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 PUBLISHEES AND AUTHOKS. 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES SPEDDING. 
 
 PRINTED FOE THE AUTHOR. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY JOHN EUSSELL SMITH, 
 
 36, SOHO SQUARE. 
 
 1867. 
 
[9 
 
 J. E. TAVLOK AND CO., PiUNTERS, 
 LITTLE QUEEN STKFET, LINCOLN'S INN FIRLDS 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 The two papers which I have here printed 
 were meant to appear in some magazine or 
 review of good repute, and find their own 
 way to the knowledge of those whom they 
 concern: and I should not have thought of 
 sending them forth by themselves, but that 
 the reason given for refusing them was such 
 as seems to threaten a complete suppression 
 of the questions to which they refer, unless 
 some unusual way be taken to make them 
 known. 
 
 The reason given — in both cases, at a con- 
 siderable interval of time, and by editors un- 
 connected with each other — for refusing to 
 admit them into a popular periodical, was not 
 
VI PEEFACE. 
 
 that the subject was (in the editor's judgment) 
 likely to prove uninteresting to his readers, or 
 that the treatment of it was unfair, ineffec- 
 tive, or otherwise discreditable ; but that they 
 would offend the Powers upon whom the 
 sale of books depends, and might materially 
 damage the value (as property) of the publica- 
 tion which admitted them. In one case I was 
 told of the hostility which such an article 
 would necessarily provoke, and which would 
 fall upon the proprietor; in the other, that 
 it would inevitably create a great and deep 
 offence in the minds of all the publishers, and 
 thereby injure the property. 
 
 With the Editors I have no dispute. They 
 have to consider the interests of the pro- 
 prietors ; and it may be that a discussion of 
 matters concerning the book trade in behalf 
 of those for whom or by whom books are 
 made, would be resented by the agents through 
 whom they are distributed, and turn them into 
 a host of enemies and an organised obstruc- 
 tion. But if this be so, the stronger the case 
 is, and the more unanswerable the arguments 
 
PREFACE. Vn 
 
 by which it is supported, the less chance will 
 there be of obtaining a hearing for it through 
 any of the ordinary channels. 
 
 Now it seems to me that there is no pre- 
 tence in this case for refusing to let it be 
 heard by all who have or think they have an 
 interest in the issue. I have none myself, ex- 
 cept what all readers and writers share with 
 me. I have no bargain of my own to make. 
 I never proposed terms to any publisher which 
 were not readily accepted. I never had any 
 dispute about reckonings, or disappointment 
 about profits : nor would the adoption of any 
 or all of my suggestions put a shilling into my 
 own pocket. My occupations of late years 
 have brought to my knowledge certain facts, 
 and suggested to my understanding certain 
 conclusions, which I have thought that it 
 would be for the benefit of others to be in- 
 formed or reminded of In presenting them 
 for consideration I have used no unfair advan- 
 tage. I have betrayed no confidences. I have 
 appealed to no secret or exclusive informa- 
 tion. I have asserted no facts but such as 
 
Vni PREFACE. 
 
 anybody may verify ; urged no arguments but 
 such as anybody may weigh ; announced no 
 conclusion towards which anybody need travel 
 further than he sees his road by daylight. My 
 facts may be disputable, my arguments may 
 be inconclusive, my suggestions may be im- 
 practicable ; but though there may be good 
 reasons for rejecting my conclusions, there 
 cannot be a good reason for objecting to the 
 publication of them. 
 
 That it may the better appear what kind of 
 discussions in these matters are supposed to 
 be dangerous, and therefore under what kind 
 of censorship the Press really labours, I have 
 printed both articles exactly as they were 
 written, without any omission, addition, or 
 alteration. But I have added to the first a 
 postscript, in which I have attempted to make 
 the exposition more complete. 
 
 80, Westhourne Terrace, 
 October, 1866. 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 Authors and their publishers, — or, perhaps, 
 I should rather say publishers and their au- 
 thors, — have a common interest in selling 
 their book at a profit ; and though, when they 
 come to settle , the proportion of the profit 
 which each may fairly claim, their interests 
 cross, yet (their several contributions being 
 known and appreciable) it might be supposed 
 that in a country where markets are open, 
 bargains free, and experience abundant, the 
 most convenient way of apportioning their 
 shares fairly must have been found out long 
 ago. 
 
 Judging however by what publishers say 
 to authors, and authors to each other, it would 
 
 B 
 
'2 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 seem that the aiTangements usually adopted 
 for that purpose are not in fact satisfactory 
 to either party. There is a story, for the 
 truth of which I do not vouch, though I can 
 believe it to be true, of a successful publislier 
 who on visiting the residence of a successful 
 author, and seeing shrubberies and flower- 
 beds and other signs of comfort and elegance- 
 observed, with a sigh, "This is where our 
 money goes." And I have heard of authors 
 whose enjoyment of their publisher's cham- 
 pagne was marred by the reflexion that it had 
 been extracted out of themselves. Each seems 
 to regard liimsclf as the other's victim. 
 
 Whether the complaint on either side is just, 
 I do not propose to enquire ; on both sides it 
 is idle. The arrangement they made ^^'ith 
 each other was a bargain, and if it was a bad 
 bargain for either the blame lies with himself. 
 But whether authors and publishers might 
 not, in making their bargains, go to work 
 upon a better plan ; whether the course usu- 
 ally taken in England for apportioning the 
 proflts be the one most likely to lead to a just 
 and satisfactory result; is a question which 
 may be fairly asked. The rule adopted by 
 
rUBLISIIERS AND AUTHORS. 6 
 
 at least one publishing house in the United 
 States appears to me better ; and ever since I 
 heard of it I have been wondering that I did 
 not think of it myself long ago, when I had 
 to consider the question on my own account ; 
 and wishing to bring it under the notice of 
 others in like case, to whom the suggestion 
 may not come too late. 
 
 It has indeed been intimated to me that I 
 ought not to write on this subject, because 
 I appear to be very slightly acquainted with 
 " the general nature of the arrangements be- 
 tween authors and booksellers ; " and it is 
 very true that I know little more about them 
 than those who know best are willing to tell 
 without pressing. Private money transactions 
 are not ordinarily asked or talked about, even 
 among friends ; and I may have been living 
 all my life among people to Avhom the sugges- 
 tion is familiar, without ever hearing of it. 
 If so, however, it is but reasonable to suppose 
 that the same causes which have kept me in 
 ignorance have kept in equal ignorance others 
 who are like me ; and from a few direct en- 
 quiries on the point which I have made lately, 
 I venture to say that, if the arrangement I 
 
 B '2 
 
4 PUBLISHERS AXD AUTHORS. 
 
 speak of be an ordinary one between anthors 
 and publishers in England, the fact is not 
 generally known to persons in my situation ; 
 though there are perhaps none whom it more 
 concerns. Nor do I see that my ignorance 
 disqualifies me for explaining the nature and 
 advantages of it. For slight as my acquaint- 
 ance is with the terms which publishers usu- 
 ally offer or may usually be induced to accept, 
 yet with the needs, the interests, the objects, 
 and the reasonable desires of a literary la- 
 bourer who would be glad to have some por- 
 tion of what he has spent upon his work 
 repaid by a share of what the purchaser has 
 had to pay for it, I am very well acquainted ; 
 and it is of the way in which that share may 
 be most fairly estimated, and most easily ob- 
 tained by such labourers, that I propose to 
 speak. 
 
 That there may be no mistake however 
 about my qualifications or pretensions, I will 
 begin by confessing that the practicability of 
 the arrangement which I am going to recom- 
 mend is not known to me by any experience 
 of my own. My own transactions with pub- 
 lishers have been of the shortest and simplest 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTHOKS. 5 
 
 kind. In the very few cases in which I have 
 wished to publish a book or pamphlet, — my 
 object havincj always been the publication and 
 not the profit, I have taken one or other of 
 two courses : I have either simply given the 
 work away, reserving nothing for myself ex- 
 cept the privilege of being supplied with 
 copies at tlie trade price, or I have paid the 
 expenses myself and published by commission 
 on the usual terms. 
 
 Now when the author's sole object is the 
 publication and circulation of his work, the 
 first of these methods is or ought to be the 
 best. It makes it the publisher's interest 
 simply to sell as many copies as he can, and 
 having had nothing to pay for the authorship, 
 he can afford to sell them at a lower price. 
 Nor is the author's gain nothing. Pie gets 
 his book published without expense or risk, 
 and saves himself the trouble and annoyance 
 of making bargains and criticising accounts. 
 But the cases are of course rare in which 
 there would be either motive or means for 
 the production of a book on these terms. If 
 literature is to flourish, books must pay their 
 author enough to make liim think it worth 
 
6 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 his while to do his part in them well. That 
 they should pay him in proportion to the 
 quantity and A^alue of the labour he bestows 
 (which would be best if it could be contrived) 
 is of course impossible. For the pay must 
 come out of the profits, the profits must de- 
 pend upon the sale, and the sale will bear 
 no direct proportion to the labour. But his 
 book might be made to pay him his fair share 
 of whatever profits it can be made to produce ;' 
 and to ascertain what that share is, and con- 
 trive that it shall come to him in the most 
 convenient way — that is, with most certainty 
 and least trouble, — is a problem, the solution 
 of which would be worth much, not only to 
 him, but through him and the like of him 
 to literature generally. 
 
 Let us first enquire then how the case 
 stands at present with a man who proposes to 
 bring out a book in England. I do not speak 
 of authors already known. They have some 
 measure of the market price of their pro- 
 ductions; they run comparatively little risk; 
 and being able to justify their expectations 
 by their sale-lists, will make their bargain 
 accordingly. But these are the exceptions. 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 7 
 
 Take the case which must be the case of 
 almost every author when he begins. His 
 name is unknown. His productions have 
 never been tried in the market. He has 
 written a book which he hopes will find pur- 
 chasers sufficient to yield a profit, but wliich 
 cannot be published without some risk of loss 
 to somebody. What is he to do with it % 
 
 There are three courses which will probably 
 be suggested to him : — 
 
 1. If he can afford to take the cost of pro- 
 duction upon himself, he will have no diffi- 
 culty in getting it printed and in finding a 
 publisher who will undertake to sell it for 
 him, upon condition of taking 10 per cent, of 
 the produce, and paying over to him what re- 
 mains. But in so doing he produces his book 
 at a disadvantage in two ways. The cost will 
 be greater ; for a publisher can get every part 
 of the work done considerably cheaper than 
 an author can ; and the sale will be less ; for 
 the publisher having a smaller share in the 
 proceeds will take less trouble to promote it. 
 Such at least is the opinion of those who are 
 not admitted behind the scenes: and thus much 
 is certain, the arrangement is one wliich pub- 
 
8 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 Ushers do not generally favour; for if they 
 preferred it, they could make it easier and 
 more eligible for the author without any cost 
 to themselves. 
 
 2. If he wishes to avoid these disadvantages, 
 he may make over the whole edition to the 
 publisher, in consideration of a sum of money 
 to be paid down. And in this also — pro\ided 
 he be content with a sum considerably less 
 than the book will probably realise — lie will 
 find no difficulty. He will thus avoid both 
 the disadvantages above mentioned. The book 
 will be produced at the lowest cost. The pub- 
 lisher will do his best to get it sold. He him- 
 self will incur no expense or risk; will ensure 
 a certain profit, and if the book fails, will be 
 a gainer. But on the other hand he sacrifices 
 his interest in its success, the chances of which 
 he probably rates high, while the publisher 
 will almost invariably rate them at the low- 
 est. And if his own hopes are justified by the 
 event, and he sees his book producing hun- 
 dreds while he receives tens, he feels as if he 
 were paying for his publisher's champagne. 
 
 3. If he prefers to avoid this sacrifice, and 
 reserve to himself an interest in his own sue- 
 
PUBLISH f.KS AND AUTHORS. 9 
 
 cess, being content to sutler if he fails on con- 
 dition of benefiting if he prospers, the pub- 
 lisher will probably consent, if he thinks the 
 speculation tolerably p]^)inising, to undertake 
 the expense on condition of receiving half tlie 
 profits. And this on(jlit, where the risk is 
 considerable, to be a fair arrangement. For 
 though half the profit seems a liberal allow- 
 ance to one who does so much less than half 
 the work, yet if the risk is to be set ofi" against 
 it, it is perhaps no more than his share ; and if 
 the arrangement is really what it seems and 
 professes to be, it is one with which the au- 
 thor might in the case supposed very well be 
 satisfied. It secures several important objects. 
 Printing, stationery, advertising, etc., will be 
 obtained on the most favourable terms. The 
 sale will be pushed with the zeal of a man 
 who looks to the sale for his profit, the skill 
 of a man who knows the business, and the 
 power of a man who has all the requisite ma- 
 chinery at his command. He himself advances 
 no money, runs no risk, and after he has cor- 
 rected the proofs is relieved from all further 
 trouble. This is much, and may be worth pur- 
 chasing by the sacrifice of half the profits. 
 
10 PUBLISHERS AFl' AUTHORS. 
 
 Nevertheless he will jin;; that this also has 
 some serious drawba; 1. . When he receives 
 his account and conn . :he profits with the 
 sale-lists, the chance . a;> that he will be dis- 
 appointed and perplexed.* If he seeks ex- 
 planations, he will find that the matter can- 
 not be made intelligible without the know- 
 ledge of particulars which the custom of the 
 trade does not permit to be revealed. And 
 if he asks himself why those particulars should 
 be kept secret, he will find it difficult to sug- 
 gest an answer without supposing that the 
 arrangement to which he consented was not 
 exactly what he understood it to be. 1 do 
 not say that the supposition will be just. For 
 anything I know to the contrary, it may be 
 the custom of the trade to make up accounts 
 of this kind with scrupulous accuracy and 
 equity. But I say that some suspicion of 
 this kind will naturally and almost inevitably 
 
 * I know of a book of 488 pages, a full page con- 
 taining about 300 words, of which after 2500 copies had 
 been sold at 4«. 6(7. each, the editor was informed that it 
 was still £120 in debt, though the only expenses which 
 had been incurred were for printing, paper, binding, and 
 advertising. 
 
PUBLISIIRRS AND AUTHORS. 11 
 
 arise in his mind ; and unless it can be re- 
 moved by full and satisfactory explanations, 
 the suspicion is itself a serious objection to 
 this mode of arrangement. 
 
 As long, moreover, as he is kept in the dark 
 as to some of the facts and left to the light of 
 natural intelligence in interpreting those which 
 come to his knowledge, he ^vill find several ap- 
 pearances which will seem to countenance and 
 confirm his suspicions. I assume that when 
 he agreed to divide the profits of the book with 
 the publisher, he understood (as I should my- 
 self understand in the case supposed) that what 
 the publisher had to pay on account of the 
 book was to be deducted from what he received 
 for it, and that the balance (if any) was to be 
 divided ; the half of that balance being what 
 the publisher was to receive in consideration 
 of his outlay, his risk, his warehouse and coun- 
 ter accommodation, and his trouble. If he did 
 not think it enough, there was nothing to pre- 
 vent him from saying so and stipulating for 
 more. But this was what he did stipulate for, 
 and what the account seems on the face of it 
 to show. On one side we have so much paid 
 for printing, stationery, advertising, etc. ; on 
 
12 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 the other, so much received for copies sold ; 
 at the foot, half the remainder placed to the 
 author's credit. And what move, it will be 
 said, could the author desire ? What room is 
 left for suspecting- that the transaction is not 
 exactly what it appears to be 1 
 
 Now what more the author could desire, is 
 a question very easily answered. What I 
 should desire, if it were my own case, is what, 
 if 1 were an auditor instead of a party, I 
 should be constrained to demand, — namely, 
 the vouchers for the sums appearing to have 
 been paid. Why I should suspect that if 
 those vouchers were produced they would re- 
 veal some conditions of the bargain which 
 had not been expressed nor (by me) under- 
 stood, is a question which cannot be answered 
 so shortly ; and the suspicion may turn out 
 to be without foundation. But if it is, I 
 think it will at least appear that those who 
 are acquainted with the mysteries of the trade 
 would do well to take some measures for en- 
 lightening the ignorant as to the fact. 
 
 Not having had any dealings myself on 
 these terms I can speak only from hearsay ; 
 but hearsay, though justly rejected as evi- 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTIIOKS. 13 
 
 deuce, cannot be prevented from exciting sus- 
 picion ; and if the facts which I have been 
 led to believe upon that evidence are incor- 
 rectly conceived or stated, there can be no 
 difficulty in contradicting them. Till that is 
 done, it must be expected that they will be 
 believed by others. 
 
 In the first place, then, I have been told, 
 not only that a publisher's account of the 
 balance of profits is not usually accompanied 
 with vouchers (from which alone I should not 
 draw any unfavourable inference), but that if 
 they are asked for he will not produce them. 
 And from this, if it be true, I cannot avoid 
 the inference that the account conceals sonie- 
 flt'mg which is not to be communicated to the 
 other party. 
 
 In the second place, I have heard of cases 
 of disputed property, in which accounts of 
 this kind have had to be overhauled by law- 
 yers, and in which mistakes have been de- 
 tected, and considerable sums recovered for 
 their clients. From this, if it be true, I infer 
 that those particulars which are not commu- 
 nicated to the author may possibly include 
 matter which it concerns him to know. 
 
14 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 In the third place, I have read that the 
 terms upon which the printer and the sta^ 
 tioner deal with the publisher are consider- 
 ably lower than those upon which they will 
 deal with any one not in the trade. To this 
 indeed, if it were all, I should not, with re- 
 ference to the present argument, take any ex- 
 ception. For though I agree with Mr. Bab- 
 bage, that " there appears to be little reason 
 for this distinction in charging for printing a 
 larger price to the author than to the pub- 
 lisher, provided the former is able to give 
 equal security for the payment," and that 
 " there is no reason why, if the author deals 
 at once with the paper-maker, he should not 
 purchase on the same terms as the printer,"* 
 yet, no secret being made of the fact, it does 
 not affect the question which I am now con- 
 sidering. If they find it for their interest 
 to supply the publisher on lower terms, it is 
 their own affair ; and if either they or the 
 publisher would tell me what the terms are^ I 
 should have no more to say on that point. 
 But I couple this fact with another, whicli I 
 have reason to believe though I liave not as- 
 * 'Economy of Manufactures,' p. S19. 
 
rUBLISIIEKS AND AUTHORS. 15 
 
 certained it by actual experiment, and from 
 the two together I draw a very important in- 
 ference, bearing directly upon the present 
 (question. I have reason to believe that if 1 
 were to ask the publislier upon niliat terms he 
 deals with his printer, lie would tell me that 
 they had been communicated in confidence, 
 and that it is against the rules to disclose 
 them. Now here again, I have nothing to 
 do with the rules. But I want to know how 
 this rule in this case can possibly be observed. 
 The author is not required to enter into any 
 engagement to keep his account secret : and 
 does not every author who publishes upon 
 condition of dividing profits possess upon the 
 very face of his account the data for deter- 
 mining what this confidential communication 
 must have been"? Do not the figures set 
 down as " expenses of printing " represent the 
 sum which the publisher has paid on that 
 account] and if so, do they not reveal the 
 sum and substance of the terms on which he 
 dealt with his printer'? If not, — if they do 
 not represent the sum that has been paid, — is 
 not the author entitled to know what the dif- 
 ference was — it being an essential part of his 
 
16 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 bargain 1 and would not the secret be revealed 
 as soon as he received the information 1 
 
 A fourth reason for suspecting that there 
 is something in the transaction which is not 
 understood, is the fact which I have already 
 mentioned — namely, that the arrangement un- 
 der which the author bears all the expenses 
 and the publisher takes 10 per cent, from the 
 proceeds of the sale, does not appear to be 
 that which publishers prefer, when they can 
 get it. From all that I hear of the shares of 
 profit derived by authors from the sale of the 
 first edition of their first work, I should sup- 
 pose that (taking one with another) 10 per 
 cent, upon the produce of the copies sold 
 would give a larger sum. If so, it should be 
 a better bargain for the publisher, especially 
 as he advances no money, and risks nothing 
 beyond tlie use of his shop and warehouse. 
 But if it were a better bargain, the publisher 
 would prefer it. If he preferred it, he would 
 make it easy. And if he wanted to make it 
 easy, he would help the author to get the 
 work done on the most favourable terms. 
 
 Such, then, are my reasons for suspecting 
 that the transaction is not really what it 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 17 
 
 seems and professes to be; and that if the 
 vouchers were produced, they would reveal 
 some conditions of the bargain which had not 
 been expressed or understood. 
 
 What those conditions may be, I do not 
 pretend to say. But a remark which I have 
 heard made in the way of objection by more 
 than one person with whom I have talked on 
 the subject, suggests an explanation which, if 
 it were the right one, would make the facts 
 intelligible. By more than one person, quite 
 unconnected with the trade and as ignorant 
 as I am myself of the general nature of the 
 arrangements between authors and booksel- 
 lers, I have been reminded that / make no 
 allowance for interest upon the money admnced. 
 Now though I do not myself allow this to be, 
 in the case supposed, a legitimate charge upon 
 the profits, I think it very likely that the pub- 
 lishers regard it as legitimate, and begin by 
 making it safe. According to my interpreta- 
 tion of the terms of the bargain, the conside- 
 ration for the money advanced is the half of 
 the profit upon the book ; and the profit upon 
 the book is the difference between what it 
 costs and what it brings. Nor have I any 
 
 c 
 
18 PUBLISHEKS AND AUTHOKS. 
 
 doubt that my own publisher, if he had stipu- 
 lated to take his 10 per cent, upon the profits 
 instead of the proceeds, would be of the same 
 opinion; and if for every hundred pounds 
 which I had paid he found me deducting a 
 hundred and ten from what I received, and 
 then crediting him with 10 per cent, upon the 
 remainder, would object that that was not 
 according to the bargain. Yet the cases would 
 be, so far as I can see, strictly analogous : 
 for why should the profits of the book be 
 charged with interest on the outlay in his case 
 more than in mine'? Publishers, however, 
 when they have no control over the expenses, 
 upon which the profits depend, very msely 
 prefer to be paid according to the number of 
 copies sold. Consequently they have no occa- 
 sion to study the theory of profits from the au- 
 thor's point of view. And therefore I shall not 
 be surprised to find that the true explanation 
 of the mystery, and of the necessity of keeping 
 it a mystery, is simply this— that it is the cus- 
 tom of the trade to add to each item of ex- 
 pense some percentage, unknown to those out 
 of the trade, by way of profit upon each trans- 
 action, before the division of what arc called 
 
 I 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 19 
 
 tlie profits begins. The justification of Avhicli 
 custom may be, that the dealings with printer, 
 stationer, and the rest, do not transact them- 
 selves, but require knowledge and trouble; 
 that that knowledge and trouble must be con- 
 tributed by somebody; that whoever contri- 
 butes it has a right to be paid ; and if it be 
 contributed by the publisher himself, why 
 should not the right accrue to him '? 
 
 " Freightage — demurrage — brokerage. Broker- 
 age ! Why Haggai, the skip being thine own, and 
 the bargain struck betwixt thee and me, whence is 
 the brokerage ? I saw no broker. 
 
 '' Haggai. Your worship shall understand. In 
 taking of a ship on freight, there ever comes be- 
 twixt him that owns her and him that takes her, 
 that useful and that profitable man, a broker. ^Tis 
 the law and the usage. Is it not, Sadoc ? Is it not, 
 Shallum ? 
 
 " Sadoe. The law and the usage. 
 
 " Shallum. Justly the law and usage. 
 
 " Silisco. But is that useful, profitable man in- 
 visible ? for I saw him not ; I dealt not with him. 
 
 " Haggai. Your worship shall understand. Lo ! 
 the times are evil, and hardly shall your servant live 
 if he sweat not in two callings. Truly I own a ship, 
 and in the way of an honest industry I do likewise 
 follow the occupation of a broker. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 " Silisco. Oil ! I see. Thou wert thyself that 
 profitable man. 
 
 " Haggai. At half the charge that it should have 
 cost you else. Was it not, Sadoc ? 
 
 " Sadoc. Yes, and that half halved. 
 
 " Shallum. Truly, Sir, for a reasonable broker, 
 there is none other that I can commend you to but 
 only the worthy Haggai. 
 
 " Silisco. To make a bargain ^twixt himself and 
 me."* 
 
 Now, if it had been declared and understood 
 that some extra charge on account of these 
 services formed part of the bargain, I should 
 merely have said that the mode of payment 
 seems to me injudicious. The chief use of the 
 publisher's intervention in the matter being to 
 get the work done cheap, it would be better 
 surely to let him take a larger share of the 
 real profits, so that his gain might be directly 
 in proportion to his success, than to diminish 
 his interest in reducing the expenses, by pay- 
 ing him two shillings extra for every pound by 
 which they are increased. But however that 
 may be,- — whether the charge be legitimate or 
 illegitimate, whether the mode of payment be 
 wise or unwise, — there can at any rate be no 
 
 * Henry Taylor, ' A Sicilian Summer/ act i. so. 2. 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 21 
 
 doubt that the author ought to be informed 
 what the charge is. As the accounts are 
 usually made out, he has absolutely no means 
 of knowing or guessing what amount of inter- 
 est is assumed to be legitimate ; whether it is 
 10 per cent., or 15, or 20; or whether it is 
 subject to variation according to circumstances. 
 For anything he sees to the contrary, it may 
 be the custom of the trade, where the first 
 year's sale threatens a profit below the pub- 
 lisher's calculations, to make it up by charging 
 a higher interest upon the outlay. The temp- 
 tation to do this may sometimes be consider- 
 able : the means are ready and simple : there 
 is no danger of detection : and even if it were 
 brought to light and challenged, the increase 
 of the charge might be justified upon precisely 
 the same grounds which are supposed to justify 
 the original charge : it was the interest upon 
 the money advanced. The money, it might be 
 said, was worth 20 per cent., and could not be 
 afforded for less. In his private calculations 
 the publisher had reckoned on 10 per cent, for 
 the advance and 10 per cent, more for half the 
 remainder of the profits. The remainder of 
 the profits threatens perhaps, if halved, to yield 
 
22 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 only 5 per cent. ; and what is to be done I 
 Nothing simpler. Take thy pen, sit down 
 quickly, put another 10 per cent, on to the 
 expenses, report " no profits," and the proper 
 interest is secured. 
 
 It may be that such a practice is out of the 
 question, and I hope it is. But no publisher 
 has a right to complain of the question being 
 asked as long as he refuses to answer it. If 
 he feels aggrieved by the suggestion he has 
 his remedy in his own hands. Let him offer 
 to explain the real conditions of the contract 
 beforehand, and to produce the vouchers after- 
 wards if they are asked for, — and he will at 
 once stand acquitted. Less than this however 
 will not be enough ; and until this is done, the 
 author ought in fair dealing to be warned that 
 when he bargains for half the profits of his 
 book, he is really bargaining only for half of 
 what may remain of the profits, after the pub- 
 lisher has taken out of them as much as — since 
 he will not say how much, I must say for him 
 — as much as he thinks proper. 
 
 All this is so obvious from the author's point 
 of view, that I cannot suppose it to have been 
 overlooked. I conclude therefore, that the 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 2.S 
 
 difficulties on the publisher's part have been 
 found insuperable, and that the proposed con- 
 ditions will not be acceded to. In which case 
 this third course cannot be regarded as a satis- 
 factory one for the author ; and it still remains 
 to be considered whether he has not the choice 
 of a better. 
 
 I think he has. There is a fourth course (not 
 unfamiliar, I am told, to persons experienced 
 in these things, though new to myself and 1 
 think to most of those whom it most concerns) 
 by whicli all the advantages may be secured 
 and all the disadvantages avoided which I 
 have pointed out as belonging to the other 
 three ; a course so very much more convenient 
 in every way to the author whose case I am 
 considering, that I can only account for its not 
 being generally followed in such cases, by sup- 
 posing that authors do not generally know of 
 it, and that publishers do not generally wish it 
 to be known. I heard of it myself first from 
 America; where Mr. H. O. Houghton (now 
 proprietor of the American reprint of Bacon's 
 works), in transmitting to me (in voluntary 
 and unsolicited acknowledgment of my claim 
 as editor) a 'percentage wpon the retail price 
 
24 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 of the volumes sold, remarked that it is their 
 custam,* where the publisher takes all the 
 risk, to pay their own authors in that way. 
 
 Now whatever arrangement with regard to 
 the distribution of the profits be agreed on as 
 equitable in any case, it is obvious that the 
 substance of it may be easily expressed in 
 terms of a percentage upon the price of the 
 copies sold, — and that if the calculations are 
 correctly made, the difference will only be in 
 the times of payment. Suppose the case of 
 a book, of which the cost of production is 
 estimated at £300, and 1000 copies are ex- 
 pected to be sold at £1 each (trad e- price) : 
 the profits to be equally divided between the 
 author and the publisher. Suppose 400 copies 
 to be sold in the first year, 300 in the second, 
 200 in the third, and 100 in the fourth. Upon 
 the ordinary plan, the publisher should pay 
 the author £50 at the end of the first year, 
 £150 at the end of the second, £100 at the 
 end of the third, and £50 at the end of the 
 fourth, taking in each case an equal sum him- 
 self; so that when all are sold each has re- 
 ceived £350. 
 
 * Hurd and Houghton, 459, Broome Street, New York. 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 25 
 
 In order to translate the substance of the 
 bargain into a percentage upon the sale, (or a 
 ' royalty,' as we call it,) it is only necessary to 
 divide the total estimated profit by the num- 
 ber of copies through the sale of which it is 
 to be made. Half the quotient will be the 
 author's share upon each copy. As the sale 
 proceeds, the publisher will credit the author 
 with this half, and take the other^half himself; 
 and the yearly accounts will stand thus : — The 
 cost of each copy being 65. and the price 20s., 
 there are lis. to be divided upon each. At 
 the end of the first year 400 copies have been 
 sold: the author will therefore receive £140. 
 At the end of the second year he will receive 
 £105 ; at the end of the third, £70 ; and at 
 the end of the fourth, £35 : making in all 
 £350. AYhile the publisher, though at the 
 end of the first year he will have recovered 
 only £260 out of his £300 outlay, will at the 
 end of the second have made £155 profit, at 
 the end of the third £285, and at the end of 
 the fourth his full share of £350. 
 
 It is true that the difference is in one re- 
 spect to the publisher's disadvantage. He 
 does not recover all his capital till the middle 
 
26 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 of the second year ; at tlie end of that year 
 his receipts are less by £45 than on the other 
 plan ; and at the end of the third, less by 
 £15. But in return for this, he escapes all 
 enquiries and all suspicions, and puts an end 
 to all misunderstandings. He is still at li- 
 berty to make what bargain he chooses ; and 
 when it is once made, he has only to state 
 how many copies remain on hand, and the 
 rest is a matter of simple arithmetic. If the 
 small additional risk be more than he chooses 
 to incur, he must raise his terms ; and if the 
 author is not satisfied with his offer, he must 
 do as others do in the like case — seek for 
 somebody who will offer more. But he knows 
 exactly what the terms are : the sums he re- 
 ceives are exactly in proportion to the success 
 of his work ; and in that success the pub- 
 lisher is as much interested as himself. He 
 has no occasion to enquire how much has 
 been paid, or when, to the printer, the sta- 
 tioner, the advertiser, or the binder ; and the 
 mysteries of the trade remain sacred from 
 profane intrusion. He must make his account 
 indeed to suffer more or less in his first bar- 
 gain, for knowledge must always have the ad- 
 
rUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 27 
 
 But even in this the 
 general adoption of this mode of payment 
 would tend to reduce the inequality. The 
 terms being so easy to state and the results 
 so easy to calculate, authors could compare 
 notes with each other; the market being open, 
 competition would ascertain what percentage 
 is generally fair, according to the conditions 
 of the case ; and the result would be made 
 known. 
 
 I say, " according to the conditions of the 
 case," because the cases will of course vary in 
 their conditions through all the degrees, from 
 no hope of any profit to absolute certainty of 
 very large profit: and the terms should be 
 varied accordingly. But I cannot imagine 
 any case which a publisher would undertake 
 at all with any risk to himself, where the 
 essential conditions of the bargain might not 
 be correctly expressed by a charge upon the 
 receipts for copies sold. 
 
 The case which I have used for illustration 
 ■ — that of a book of which there is a fair ex- 
 pectation that a thousand copies would be 
 sold within a few years — is one of the simplest 
 and most ordinary, and one in which an 
 
28 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 agreement for an equal division of profits 
 between the author and publisher would, I 
 believe, be a common arrangement. But 
 equalih/ of division is not a necessary condi- 
 tion ; and cases might easily be proposed in 
 which it would be unfair. 
 
 Take, for instance, a book which does not 
 seem likely to do more than pay its expenses. 
 Here the publisher (though he might not ob- 
 ject to an equal division oi profits upon the 
 whole, because that would entail no additional 
 expense until some profit were made) might 
 object with good reason to pay a percentage 
 upon the sales as they proceed ; for that 
 would increase the risk of an adventure which 
 does not promise to be profitable as it is. In 
 this case the equitable arrangement would be 
 to make the repayment of the outlay a first 
 charge upon the receipts. And this would be 
 easily done. What that outlay will probably 
 be, the publisher begins by calculating. He 
 knows therefore how many copies must be 
 sold at a given price in order to repay it. 
 Let him then say what that number is, and 
 (if he would otherwise have been willing to 
 publish the book on condition of receiving 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 29 
 
 half the profits) let the agreement be, that 
 for every copy sold above that number he shall 
 pay the author half the price. The substance 
 of the bargain would thus be the same, and 
 there Avould be no room for any mistake 
 about it. 
 
 Take again a book of which all the copies 
 are sure to be sold in time, but the sale will 
 probably be slow. Here again the publisher 
 may allege with reason, that money which ex- 
 pects a slow return cannot be afforded on the 
 same terms as money which expects a quick 
 return ; and therefore, that if he is to under- 
 take the expense, he must stipulate for a larger 
 share of the profits. Be it so. Then let him 
 state his terms. Instead of 50 per cent, upon 
 the estimated profit of each copy, let him offer 
 40, 30, 20, or 10. It is obvious that he can 
 in that way modify his bargain to his mind ; 
 and it will be for the author to consider 
 whether he will accept the terms proposed, 
 and for rival publishers to judge whether it 
 would be for their interest to offer more. The 
 data for the calculation are before them. 
 There is the manuscript wliicli is to be printed : 
 any experienced eye in the turning over of the 
 
30 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 leaves will be able to make a near guess at the 
 cost. There is the market to be studied : any 
 experienced publisher will be able to form his 
 own judgment as to the chances of the sale. 
 The amount of the risk will determine the pro- 
 portion of the profit which he will require by 
 way of security. The agreement being once 
 made, all the author will want to know is the 
 number of copies that have been sold. If the 
 receipts fall below the outlay, the publisher 
 will no doubt have the worst of the bargain. 
 But that would be from his own miscalculation ; 
 and if the work proves successful beyond ex- 
 pectation, he has the best. So the bargain is 
 fair enough. 
 
 In this way the terms of the agreement 
 might, as far as I can see, be adjusted to all 
 varieties of possible cases ; still preserving the 
 essential conditions of openness and simpli- 
 city ; the author understanding beforehand 
 exactly what he is to expect, and seeing after- 
 wards that he has received all that was due. 
 And if one of the consequences of the simpli- 
 city of the arrangement should be, as I think 
 it would, that writers of books would communi- 
 cate to each other more freely the terms of 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTHOKS, 31 
 
 their several agreements and the resnlts, it 
 wonkl gradually come to be understood what 
 terms in the several cases are fair and reason- 
 able. A man who would be shy of telling you 
 what he makes by his farm, has no objection 
 to say what rate of Avages he pays to his la- 
 bourers, at what price he buys his stock, and 
 on what terms he deals with the butcher : and 
 you might ask an author what percentage his 
 publisher allows him upon the price of each 
 copy sold, when you would hesitate to ask 
 what his share of the profits amounted to. 
 And knowing the percentage for which you 
 might fairly stipulate, you could judge for 
 yourself whether you could count upon a sale 
 large enough to repay the labour. 
 
 In all this, I have been considering the 
 transaction as one in which the publisher has 
 no interest beyond the immediate profit; in 
 which the publication of the book is the au- 
 thor's speculation, and the publisher is em- 
 ployed as an indifferent agent. But there is 
 another class of cases in which the publisher 
 is himself the speculator, and employs a lite- 
 rary man to do the author's or editor's part for 
 him. In such cases, the reasons for paying the 
 
32 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 author or editor by a percentage on the sales 
 rather than by a share of the profits are still 
 stronger. For here he knows nothing of the 
 calculations upon which the expectation of 
 profits is founded. He does not even know 
 that any profit upon the particular transaction 
 is expected. It may serve the publisher's pur- 
 pose in other ways. Perhaps he wants merely 
 to advertise himself; perhaps merely to con- 
 nect his name with a work of reputation ; and 
 he may find it for his interest in the long run 
 to do this at a considerable cost. In these re- 
 mote and collateral gains the writer whom he 
 employs has no share at all ; and it is altogether 
 unreasonable to ask him to let the remunera- 
 tion of his labour wait upon the success of the 
 enterprise. He has done his work before a 
 single copy is sold : as soon as a copy has been 
 sold, he has done his work, so far, successfully, 
 and is fully entitled to his share in the pro- 
 ceeds. If those proceeds are but a small part 
 of what the publisher calculated upon, so is 
 his share of them a proportionally small part 
 of what he calculated upon himself; and if he 
 is content to let his pay be in exact proportion 
 to the extent of the sale — that is, in exact pro- 
 
PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 33 
 
 portion to the success of the enterprise in so 
 far as it depends upon the market value of his 
 part of the work — the terms are surely as li- 
 beral as can be fairly demanded of him. Of 
 the many labourers who contribute to that 
 fractional result, there is no other who will be 
 content with as little: for I presume that 
 neither the printer nor the paper-maker nor 
 the advertiser would consent to do their part 
 of the work upon a similar condition. 
 
 In all cases therefore, it seems to me that 
 an equitable arrangement upon this basis must 
 be practicable. If practicable, I cannot doubt 
 that it would be more convenient. And my 
 conclusion upon the whole matter is, that an 
 author would in any case do well to contract 
 with his publisher for the payment of a certain 
 sum for every copy that shall be sold ; and if 
 he cannot obtain an agreement upon that con- 
 dition, to conclude that there is small hope of 
 profit for Mm upon any other that will be 
 offered. 
 
 I 
 
34 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 In the foregoing paper I have supposed the 
 author's percentage to be taken upon the 
 trade price of the book; because it seemed 
 simpler to consider it with reference to the 
 fund out of which it must be paid ; and I took 
 the trade price to represent the actual amount 
 of that fund, — the money received by the 
 publisher in exchange for the book. Upon 
 further consideration however I am inclined 
 to think that Messrs. Hurd and Houghton's 
 plan of taking the percentage upon the retail 
 price would be more convenient. For upon 
 examining such publishers' accounts as I have 
 been able to procure, I find it difficult to 
 make out what relation the price actually re- 
 ceived by the publisher really bears to the 
 price at which the book is advertised for sale ; 
 and when I have explained- the causes of the 
 difficulty, and offered the best conjecture I 
 can make as to the fact, I expect authors to 
 agree with me that the question is too ab- 
 struse for the uninitiated, and one which had 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 35 
 
 better be eliminated from the terms of the 
 bargain if possible. 
 
 I find that when my publisher sells one of 
 my own books, of which he is the owner, to 
 me, the price which he charges is to the ad- 
 vertised price as 75 to 100 ; but that when he 
 sells one of my own books, of which I am 
 the owner, /or me, the price with which he 
 credits me is to the advertised price as only 
 68 to 100. The difference (amounting, it will 
 be seen to 7 per cent.) has nothing to do with 
 the charge for commission, which is deducted 
 afterwards and entered separately ; but ap- 
 pears to arise in this way. A book has five 
 prices. First there is the " retail price," — 
 that is, the price at which it is advertised to 
 be sold. Then there is the " trade price," — 
 the price at which it is sold to booksellers 
 generally, and to a few favoured individuals, 
 of whom the author is one. Thirdly, there is 
 the " trade-s«/^ price," — the price at which 
 it is sold to booksellers " subscribing," within 
 a limited time before or after the publica- 
 tion, for not less than two copies. Fourthly, 
 there is the " 25 as 24 price," — the price 
 at which it is sold to those who order 24 
 
 D 2 
 
36 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 copies at once, and who for every 24 they 
 order receive a 25th gratis. And lastly, there 
 is the combination of the last two, — " trade- 
 sale price, 25 as 24," — which I shall ven- 
 ture to call the " Publisher's price ; " being 
 the price at which the publisher accounts to 
 the author for all the copies which he sells. 
 
 Now the " trade " price, at which my pub- 
 lisher sells my book (he being the owner) to 
 me, is to the advertised price at 75 to 100. 
 The "trade-5«/^ price" at w^hich (subject to 
 a further deduction, of which I shall say more 
 presently) he sells my book (I being the 
 owner) /b/" me, is to the advertised price as 
 17 to 24~not quite 71 to 100. This the 
 further operation of reckoning 25 as 24 re- 
 duces to G8 : at which rate he accounts to 
 me for all the copies sold, and after deducting 
 for commission 10 per cent, from the sum 
 which on the face of the account he apjpears 
 to have received from the sale of the book, 
 credits me with the balance. 
 
 But in the meantime how much has he 
 really received from the sale of the book? 
 It seems impossible to guess. In my ac- 
 counts, which extend over four years, and 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 37 
 
 relate to a book printed at my own expense, 
 without the publislier's intervention, pub- 
 lished on commission, and priced 24s., every 
 copy that has been sold appears to have been 
 sold for 17s.; subject to a deduction of 17s. 
 for every 25. For when I divide by 25 the 
 total number of copies sold during these four 
 years, multiply the quotient by 17s., and de- 
 duct the product from the product of the 
 total number multiplied by 17s., I find that^it 
 gives only 17s. less than the sum with which 
 I am credited for copies sold : the difference 
 being due no doubt to a broken number, not 
 divisible by 25. Now as it is scarcely credible 
 that no copies have been sold except to " sub- 
 scribers," or that all copies which have been 
 sold to the trade have been sold in lots of not 
 less than 24, what becomes of these distinc- 
 tions of price ] I may surely conclude that 
 they are a fiction, as far as I am concerned, 
 and a fact only as they concern my publisher. 
 And what is that fact'? I can only guess: 
 but my guess is this. I suppose that copies 
 which are " subscribed for " at the trade-sales 
 are really sold to the subscribers at that rate 
 of discount; that 17s. is the sum which the 
 
38 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 publisher really receives for each ; but that 
 those which are ordered at other times are 
 really sold either at the trade price or at the 
 retail price ; at the trade price, if to a book- 
 seller ; at the retail price, if to a private cus- 
 tomer ; and therefore that the sum he really 
 receives is I85. for each, in the one case, and 
 245. in the other. So also with respect to the 
 " 25 as 24 " arrangement. If a bookseller 
 oTsders 25 copies at once, I suppose that he 
 has them at the price of 24 ; but that if he 
 orders 12 at one time and 13 at another he 
 has to pay for 25, and the publisher appro- 
 priates to himself the price of the 25th. 
 
 If this be the real history of the transaction, 
 it is obvious to remark that it is needlessly 
 complicated and clumsy. But it seems to me 
 to be open to another and a graver objection. 
 These distinctions of price, in the original de- 
 sign and institution, were rational and judi- 
 cious. Early orders and large orders are profi- 
 table to the seller. Twenty-four copies sold 
 at once are worth as much as twenty-five sold 
 one by one. Two copies sold on the day of 
 publication are worth more than the same two 
 copies sold at the same price six or eight 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 39 
 
 months after. It serves the purpose of the 
 seller therefore to purchase such orders by an 
 abatement of price : and it might serve his pur- 
 pose to stimulate the activity of his agent in 
 procuring them, by giving him a higher ratr* 
 of profit upon such transactions, when he suc- 
 ceeded in effecting them. But as matters arc- 
 now contrived, the interest of the agent is 
 made to work the wrong way. I want to in- 
 duce my publisher to use the means at his 
 command for procuring as many orders for not 
 less than twenty-four, and as many subscrip- 
 tions for not less than two, as he can. But 
 what do 1 dol I offer him 10 per cent, upon 
 the proceeds of all the copies he may dispose 
 of, valued at a given price, without any dis- 
 tinction of cases. I do not require him to state 
 at what price he did really dispose of them ; 
 and if he sells any at a higher price, I let him 
 take the difference. And what is the conse- 
 quence 1 It is still his interest, no doubt, to 
 sell as many copies as he can. But it is also 
 his interest to sell them, // he can, '}}of in lots 
 of 24, nor to subscribers at the trade sales ; 
 but in smaller lots, and to booksellers who 
 have not subscribed. If he sells 25 copies 
 
40 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 upon a single order, he receives from the pur- 
 chaser 24 times 17 shillingSy (£20. 8s.), and 
 credits my account with the same sum, deduct- 
 ing ten per cent, for commission : which is 
 £2. Os. lOd., and constitutes his profit upon 
 the transaction. If on the contrary he dis- 
 poses of 12 copies to one purchaser or at one 
 time, and 13 to another purchaser or at an- 
 other time, he credits me as before with 
 £20. 85., deducts as before £2. Os. lOd., but 
 receives from the sale, not 24 times 17 shillings, 
 but 25 times ; and his profit upon the trans- 
 action is not £2. O5. 10(1, but £2. 17.?. lOd. : 
 which, being a gain 1 think of more than 41 
 per cent., might in a larger transaction seem 
 worth manoeuvring for. So again with regard 
 to the difference between the subscribers and 
 the non-subscribers. For 5 copies sold to a 
 subscribing bookseller, he receives 85^., credits 
 me with 855., deducts for himself 10 per cent, 
 upon 855., which is 85. 6^?. Whereas for 5 
 copies sold to a non-subscribing bookseller, he 
 credits me as before with 855., and deducts as 
 before for himself 85. 6^. ; but receives 905. 
 His profit therefore is not 85. Gd. but 135. Qd. ; 
 which, being a gain I think of very nearly 59 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 41 
 
 per cent., may seem on the large scale still 
 more worth manoeiivring for. For thovigh, to 
 make the calculation simpler, I take low figures 
 for illustration, the 'proportion holds good 
 throughout. It is true that in returning the 
 proceeds below the actual receipts he reduces 
 the amount of his own commission ; and there- 
 fore he does not quite double his profit upon 
 the transaction. But he turns his 10 per cent, 
 into 18 : as may be seen by the following cal- 
 culation. I find in my first year's account, 
 485 copies sold ; proceeds £39G. 25. ; commis- 
 sion £39. 12s. 2(/. Which is correct, supposing 
 them all to have been sold to subscribers in 
 lots of 25. Now suppose them all to have 
 been sold to ?io?i-subscribers in lots of less than 
 25 ; the proceeds would be £436. 10s., and the 
 commission £43. 13s. But the publisher, in- 
 stead of taking 10 per cent, of the additional 
 £40. 8s., and crediting the rest to me, takes it 
 all himself: so that his profit, which should 
 be £43. 13s., is really £80. Os. 2d. ;— more than 
 18 per cent, of the real amount of the sales; 
 and a gain of more than 91 per cent, upon the 
 transaction. 
 
 I say therefore that this form of agreement, 
 
42 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 — and I must admit that it is strictly according 
 to the printed and published terms — "All 
 copies sold to be accounted for at the Trade 
 Sale Price, 25 as 24, deducting from the 
 amount of Sales a Commission of 10 per 
 cent.," — is a bad one for the author, as tend- 
 ing to defeat and stultify his whole policy with 
 regard to the distinction of prices. It would 
 surely be much better to allow the publisher 
 a higher percentage to be deducted from the 
 sum which he actually receives, than thus to 
 employ him as agent for promoting a class of 
 transactions, on every one of which he loses 
 from 40 to 80 per cent, by succeeding. 
 
 In books published on the half-profits sys- 
 tem, I suppose the same custom prevails, but 
 not with the same effect. For in that case the 
 publisher's share in the proceeds of the sale is 
 so large, that though he takes the perquisite 
 when it comes,' he cannot afford to purchase it 
 at the cost of retarding the sale. The chance 
 of turning £10 into £14 or £20 may be worth 
 waiting for : but not the chance of turning £80 
 into £84 or £90. But the plan of publishing 
 by commission is open to objections of another 
 kind, and need not be further discussed. My 
 
 1 
 
POSTSCRIPT. .43 
 
 object in bringing these things forward here, 
 is only to show that a percentage npon the 
 trade-price wonld not be a percentage npon 
 the actnal receipts. The receipts, like the ex- 
 penses, depend npon many things of which the 
 author has no knowledge, over which he can 
 have no control, and into which his publisher 
 will not thank him for enquiring. And if his 
 payment be made to depend upon the return 
 of money received, it will be subject to varia- 
 tions dependent upon things which he does 
 not understand. AVhat he knows, and every- 
 body knows, and what cannot be concealed or 
 altered without notice, is the price at which 
 the book is advertised for sale. A percentage 
 upon that price, payable upon each copy sold, 
 would be the arrangement least open to dis- 
 pute ; and would have the great advantage of 
 leaving the publisher at full liberty to dispose 
 of them all to his various customers on what- 
 ever terms he finds most to his own advantage. 
 If he thinks it would be for his advantage to 
 sell any or all of them below the advertised 
 price, let him do so by all means. It is his 
 own concern. His owai interest will urge him 
 to sell as many as he can sell at a sufficient 
 
44 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 profit, and the more he sells, whatever the 
 price be, the better for the author. 
 
 That the substance of any bargain which 
 may be agreed upon for the di\dsion of profits 
 might be converted into this form without 
 difficulty, I have shown in the foregoing paper, 
 by hypothetical cases. But it will be more 
 satisfactory perhaps to take a real case, and 
 show how it might be efi'ected in that, and how 
 it would work. I have here before me a sum- 
 mary of the accounts of two editions of a suc- 
 cessful historical work : upon the first of which 
 the author was to receive half the profits ; up- 
 on the second two-thirds, subject to a deduc- 
 tion of 5 per cent, upon the sales. The first 
 edition consisted of 1000 copies, of which 947 
 were sold (or at least accounted for as sold) at 
 trade-sale price, 25 as 24, and the rest given 
 away. The second was in stereotype ; but the 
 number of copies issued was again 1000, of 
 which 735 were in like manner accounted for 
 as sold at the same price, 235 disposed of in a 
 foreign market at a reduction of nearly half, 
 and the rest given away. Upon the first, the 
 author's share of the profits (being half) 
 amounted to £161. 13s. ; upon the second (be- 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 45 
 
 ing two-thirds) to £117. 8s. Sd. By the se- 
 cond arrangement the author gained about 
 £13 more than he would have had if the first 
 had been continued : and in subsequent issues, 
 as the proceeds bore a larger proportion to the 
 expenses, his proportion of gain would be 
 greater. What the pnbh'sher really gained by 
 the transaction, it would be impossible to say 
 without overhauling accounts which (as I have 
 been assured by a friend who assures me that 
 he is very conversant with the subject) are so 
 made out that no author could understand 
 them even if he had them to study. To know 
 this, it would be necessary to know how much 
 is set down for printing, for paper, for adver- 
 tising, etc., more than was really paid ; how 
 many copies of the book were sold to sub- 
 scribers, how many to non-subscribers, how 
 many in lots of 25, how many in smaller num- 
 bers; and probably many other particulars, 
 such as lengths of credit, etc., of which I am 
 not aware. For the difference between the 
 real and ostensible payments upon all these 
 items both of expenditure and receipt are in 
 fact deductions made by the publisher from 
 the sum which was to be divided between him- 
 
46 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 self and the author, and go to increase his 
 share of the profit and to diminish the author's. 
 This part of the question therefore I omit as 
 inscrutable ; and (for the purpose of the argu- 
 ment) assume — what may or may not be true 
 — that for the two first editions of a new book, 
 in Avhich the publisher takes all the risk, and 
 the risk is considerable, the accounts I have 
 before me represent the results of a fair bar- 
 gain. Let us now enquire whether the same 
 results might not have been ensured in a much 
 simpler and more convenient way as far as the 
 author is concerned, by an agreement that he 
 should receive a percentage upon the retail 
 price of each copy sold. 
 
 The retail price was 2Ss. ; the trade-sale 
 price 18.5. 8f/.'*' The author's share of the 
 profits derived from the sale of 947 copies, 
 was £161. 135. : a little more than 12 per cent. 
 12 per cent, of 28s. is a little more than 3^. 4f/. 
 If the publisher had agreed to pay the author 
 OS. hd. for each copy sold, he would have had 
 
 * 18s. 8^. is to 28«. as 2 to 3 — nearly 67 to 100 : a pro- 
 portion lower by 3 per cent, than in the case of my own 
 book. (See above, p. 3G.) Whether the difference is any 
 way connected with the difference between a half-profits 
 book and a commission book, I do not know. 
 
POSTSCKIPT. 47 
 
 to pay him, upon the whole account, £161. 
 155. 7(7. The result, therefore, would have 
 been the same, within two or three shillings. 
 Nor would there have been any difficulty, on 
 the publisher's part, in determining the pro- 
 per figure beforehand. He knew (and he 
 only) what the book would cost. He knew 
 (and he only) what each copy would pay. He 
 did not, indeed, know how many copies would 
 be sold : that was his risk. But he knew how 
 much it would yield when all were sold, and 
 that for any part that might remain unsold 
 he would have nothing to pay to the author. 
 Being able, therefore, to calculate what the 
 profits would be on the assumption that the 
 whole edition went off, he could calculate 
 what sum payable upon each copy would 
 amount (upon the same assumption) to the 
 author's share of them. 
 
 The bargain for the second edition would 
 not be quite so simple, but it would be not 
 less practicable. The success of the work 
 being established by the rapid sale of the first 
 edition, and the publisher's risk thereby dimi- 
 nished, the author puts in a claim for a larger 
 share of the profits. Tlie publisher agrees to 
 
48 PUBLISHERS AXD AUTHORS. 
 
 let him have two-thirds, subject to a deduction 
 of 5 per cent, upon the sales. But as the book 
 is to be stereotyped (which, in the first in- 
 stance, will increase the expense by a third), 
 and it is thought expedient to encourage a 
 foreign demand by supplying a considerable 
 number of copies at little more than half- 
 price, the profits will be considerably reduced. 
 The diff"erence, however, is easily calculated. 
 The publisher can show that when allowance 
 is made for 235 copies to be sold at ds. 9f/., 
 and 30 to be given away, and for the various 
 discounts allowed to the trade at home, and 
 for his own 5 per cent, on the sales, the 
 author's two-thirds will amount only to £117. 
 Ss. 8d. This is less than 9 per cent, upon the 
 retail price of 970 copies. And it would be 
 found that, in order to translate the sub- 
 stance of the arrangement into the terms of a 
 ' royalty,' it would only be necessary to agree 
 that Is. Qd. should be paid upon each of the 
 235 copies that were going abroad, and 2s. 9d. 
 upon as many of the remaining 735 as should 
 be sold at home on the regular terms ; the sale 
 of the whole giving the author £118. los. Qd. : 
 — the required result within a few shillings. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 4.9 
 
 But, it will be said, if the author is to re- 
 ceive the same sum in the end, where is his 
 advantage in the change 1 His advantage is 
 this very great one : — He knows what his bar- 
 gain really is while there is yet time to consider 
 whether he shall conclude it : a thing which, on 
 the other system, he does not and cannot 
 know. A publisher agreeing only to pay a 
 proportion of the profits has no occasion to 
 explain to the author beforehand what the 
 profits are likely to be. Rather the contrary. 
 In agreeing to pay a fixed sum for every copy 
 sold, he not only informs him what his share 
 of the profits ought to amount to, but ensures 
 it to him for so long as the sale goes on. 
 
 The necessity which it imposes of ascertain- 
 ing and declaring this beforehand, I hold to be 
 one of the most important recommendations 
 of this form of bargain. The publisher can 
 always do it, if he will : but the author can- 
 not. It is true that he must still depend for 
 his knowledge upon what the publisher tells 
 him. But if the publisher tells him to expect 
 too much, he has to pay him too much ; if he 
 tells him to expect too little, he warns him 
 from a bad bargain. And I suspect that the 
 
 E 
 
50 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHOES. 
 
 cases are many in which a publisher would be 
 unwilling to predict the ill-success of an enter- 
 prise, while his bargain is to make, though 
 he has no objection to report ill-success, after it 
 is concluded. Take, for instance, the book 
 Mhich I have mentioned in the note in p. 10 : 
 a book of 488 pages, a full page containing 
 about 300 words ; carefully but not expen- 
 sively printed (in stereotype) : no notes : no 
 Greek : no table-work : no maps or illustra- 
 tions: nothing whatever paid for authorship 
 or editing : price 4s. &d. : 1000 copies disposed 
 of: 2000 more printed: of these 1500 more 
 sold: and the book reported to be still £120 
 in debt. Would the publisher in this case 
 have been prepared to say beforehand that no 
 profit could be looked for until 3000 copies 
 had been sold ? Would the author or editor 
 in that case have undertaken the work upon 
 the condition of dividing profits'? Had the 
 bargain been for a royalty upon the sale, the 
 author must either have made a better or 
 known how bad a one he was making. 
 
 So in another case, which has been men- 
 tioned to me as one which really occurred. A 
 historical work was published at half profits, 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 5 1 
 
 price 065. An edition of 1000 copies was dis- 
 posed of; and the author's share Avas only £50. 
 There may, no doubt, have been exceptional 
 conditions in the case, which would explain 
 this result. But they must have been such as 
 could be foreseen. If they were not foreseen, 
 or if (being foreseen) the author was not made 
 aware of them, the bargain was a bad one for 
 him. A new author in a new work must 
 always risk a great deal, if he puts any value 
 on his time and labour ; because there must 
 always be a doubt whether the book will sell. 
 But if he could be sure of selling 1000 copies 
 of a 36s. book, one would think he might 
 safely have counted on more than £50 for his 
 share of the proceeds. Now, if the publisher 
 foresaw such a result, and if the bargain had 
 been for a royalty on the sale instead of a share 
 in the profits, he would have been obliged to 
 say that the book could not afford the author 
 more than I5. for each copy sold: an offer 
 which, if made, would hardly, I think, have 
 been accepted. That no publisher could have 
 been found who would have offered more than 
 Is. a copy for a book promising a sale of 
 which the gross proceeds, after all deductions 
 
 E 2 
 
52 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHOES. 
 
 made, could not be much less than £1200, is 
 hard to believe. The author, being warned, 
 would try to find one. And even if he failed 
 to obtain a better offer, he would at least 
 know what he was about, and would be in a 
 much better position than if he had been 
 merely told that the book would probably 
 sell very well, that 1000 copies might be safely 
 sent into the market at as high a price as 065., 
 and that he should have half the profits. 
 
 JVhat proportion of the advertised price of 
 a book the publisher ought to be able to 
 allow the author, is a question which I sup- 
 pose could not be answered generally. It 
 must be paid of course out of the profits, and 
 the proportion which the profits (as exhibited 
 in the publisher's statement) bear to the ad- 
 vertised price appears to vary indefinitely. In 
 the cases which I have cited — all being cases 
 of large editions sold off—if I take the double 
 of the author's share to represent the total 
 profit, and compare it with the sum which 
 would have been produced if every copy had 
 been sold at the advertised price, I find in 
 one the proportion to be a little more than 
 24 per cent. ; in another a little more than 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 53 
 
 121, in a third 5^ ; in a fourth, nothing at all ; 
 and I have here a note of a fifth (which I 
 received from the author himself) in which 
 1250 copies having been sold at 7s. 6f7., the 
 author's half of the profit was £34 : which 
 gives about 14^. 
 
 That such differences should occur (within 
 certain limits) is not surprising. The price of 
 the book must be fixed with reference not to 
 what it has cost, but to what the purchaser 
 will give. The cost may be increased or di- 
 minished indefinitely, according to the care and 
 management used. Advertisements alone may 
 be made to swallow any quantity of the pro- 
 fits ; and if it be true, as some people suspect, 
 that " the book " is charged for all advertise- 
 ments alike at advertisement prices, while a 
 large proportion of them really costs no more 
 than the setting up of the type, it may easily 
 be believed that they will be allowed to swal- 
 low a considerable quantity of that part of 
 the profit in which the author shares. The 
 publisher, besides being a bookseller, entitled 
 to the legitimate profits of book-selling, is an 
 extensive advertiser on his own account, en- 
 titled to the legitimate profits of advertising. 
 
54 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS. 
 
 He, no doubt, could explain the whole matter, 
 and show that all was according to the law 
 and the usage. But look at the list which I 
 have just given, and then say how much an 
 author, when he agrees to let a publisher 
 print and sell 1000 copies of his book, upon a 
 general assurance that it is likely to succeed 
 and that he shall have half the profits, can 
 possibly know of what he is doing. 
 
 This is my answer to the objection that the 
 proposed plan would not enable the author to 
 obtain terms substantially better, inasmuch as 
 the publisher, if he chooses to exaggerate the 
 expenses or diminish the receipts, can do it as 
 easily in his estimate at the beginning as in 
 his acco\ints at the end. The seller of a pig 
 in a poke can ask too much for it when it is 
 out as easily as while it is in ; but it has al- 
 ways been thought an advantage to the buyer 
 to have it out. 
 
 To another objection which has been sug- 
 gested, namely that as the author has no 
 means of knowing how many copies have 
 really been pinted, he cannot know how 
 many have really been sold, and that the pub- 
 lisher might print more than the number 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 5o 
 
 agreed upon and sell the overplus on his own 
 account — I can only answer that the thing 
 would no doubt be possible, as any other 
 mode of stealing is ; but that such a practice 
 would in one respect materially differ from 
 those for which it would have to be substi- 
 tuted, — it would be called stealing. 
 
 These cases which 1 have adduced for illus- 
 tration are fewer than I could have wished, 
 but they were all I had upon evidence that I 
 could trust ; and every author will be able to 
 compare wdth them the results of his own ex- 
 perience, and see how far they agree, and 
 whether, if they differ, there are any excep- 
 tional circumstances to account for it. A 
 comparison of a sufficient number of cases 
 would probably suggest some general stan- 
 dard near enough to serve at least as a start- 
 ing-point for negotiating. 
 
 If I am mistaken in supposing that the 
 matters I have been discussing will be new to 
 many whom they much concern, I am glad to 
 hear it. Those to whom, as to myself, they 
 are new will not find them the less worth 
 considering. 
 
56 PUBLISHEES AND AUTHORS. 
 
 The next paper addresses itself to a larger 
 circle ; for it deals with questions on which 
 all readers and purchasers of books have as 
 much interest as writers, — perhaps more. 
 Though written more than four years ago, I 
 am not aware that it requires any correction 
 or explanation : unless it be in one passage, 
 where it may perhaps be thought that, under 
 the shelter of the anonymous, I have abused 
 the privilege of illustration in using it to ad- 
 vertise a work which in one sense may be 
 called my own. Upon this I have only to 
 say that my interest in that part of the work 
 which I have spoken of is purely parental. 
 Whatever good it may derive from my adver- 
 tisement will all go the publishers; and I 
 hope they will accept it as some compensation 
 for the freedom with which I have ventured 
 to criticise the customs of their trade. 
 
57 
 
 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 That a book cannot be published without a 
 publisher, — which seems at the first glance to 
 be a truism, and will be found on trial to be 
 only too true, — is a fact by no means easy to 
 explain. Without the help of a skilful printer, 
 compositor, reader, paper-maker, and binder, 
 an author would find himself in difficulties. 
 But if the publisher fell asleep immediately 
 after signing the agreement, and did not wake 
 until the bound volume was delivered into his 
 warehouse, every part of the work would be 
 done just as well, and, however his friends 
 might miss him, the book would be unaffected 
 by the accident. 
 
 Seeing then that he contributes no skilled 
 labour to the manufacture of the article, it 
 
58 rUBLISHEKS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 must be in the distribution that his help is so 
 indispensable. Yet even here it is difficult to 
 see wliy. Of all the wares that go into the 
 market for sale, there is probably not one 
 which stands so little in need of authentica- 
 tion by the vendor as a new book. Before I 
 buy a coat or a pair of shoes, I want some- 
 body who understands cloth, leather, and work- 
 manship, to tell me whether it is what it seems 
 to be, — whether the material is such as will 
 wear, or the stitching such as will hold : and 
 I go to an eminent publisher of coats or shoes. 
 — I say publisher, not author, because I do not 
 know or care who made them, I only want to 
 know whether they are well made — whose 
 point of honour it is to put forth nothing 
 which is not good in its kind. In paying a 
 high price for the article, I consider that I am 
 paying, besides what it is really worth, a fee 
 to the publisher for certifying that he has ex- 
 amined and approved it. When I want a book, 
 on the contrary, I require no help of that kind. 
 Whether the thing 1 see in the shop is the 
 thing I want, I can judge well enough for 
 myself. What it is made of, and what is the 
 value of the workmanship and the material, 
 
rUBLISIIEES AND BOOK-BUYERS. 59 
 
 I can judge better probably than either pub- 
 lisher or bookseller ; and even if I could not, 
 they are the last persons whose opinion T 
 should think of asking or taking. For the 
 discredit of selling a bad book does not affect 
 the good name of either, but foils on the au- 
 thor exclusively. The publisher's business is 
 not to criticise it, but to sell it. His name 
 on the title-page tells me that by undertaking 
 to bring it into the book-market (on what con- 
 ditions I do not know) he expects in some way 
 or other, and out of somebody or other, to 
 make money; but tells me nothing more. 
 And if he volunteers, through advertisements, 
 reviews, or otherwise, to give me further in- 
 formation, it is either of no value, or of no 
 greater value as coming from him ; for as in 
 these matters also he is held to be irresponsi- 
 ble, and may circulate criticism of any quality 
 without damage to his reputation, I know that 
 he will tell me nothing about any book of his 
 but what he supposes may induce me to buy it. 
 As a voucher for the value of the article, 
 therefore, his name is of no use to me. Be- 
 fore you buy a book, it is something to know 
 who printed it, — much to know who wrote it. 
 
60 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 But if anybody (not in the trade) asks who 
 publishes it, he means only to ask where it is 
 sold ; nor does the question whether he shall 
 order it or not depend in any degree upon 
 the answer. 
 
 The service then which the publisher of a 
 book renders to me, the reader or buyer, is 
 not to be compared with that which the coat- 
 publisher renders me when I buy a coat. He 
 did not make the thing : he does not answer 
 for it : his countenance adds no value to it. 
 What is it that he does then *? He advertises 
 and supplies it. He brings it to the know- 
 ledge and within the reach of those who want 
 it, — contrives that I shall see it in the places 
 I frequent, or hear of it in the publications I 
 read, and be readily supplied if I ask for it. 
 
 The value of this service is no doubt in 
 many cases considerable. A thing is never 
 worth so much as at the very time you feel 
 the want of it : and a familiar who, as often 
 as you said to yourself, " I should like to see 
 that book," would bring it and offer to sell it 
 to you, would be cheaply hired with a fee of 
 ten per cent, upon every purchase. But it is 
 only with books of a particular kind — books 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. Gl 
 
 calculated for a large circulation through the 
 ordinary channels — that this office is effec- 
 tually performed by book -publishers. When 
 a book is printed which tliousands of people 
 would buy if it were put in their way, the ma- 
 chinery at the command of the great publish- 
 ing firms makes it practicable, and the profit 
 makes it worth while, to ])nt it in their way. 
 In such cases the intervention of such an agent 
 is obviously expedient for all parties, and I, as 
 one of the thonsand, wdllingly pay my share 
 of the expense. Not so in the case of books 
 that are new in their kind, or out of the 
 common way, or addressed to limited circles : 
 books which are not worth, or are not yet 
 known to be worth, sending on speculation to 
 distant places, or displaying in shops and 
 railway-stalls: books which, even if brought 
 to the door of everybody that was inclined to 
 buy them, would not yield any considerable 
 profit. In such cases it seems to me that the 
 author, the printer, and the retail booksellers 
 should be able among them to provide all 
 needful facilities for the distribution of the 
 book without the intervention of a publisher : 
 and that if each were left free to follow his 
 
62 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 proper interest in the matter, they would pro- 
 bably do it better. 
 
 For let us consider what facilities are 
 wanted for the production and distribution of 
 a book of this kind. First, a good printer, 
 with all his establishment of compositors, 
 readers, etc. Well : there are plenty of good 
 printers ; and if the author can give security 
 for the payment of his bill, why should not 
 any of them be as ready to deal directly and 
 personally with him, as with a publisher, and 
 on the same terms 1 His money will buy as 
 much. It will be paid much sooner. And 
 the order being by the nature of the case a 
 large one, it should entitle him at once to be 
 treated as a good customer. Next, a good 
 bookseller: a man who keeps a shop in a 
 good position, understands the retail business, 
 and has a good name for supplying books 
 to order with punctuality and promptitude. 
 Well : any man who keeps such a shop should 
 be glad to sell such a book at the usual rate 
 of profit : nor is it less his interest to sell it 
 for the author than for any one else, so long 
 as that profit is secure. Thirdly, good ar- 
 rangements for making known the existence 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 63 
 
 and character of the book to those who are 
 likely to care about it. Well : books are made 
 known through advertisements in newspapers 
 and notices hi reviews; and books of the kind 
 I am speaking of are looked out for in those 
 quarters by persons interested in the subjects 
 of which they treat. Here, at any rate, the 
 author need seek no help out of himself. 
 What sort of people are likely to take an 
 interest in his book, where they are to be 
 found, in what quarters they are likely to 
 look for intelligence, he can guess as well as 
 a publisher, and will take more pains to learn. 
 For he has an interest of his own, which the 
 publisher cannot share, in bringing it under 
 their notice. Besides wishing to sell his book, 
 he wishes to have it read, and a circulation 
 which does not yield a profit may nevertheless 
 answer his purpose : whereas the publisher, 
 caring only for the profit, which is in such a 
 case too small at best to be worth much in 
 his eyes, and having probably taken good care 
 to secure himself against all risk of actual 
 loss, and having a thousand more important 
 speculations to look after, is not likely to be 
 very zealous as a co-operator ; though as long 
 
64 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 as the operation is carried on through him he 
 may be potent as a non-conductor. Now any 
 newspaper will print any advertisement which 
 is paid for. The author can draw up an ad- 
 vertisement : and if he pays for the insertion 
 of it himself, though the price may be some- 
 thing more than a publisher w^ould have to 
 pay, I do not think it will be more than he 
 would have to pay his publisher ; and even if 
 it were, he would know what he was doing 
 and what he was spending ; and that know- 
 ledge would be well worth the difference. 
 
 In the matter of reviewing also, all arrange- 
 ments that are fair and honest would be best 
 made by himself. He knows the character of 
 the various critical publications, and their re- 
 putation with the classes whom he addresses. 
 He knows, or is more likely than anybody 
 else to know, what particular persons are best 
 qualified to appreciate and report upon his 
 work. Nor does any social etiquette forbid 
 him to force it upon their notice by present- 
 ing them with a copy. If a publisher can do 
 more, it is only because, being probably pro- 
 prietor of one or more of the critical journals, 
 he can corrupt or intimidate the judges, and 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYEES. 65 
 
 procure favourable notices to order : an ar- 
 rangement to which I, the reader or buyer, 
 have a strong objection; and which the read- 
 ing public generally should unite to expose, 
 denounce, and make disreputable. 
 
 Assuming that we are to proceed honesth , 
 what need have we of any additional machi- 
 nery 1 Why should not the author, as soon 
 as his book is printed, go to as many book- 
 sellers as he pleases, and say, " Your business 
 is to sell books : here is one of which I hope 
 to sell three or four hundred copies : and you 
 can have as many as you like to sell for me 
 upon the following terms : — Any one asking 
 for it at your shop to be supplied with it 
 at the price advertised : you to receive a cer- 
 tain percentage upon the price of every copy 
 which you sell : unsold copies to be returned 
 to me as soon as you wish to be rid of them : 
 no abatement to be made to anybody ; but all 
 expenses of carriage, agency, or the like, to be 
 borne by the purchaser, and to be matter of 
 arrangement between him and his agent : (for 
 why should we have any mystification about 
 the way in which honest labour is paid ? Why 
 not say to the purchaser, ' So much for the 
 
 J' 
 
66 PUBLISHEES AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 book — SO much for my labour in getting it for 
 you"?): myself to be at liberty to make a 
 similar arrangement with any other bookseller 
 on the same conditions." If the percentage 
 allowed were equal to the profit usually made 
 by the sale of such a book, there could be no 
 good reason why any number of booksellers 
 should not be glad to close with these terms. 
 They advance no money — they incur no risk. 
 Every copy sold brings so much gain to them 
 in the regular course of their business ; and if 
 they sell none, the loss is measured by the 
 space of table or shelf which they have in- 
 vested in the enterprise — or rather by the 
 profit they might have made during the same 
 time by a more judicious investment of it. 
 
 Having concluded this arrangement, the 
 author might then proceed to advertise his 
 book, as sold at such shops for such a price ; 
 tliereby informing everybody who cares to 
 know that he can have it at any of those 
 places for the price named : and leaving him 
 to get it in whatever way he finds most con- 
 venient,- — by post, by messenger, or through 
 bookseller. 
 
 This I believe to be a correct description of 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 67 
 
 the practice in Utopia, where every writer de- 
 sires first to make his book as good as he can; 
 next to make known as well as he can what 
 are its just claims to attention ; thirdly to 
 make it easily procurable by all who want it ; 
 fourthly to arrange it so that each may take 
 as much as possible of what he does want 
 with as little as possible of what he does not 
 want ; and fifthly to contrive that every man's 
 share in the labour necessary to bring all this 
 about may be understood, valued, and paid for 
 at its true worth. And it is found, as might 
 have been expected, that the system answers 
 equally well for all parties — for the readers, 
 for the writers, for the printers, for the book- 
 sellers, for the book-post office, and for the 
 messengers. 
 
 In England, however, — for reasons best 
 known in Paternoster Row and not communi- 
 cable to the public — a publisher appears, as I 
 said, to be indispensable. And since whatever 
 we, the readers and buyers, want, must come 
 through him and be subject to the conditions 
 which he imposes, it is important for us to 
 come to some understanding Avith him as to 
 what we do want. I am not going to propose 
 
 E 2 
 
68 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 that either party should make any sacrifice for 
 the benefit of the other. We buy his books, 
 not for love to him, but because we want the 
 books ; he sells them, not for love to us, but 
 because he wants the money. And this is the 
 proper relation between us. But that he 
 should be made to understand what we like 
 and what we dislike, is for the interest of us 
 both ; for ours, that we may get the things 
 we want, — for his, that we may want more of 
 them. 
 
 Now if there is one thing more disliked than 
 another by a man who wants a book for the 
 purpose of reading in it, it is a volume which 
 can neither be held in the hand nor made to 
 lie open on a table. And yet this is the form 
 which our modern publishers more and more 
 affect. Volumes seem to grow thicker every 
 year ; and as they grow thicker the inner mar- 
 gin grows more scanty, and the binding either 
 stifFer or more insecure. I will not ask the 
 reader to repeat all that he has said to him- 
 self on this subject within the last ten days ; 
 it might not be conducive to morality ; but I 
 ask him to think of it, and say why he sub- 
 mits without a struggle. It is true that the 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS 09 
 
 book can be produced in this way at a little 
 less cost; for something is saved in paper, 
 pressvvork, and binding. But so he might have 
 his clothes made at less cost if he allowed them 
 to be made too small. In books which are 
 used only or chiefly for purposes of reference, 
 such economy is indeed rational: for there 
 compactness is a convenience and a comfort : 
 but in books which we want to read it is a 
 saving in the price dearly purchased by the 
 sacrifice of all comfort in the use. And yet 
 we must make up our minds to this — that as 
 long as we consent to buy such books, and 
 make our remarks in private, we shall have 
 no other choice. The publisher does not hear 
 our imprecations; and if he did they would 
 only remind him that we had bought his book. 
 Of the more prudent among us who, looking 
 at the result of former purchases of the same 
 kind, — (volumes which for no fault but corpu- 
 lency, plethora, and unwieldiness, are con- 
 demned to stand on the shelf un visited, gather- 
 ing dust, and yielding no increase) — have re- 
 solved to buy no more such, he knows nothing : 
 they are only so many birds in the bush. 
 The reader who sits at home, breaking the 
 
70 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 back of his new purchase, and wishing evil to 
 overtake the binder, is a bird in hand. The 
 author, — whose paternal affection follows the 
 fortune of his offspring beyond the counter, — 
 does indeed hear something of what is said and 
 see something of what happens. But what can 
 he do? He has been assured by those who 
 ought to know best, that such is the shape in 
 which his book must be published in order 
 that it may pay, and he cannot criticise the 
 financial argument, because he is not allowed 
 to see the details of expenditure and receipt. 
 
 That all the hours we spend over a book which 
 is worth reading should be hours of physical 
 discomfort, is not a small evil. But in this 
 case we do get something in return. A certain 
 saving is effected, in which we have some share. 
 If we do not get it dressed as we like, we have 
 less to pay for it. But there is another favour- 
 ite policy on the part of the publishers, by 
 which, while it is at least doubtful Avhether 
 they gain, it is certain that we are altogether 
 losers: I mean the practice of issuing volu- 
 minous and expensive works under such con- 
 ditions that we must either buy all or load our 
 shelves with odd volumes and incomplete sets. 
 
PUBLISHERS AND B0( )K-BUYERS. 71 
 
 In some cases, no doubt, this is unaYoidable. 
 In dictionaries and encyclopaedias, for instance, 
 and generally in works that are arranged alpha- 
 betical!}', no part can be offered as complete 
 until the whole is finished. In order of mat- 
 ter A will often stand next to Z, while in order 
 of publication one must come in the first 
 volume and the other in the last. But most 
 other books admit easily of such separation in- 
 to parts that each volume may form a complete 
 thing by itself, and yet all the volumes when 
 ranged side by side may form a complete whole. 
 In collections of opera omnia consisting of 
 many unconnected works, such separation 
 might always be contrived. And even in works 
 that are written to be read consecutively, and 
 of which every part has more or less of con- 
 nexion with every other, such as large histories, 
 there cannot be much difficulty in so arran- 
 ging the volumes that each shall be complete 
 for the division of time or subject which it em- 
 braces. And it would be an arrangement ap- 
 parently for everybody's advantage. For us 
 the buyers it would be a very great boon to 
 be able to buy the parts we want to have by 
 us for constant use,, unincumbered with those 
 
72 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 which we only want to look at occasionally. 
 For the writer or editor it would be an advan- 
 tage beyond calculation to have always a cer- 
 tain end within reach, which being reached he 
 can feel that something is done; instead of 
 binding himself to a task of which he cannot 
 know the extent, and of which, unless all be 
 completed, his labour is all thrown away. But 
 above both these, w^ould be the advantage to 
 Literature itself. For a very long work almost 
 always languishes towards the end ; the origi- 
 nal author growing weary, or abandoning and 
 leaving it to a "continuator," who is commonly 
 a hack. Now where each volume is a thing 
 accomplished and complete, a successful pub- 
 lication acts upon the writer as an encourage- 
 ment to start again w4th fresh spirit. While 
 he looks on it merely as part of a long task, 
 which he cannot leave because he has engaged 
 himself to go through, it acts rather in the 
 way of depression : he proceeds without ala- 
 crity, and how can he do his work well X 
 
 That writers or editors would find any 
 difficulty in managing their volumes, title- 
 pages, letterings, and advertisements, so as to 
 admit of this arrancrement, I cannot believe. 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS, I 6 
 
 The only difficulty would be to convince the 
 publisher that it is for his interest also ; and 
 though I believe it to be the fact, it may be 
 that without some demonstration from us the 
 buyers he will not easily be induced to think 
 so. For the truth is that an imposing an- 
 nouncement of a work on a great scale and 
 complete in all its parts takes in many in- 
 experienced and indiscreet persons, and they 
 order their bookseller in general terms to -get 
 it for them. This order, given through faith 
 in the advertisement, is understood to com- 
 prise the entire series of volumes as yet un- 
 hatched : therefore the larger the plan of the 
 work and the more comprehensive the title- 
 page of volume I., the larger the order. If 
 you vary the title (and according to my plan 
 each volume would have its own — the super- 
 addition of the general title being reserved till 
 the end) the bookseller will not consider the 
 new volume as bespoken ; and so subscribers 
 will be lost. For of course there are many 
 who will go on bujing a work they have 
 begun with, though not disposed to buy a 
 fresh one of the same kind by the same hand : 
 who will take, for example, " volume VI. of 
 
74 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 the History of England," bnt might decline 
 a " History of the reign of Edward VI," 
 though it is the same book. Against the in- 
 experienced and indiscreet subscribers how- 
 ever who would thus be lost, we must set off 
 the experienced and discreet persons, not sub- 
 scribers, who if you offer them a whole book 
 which they wish to read, will buy it at once ; 
 if you offer them half a book, will wait for 
 the other half, and before the other half 
 appears will have survived or otherwise satis- 
 fied their curiosity, and cease to wish for any 
 of it. To these again we must add such as 
 would readily buy one or two of the volumes, 
 — which they want — but object to buy half-a- 
 dozen more which they do not want, in order 
 that they may have these. Now the pub- 
 lisher can partly judge how many subscribers 
 he keeps by the conditions imposed ; but has 
 no means of knowing how many purchasers 
 he loses by the same. I suspect that the 
 balance is very much against him. It is not 
 however a question which I am concerned to 
 investigate. I speak on behalf of the buyers ; 
 and I say that if the present system has the 
 effect of engaging people to go on buying 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 75 
 
 when they had rather stop, it is a bad system 
 for them, and they ought to unite in sup- 
 pressing it. And the way to suppress it is to 
 do as I have always done : buy the volumes 
 as they come out, if you wish for them, but 
 beware of subscribing to the set. There is 
 no danger of your not being able to get the rest 
 when they appear ; and there is much danger 
 of their not being worth getting. Let this 
 rule be generally acted on, and publishers 
 will find it for their interest to put forth each 
 of their books in the form and under the 
 conditions most convenient for most people 
 whom it concerns : which is the best condition 
 of the book-trade. 
 
 If a case in illustration be asked for, I can- 
 not invent a better than that of the work 
 which has in fact suggested these remarks. 
 About 16 years ago, a new edition of the en- 
 tire works of Francis Bacon was announced 
 as in preparation,* — a new edition on a new 
 
 * This paper was written iu 1862, and as it was 
 meant to be printed without my name, I was obliged to 
 dissemble the fact that the work iu question was one 
 for which I was myself iu so great part responsible. But 
 as I had no control over the publishing arrangements, 
 nor any pecuniary interest in the sale, and was myself 
 
76 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 plan. The works were to be arranged in three 
 separate divisions. Each division was to have 
 a separate editor, and was to be complete in 
 itself. The philosophical writings, which 
 formed the largest and most important of 
 these divisions, and which, though often re- 
 printed, could hardly be said to have been 
 edited at all, were to be undertaken by a gen- 
 tleman who, though young, was well known 
 to everybody at Cambridge as uniting a 
 greater variety of qualifications for the task 
 than perhaps ever met before in one man : — 
 an intellect of the very highest order, — 
 subtle, exact, capacious, swift, discursive, sub- 
 lime ; well trained and perfectly tested by 
 the severe discipline of the highest course of 
 Cambridge scientific study : stimulated by an 
 insatiable appetite for knowledge of all kinds, 
 aided by an extraordinary sagacity in seeking, 
 facility in apprehending, judgment in assimi- 
 lating and digesting, tenacity in retaining, and 
 rapidity in recollecting ; a learned acquaint- 
 
 a considerable purchaser for the purposes here described, 
 I thought I Ijad a right to assume tlie position of an 
 impartial critic; and the rest of the article will be 
 found to require no further correction. — J. S. 
 
PUBLISHEKS AND BOOK-BUYERS. .77 
 
 ance with the condition of science as well 
 before Bacon's time as since, and with lan- 
 guages and literatures ancient and modern ; 
 industry the most unwearied, fidelity the most 
 scrupulous ; a fine taste; a lively, playful, and 
 graceful fancy; and a standard of moral judg- 
 ment the loftiest, the most delicate, the most 
 vmcompromising. An edition of Bacon's phi- 
 losophical writings by such a man could 
 hardly fail to be interesting to all who care 
 about the Baconian philosophy. Another di- 
 vision of his works, — inferior no doubt both 
 in bulk and value, and very inferior in repu- 
 tation, yet representing all that remains of 
 a great deal of Baconian industry, and still 
 more in need of a competent editor, — I mean 
 the Legal Works, — was to be undertaken by 
 another gentleman whose abilities had been 
 trained and tested in the same school, and 
 who was noted in his day as having never but 
 once gone into an examination without in- 
 tending to be first, nor ever but that once 
 come out of an examination other than first ; 
 — a man therefore not likely to do ill any- 
 thing which he chose to take in hand. The 
 rest, consisting for the most part of matter 
 
78 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 biographical or historical, and requiring zeal 
 and patience in pursuit, with leisure and good 
 intention, rather than any special intellectual 
 gifts or acquired accomplishments, were to be 
 undertaken by a third, who was understood 
 to have devoted a great deal of time to the 
 subject and to have discovered in the course 
 of his enquiries matter to the purpose not 
 known before. 
 
 Here then was a project of an edition, di- 
 vided into portions, much in the manner I 
 have suggested ; each portion having its own 
 separate claims to attention, and inviting for 
 the most part a separate class of readers. 
 And having been myself a student of Bacon 
 from early years, and found or fancied the 
 study salutary, — as that of a writer always 
 honest and industrious, and generally skilful, 
 in whatever he attempted, I hoped, by the 
 help of an edition got up upon this plan, to 
 induce many to make his acquaintance ; — for 
 so I could suit the dish to the palate — the 
 seed to the soil. I did not know many per- 
 sons who were likely to care as much as I did 
 for any tiling and everything of his workman- 
 ship. But I knew many who were likely to 
 
PUBLISIIEKS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 79 
 
 care for one tiling or another. I knew stu 
 dents of science to whom his ideas and endea- 
 vonrs in natural philosophy, — metaphysicians 
 to Avhom his speculations on the human un- 
 derstanding, — men of letters to whom his ge- 
 neral sketches and surveys of human learning, 
 —students of history to whom his political 
 and historical writings, — students of humanity 
 to whom his personal character, history, and 
 career, — were likely to prove severally inter- 
 esting. Several parts judiciously distributed 
 to several persons promised to yield a large 
 increase without waste. Each complete set of 
 the works should have supplied seven or eight 
 people with something to their taste, and 
 might have excited in each an appetite for 
 something more. 
 
 When however the first volume made its 
 appearance at last, as volume I. not of the 
 ''FhiJosopldcal Works," but of the " Works,'' 
 — it became evident that the proposed distri- 
 bution could not be contrived except by ma- 
 king presents of odd volumes and imperfect 
 sets, which people do not like ; and the conse- 
 quence was that instead of inviting many to a 
 feast in which each would have enough, I was 
 
80 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 obliged to invite a few to one in which each 
 had a good deal too much. Nor was the 
 change accounted for by any alteration in the 
 editorial arrangements. For though some de- 
 viation from the original plan had become 
 inevitable, owing to the loss of Mr. Ellis before 
 his part of the work was completed — a loss 
 which could not be supplied — there could be 
 no reason why that portion which derived its 
 distinctive value from what remained of his 
 labour should not have been kept separate 
 and produced by itself. And so also of the 
 work of the two other editors, and of the 
 translators. This would have given at least 
 four perfectly separable parts : and if the prin- 
 ciple had been carried further, and the seven 
 inconveniently thick volumes which include 
 the first three of the divisions originally an- 
 nounced, — the Philosophical, the Literary, and 
 the Professional writings — had been divided 
 into twelve separate and independent volumes, 
 each having its own title and index, the use I 
 could have made of each set — (and the use 
 I proposed to make of them fairly represents 
 their value to the general body of readers) — 
 would have been multiplied ten or twelve 
 fold. 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYEKS. 81 
 
 I see by some recent advertisements that 
 the error has now been partially corrected, 
 and that the first five and the Last two volumes 
 are now offered for sale separately. So far so 
 good. But the arrangement comes too late 
 for me to avail myself of it; and even now 
 the pieces are unnecessarily large and the vo- 
 lumes unjustifiably thick. Here is volume I., 
 containing 868 pages, — with an inner margin 
 for the binder of not more than three-quarters 
 of an inch ! Is there a reader who can handle 
 it with any comfort? Athletes have not lei- 
 sure to read such books; and the wrists of 
 any but an athlete are, too weak to hold them 
 up. The second is less intolerable by about a 
 fifth: but 692 pages make a volume which 
 ought not to be endured. The third swells 
 again nearly to the dimensions of the first. 
 The translations had the good luck to be too 
 much for one, and not enough for two: so 
 here we have two of a (comparatively) rational 
 size. But the sixth swells again to nearly TOO 
 pages ; and the seventh to more than 800. 
 And in order to bring this great inconvenience 
 about, works which have no connexion with 
 each other except that they are by the same 
 
 G 
 
82 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 hand are bound up inextricably together; 
 which is itself a second inconvenience, and 
 has the effect of considerably diminishing the 
 value of the works themselves— supposing al- 
 ways that their value consists in being read. 
 With books which are bought only to be pos- 
 sessed, or looked at, the case is indeed diffe- 
 rent ; and if it be really for the interest of the 
 seller to put them forth in this shape, the true 
 explanation of the fact must be that the 
 readers form an insignificant minority of the 
 buyers ; and that the buyers will as a general 
 rule rather give 18 shillings for one volume 
 which cannot be read with comfort than 20 
 shillings for two which can. In which case I' 
 fear we shall hardly be able to help ourselves : 
 for the publishers will naturally attend to the 
 wants of the majority, and authors and editors 
 will be overruled by their publishers. Of the 
 fact however I am not yet satisfied. There is 
 certainly a considerable demand for books 
 which are wanted for the purpose of being 
 read — witness the subscribers to Mudie and 
 other circulating libraries of that class: and 
 it may be that we are more in number than 
 the publishers imagine ; only we bear our 
 
PrBLISIIERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 83 
 
 griefs so silently that they have not heard of 
 us. If we make a demonstration, we may 
 perhaps convince them ^ that they are their 
 own enemies as well as ours. And to show 
 how much we are really interested in the mat- 
 ter, let us run our eye through the inside of 
 these seven volumes, and observe how much 
 laro-er a clioice we should have had, — how 
 many eligible purchases would have been 
 brought within our reach, —if they had been 
 kept within convenient dimensions and each 
 had been left to stand upon its own merits, — 
 upon the substantive value of its own con- 
 tents, — without any other attraction. 
 - The first half of the first volume contains 
 the history and plan of the proposed edition ; 
 Dr. Eawley's Memoir of Bacon's Life; Mr. 
 Ellis's General Disquisition on the Baconian 
 Philosophy ; the ' Novum Organum ; ' and 
 ' Parasceve ;' with his prefaces and notes ; — a 
 volume of 452 pages. If this had been issued 
 by itself, it would surely have been well worth 
 its price, whetlier followed or not by the vo- 
 lumes which were intended to succeed in 
 order. It would not have been the less fitted 
 for its place in the complete edition, whenever 
 
84 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 the edition should be complete : in the mean 
 time, — which might be a very long time, — it 
 would have been itself a complete work as it 
 stood ; and this I hold to be a clear addition 
 to its value, without any draw-back. 
 
 The remainder of that volume contains the 
 ' De xVugmentis Scientiarum,' filling 409 
 pages: the largest and most complete of all 
 Bacon's works; quite independent of the 
 others: differing from them in object, occa- 
 sion, scope, and method of treatment; em- 
 bracing the whole circle of his knowledge ; 
 and now largely illustrated throughout with 
 Mr. Ellis's notes — notes in a style of criti- 
 cism which no one before had ever thought 
 of applying to Bacon. AYho can say that this 
 is not a book fit to go into the market 
 alone l 
 
 Next come several treatises of a different 
 character; valuable, but valuable in another 
 way, and to another class of students: philo- 
 sophical speculations which philosophy has 
 passed by, and upon better advice discarded ; 
 interesting to the historian of science and the 
 biographer of the man, but no longer of any 
 scientific value in themselves — ' Historia Yen- 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOK- BUYERS. 85 
 
 torum,' ' Historia Vitte et Mortis,' ' Ilistoria 
 Densi et Rari,' etc. 
 
 Then follows the ' Sylva ^ylvarum :' a work 
 of similar character, but written in English : 
 the most popular in its day of all Bacon's 
 writini^s ; and thouo^h no lonsrer valuable as a 
 collection of facts in nature, still an amusing- 
 book to read, one of the richest storehouses of 
 our mother-tongue, and having the same kind of 
 historical value as the other " histories," with 
 which it is to be classed. 
 
 These again would form two separate vo- 
 lumes, each of more than 300 pages ; both in- 
 dispensable to a complete collection of Ba- 
 con's works; both historically important; 
 both most interesting to all who are curious 
 about the Baconian Philosophy, but of very 
 little interest to many who w^ould find a great 
 deal of interest in the others. And if the 
 publishers object that there would not be a 
 large demand for these if issued separately, 
 what answer shall we, the buyers, makel 
 Surely we will say, ' So much the more reason 
 then that they should be issued separately. 
 The objection implies that there are many of 
 us who want the others and do not want 
 
86 PUBLTSHEKS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 these. By all means therefore let us have 
 the others without them.' 
 
 A fifth volume — rather too thick perhaps 
 for comfortable handling, being nearly 500 
 pages, but not so thick as the thinnest of the 
 present set, and quite light in hand as volumes 
 go now-a-days — would include (along with 
 some minor philosophical pieces in Latin, still 
 interesting to studious investigators of Bacon's 
 character and position as a philosopher) two 
 English works sufficient in themselves to give 
 popular attraction to any single volume of 
 convenient size which contains them. The 
 ' New Atlantis,' perhaps the most beautiful of 
 his works, and the ' Advancement of Learn- 
 ing,' now, next to the Essays, the most po- 
 pular. 
 
 The remainder of the philosophical works 
 would form another volume, which would again 
 have attractions of its own different from any 
 of those preceding; consisting as it does of 
 what Lord Macaulay called " the scattered 
 leaves out of which the great oracular volume 
 was made up" — first sketches, discarded be- 
 ginnings, tentamenta of all kinds: many of 
 them among the most perfect specimens of 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYEKS. . b i 
 
 Bacon's genius and eloquence, and full of in- 
 terest to those who are inquisitive as to his 
 personal history, aspirations, and objects, and 
 the growth and developement of his ideas. 
 These are almost all in Latin, and chiefly 
 fragmentary. Under a suitable title, which 
 might easily be devised, they would form a 
 volume sufficiently valuable by itself; while to 
 those who had possessed themselves of the five 
 others it Avould have a separate value, as mak- 
 ing their edition of the philosophical works 
 complete. 
 
 All the reasons which recommend separa- 
 tion in the case of these six volumes, apply 
 still more strongly to the case of the English 
 translations. These are not wanted to make 
 the edition complete. Of those who want the 
 complete edition and can make a rational use 
 of it, few want them at all. What pretence 
 then is there for so binding them up with the 
 originals that they must be sold or stand un- 
 sold together ] When a book which is chiefly 
 English contains a few pieces in Latin, it is 
 well to append translations of them for the 
 use of those who require that help. But the 
 purchaser of a book which is almost all in 
 
88 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 Latin may be presumed to be able to read 
 Latin. Dryden's translation of Virgil is a 
 valuable book to many English readers ; but 
 an edition of Virgil is not thought incomplete 
 without Dryden's translation. Why may not 
 those of us who want to study Bacon have our 
 choice — the original without the translation, 
 the translation without the original, or both ] 
 Offer these two volumes of translations for 
 sale by themselves, and they will do well 
 enough as they are. 
 
 A ninth volume of 364 pnges would con- 
 tain all Bacon's historical works. A tenth, of 
 400, would include the Essays and the De Sa- 
 pientia Veterum ; an eleventh, of about 300, 
 the remainder of the Literary works ; and a 
 twelfth, of 480, all the Professional. 
 
 Now I submit that if these twelve volumes 
 had been set out in uniform size, type, and bind- 
 ing ; with the name Bacon, and the principal 
 contents of each, lettered on the back ; they 
 would have formed quite as complete an edi- 
 tion of the Philosophical, Literary, and Pro- 
 fessional works, as they do now; everybody 
 who wanted such an edition would have wanted 
 them all just as much as now : those who 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. <S9 
 
 wanted some, but not all, would have bon^^ht 
 those they wanted ; the volumes would have 
 been every one of a convenient size : and no 
 purchaser would have had a right to complain 
 that he had not received what he bargained 
 for. 
 
 A similar analysis of other works of tLe 
 kind would probably exhibit a similar result. 
 But this, which I happen to be best acquainted 
 with, and which I have purchased my right to 
 criticise, is enough by way of illustration. 
 
 There are other publishing practices of 
 which readers and buyers may not unreason- 
 ably complain ; — such, for instance, as that 
 unseemly device of sticking sheets of adver- 
 tisements upon the inside of the cloth bind- 
 ing; advertisements, not of kindred books, 
 not of books by the same author or bearing 
 upon the same argument — but utterly alien ; 
 having nothing in common with the book 
 which they disfigure except the name of the 
 publisher. What right has a publisher to 
 make us his advertising mediums 1 I bought 
 not long ago Max Miiller's 'Lectures on the 
 Science of Language,' and the first thing I 
 saw on opening it was ' List of \^^orks by Lord 
 
90 PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 
 
 Macaulay.' I bought the ' History, Opinions, 
 etc., of Isaac Bickerstaif,' and I found 'Mr. 
 Merivale's work on Colonization ' at one end, 
 and 'Maunder's Popular Treasuries' at the 
 other. Open Sir James Stephen's 'Lectures 
 on the History of France,' and you find an 
 advertisement of 'Lardner's. Cabinet Cyclopae- 
 dia.' Open Bacon's Philosophical Works, — 
 and the most conspicuous page you see is in- 
 scribed 'Modern Cookery for Private Fami- 
 lies.' Try his Literary and Professional Works, 
 and you find in letters not less pre-eminently 
 conspicuous, ' Moore's Irish Melodies ' and 
 • Moore's National Airs.' Nor are these merely 
 bound up with the volume, so as to admif of 
 being torn out, but pasted on the inside of 
 the cover and made part of it, quite as much 
 as the lettering on the back. An uglier prac- 
 tice was never devised ; and if appearance is 
 worth anything, the article is worth so much 
 less to the purchaser ; and the Publisher, for 
 whose sole benefit the disfigurement is intro- 
 duced, ought to make a corresponding abate- 
 ment in the price, — remembering to charge 
 the difi'erence to his own side of the account, 
 and not divide it with the author. 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOK-BUYERS. 91 
 
 Tlw^se however are comparatively small mat- 
 ters, into which I Avill not at present enter 
 further. The growing corpulence of volumes 
 — (the four volumes of Lord Macaulay's His- 
 tory grew gradually from GOO to 800 pages, 
 and Sir Archibald Alison has passed 900) — 
 and the practice of saddling purchasers with 
 such large families of them, are enough to 
 begin with. If the majority. of readers are 
 content to be so treated, I have nothing more 
 to say. I can break my own books into con- 
 venient sizes for myself, and I have no objec- 
 tion to odd volumes and imperfect sets. But 
 if other readers feel the inconvenience and 
 desire to be relieved from it, they must join 
 me in making their feelings known. 
 
 THE END. 
 
peinted by 
 
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 Lincoln's inn fields. 
 
CtV 
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