are grinders of the faces of the poor, and common sharpers. That some publishers are dishonest tricksters is indubitable. So are some grocers, some engineers, some parsons, and some authors. Publishers as a commercial class are neither more nor less honourable than any other commercial class, and authors are neither more nor less honourable than publishers. In the world of commerce one fights for one’s own hand and keeps within the law: the code is universally understood, and the man who thinks it ought to be altered because he happens to be inexperienced, is a fool.
The publisher has two advantages over the literary aspirant First, he knows his business, while the aspirant doesn’t; and second, the aspirant is usually more anxious to get his book published than the publisher is to publish it The publisher would be a philanthropist and not a business man if he magnanimously refrained from using these advantages. To publish a book by a new author is admittedly a risky enterprise, and if the publisher exaggerates the risk, as he almost certainly will, the aspirant must comfort himself with the thought that at any rate the book is going to be published. To get his first book on the market through the medium of a high-class firm is after all the principal thing for the aspirant; the amount of profit to the aspirant is quite secondary. If he is wise the aspirant will regard his first book as an advertisement, not as a source of revenue. Publication of a first book through a high-class firm on less advantageous terms is better than publication through a second-rate firm on more advantageous terms. Let the aspirant note that of a book by a new author a high-class firm will sell more copies, and will command more careful reviews, than a second-rate firm. Reviewers are decidedly Influenced, whether consciously or unconsciously, by the renown and authority of the name at the foot of the title-page of a book by an unknown writer.
Hence the aspirant who is negotiating terms for the publication of his first book must be yielding in a degree commensurate with the standing of the firm, and with the number of refusals which the manuscript has previously experienced. But as a rule—to which, however, there are a few striking exceptions—the greater the firm the more generous their treatment of beginners.
Many firms have a printed form of agreement, which they fill up and send to the author for signature. Sometimes this agreement is fair, sometimes iniquitous. It will be sufficient if the aspirant notes the following points:—
(1) He should never under any circumstances, if he means seriously to adopt the profession of authorship, agree to bear the whole or part of the expenses of publication. The entire cost of publication, advertising, &c., must be borne by the publisher.
(2) He should never, if he can possibly avoid it, agree to be remunerated on the half-profit system. The system is thoroughly bad. A thoroughly bad system may happen to work smoothly in rare instances.
(3) He may properly be remunerated in one of three ways, (a) The publisher may buy the entire copyright of the book outright for a lump sum down. (b) The publisher may buy the copyright for a term of years, say five or seven, at the expiry of which the copyright reverts to the author, (c) The publisher may acquire the right to publish during the whole term of copyright, or for a shorter term, by agreeing to pay the author a royalty on every copy of the book sold. In the case of a new author, who wants advertisement first of all, both (a) and (b) have advantages, since they obviously offer the publisher a special inducement to push the book. Of course (b) is better than (a). For a first novel £75 is a handsome, and £50 a fair, price for the entire copyright. The copyright for a term of years is worth very little less. On the (c) system, 10 per cent. (7d. per copy) is a fair royalty on a first novel; a royalty of a shilling per copy is handsome. A well-established popular author can get 25 per cent. (is. 6d. per copy), and one hears of 33 per cent. The aspirant who is to be paid on the (c) system should endeavour to arrange for a “payment in advance of royalties” on publication (say £20), but he cannot insist on this until he has made some sort of reputation. In systems (a) and (b) the price should be payable in full on the day of publication. In the (c) system accounts should be rendered and royalties paid half-yearly. There is no adequate method of checking publishers’ accounts. The aspirant
