The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-02-10
BRITISH BOOK MAKING
WHAT IT COSTS TO PUBLISH AN
ENGLISH NOVEL.
PecuIiarities of the Library System''-
Why Books are Not Bought in Eng
Iand-The Thee-Voiulne Novel
some Recent Prices.


London Cor Detroit Free Pressl
Some seem to be under the impression that
it is easier to get book published here than
in America. | think they must have very
little idea of the vast amount OF writing that
is done in England. The publisher will tell
you that the getting out of three-volume
novel will cost 200 pounds sterling AMI that
he is willing to stand half the cost if YOU
will stand the other half. TO a person who
knows little of paper or print
,ng this may look like a fair offer,
but the fact is that the publishing
Of the first edition does not cost anything
like half that sum and tho 100 pounds
sterling you send the publisher will pay all
costs and leave him a handsome profit be-
sides whether the book sells OF not It
amounts to this: You pay the London pub
Usher good profit; if the book sells he
gobbles the lions share Of the income: if il
doesn't you lose all the money AMI he has no
risk at all Perhaps American publishers do
business the same way; perhaps they don't.
But there is one thing you have not in
America and that is the literary lnonstrosity,
the three-vOlume novel In your spare
moments thank your stars for that
l presume you have never seen three
volume novel | have several of them here
before me as | write. They are from Mudie's
library. The three volumes cost 81 shillings
and pence. That is about $3.50. You
might say the English were fools to pay such
price for novel They are not such fools
as they look for they don't pay it and the
book is put at this price so that they won't
r.zE. ] a.
business that a publisher should deliber-
ately put such a price on his book for
the very purpose Of preventing people from
buying it. Nhopays it then! Nobody. The
price is simply blind. The libraries buy
the book at a much less figure than that
given above. l have it from publisher that
the price the libraries pay is about s. for n
three-yoluma novel and the chances are that
in many instances they pay less. The pub
Usher generally gets out an edition Of 500
copies. II 800 Of these aresold the publication
is called a success The bill the publisher
will show you Is $3.50 as tbs total cost Of the
edition.
then if 300 are sold at So % each that
would amount 70 800 and would leave about
$1,000 to divide ietween author aud pub
Usher. If the other 200 sell the author viii
net about 500 from his book and viii then
publish it in cheap hound form at shillmgs
on 50, thus appealing to an altogether diff
fereat class of reader, Ii that in turn,
takes and several editions are sold the book
will he published at a shilling or perhaps six
pence.
Lady Brassey was the first in England to
issue her bool, at a sixpence while the cony-
right still held good. Others have followed
her example. Now, l would say that the
figures given in the above statement are
copied from the bill of a genuine London
publisher ani il any author is desirous Of as.
tonishing the great British public by appear
ing before them in print ! viii guarantee to
get up his tmee-yoJume edition for lust
about half what is charged here know
about as much about printing and paper N
London us any publisher and viii get out
the book in quite as good style as the one
for which the above bill was charged Now
as to the three-volume novel itself. | will
take The one for which the above bill was
charged. Each volume measures five inches
broad by seven and half long, and this is
the general size of the three volumes. Ther.
are only five lines to the inch OF the page
and each page Of print measures five inches
by three, Large typa and big margins are
used to make up space. Volume / contains
21l pages; volume II, 30. and volume Ill,
2SS
On each Of these books is pasted a yellow
card which says: "Mudie's select library
Gimited, 500, 80, 81 New Oxford street,
and % and = Museum street London Sin.
gle subscription, guinea year" Nude is
the man VINO has dem6ralizei the book-buy-
ing proPonsties of the Britishers, For 50 a
year you can get a new book every day if
you want it, OF you can keep it for two
weeks. If you pay another extra guinea the
books VIII be delivered at your door twice
week. THIS sum gives you the whole range
Of literature, old and new, from the most
profound scientific treatise to the fashiest
and latest novel This is certainly good
bargain for the Englishman, and if person
does not object to read a book that has been
thumbed over by somebody else, he has the
literature Of tine world at his command for
s. year
This system places the author much more
at the mercy Of the critics than ! imagine is
the case in America. Nude will not order
a book that Is condemned by the critics If
the AtheuHum and the Academy condemn.
the others generally follow in their wake.
and from that jury there is no appeal The
books are left on The publishers hands and
there's an end. The author cannot find n
publisher who will get it out in cheap form
while the unsoll volumes lie on the first pub
lishers shelves. When a book first comes
out Nude will order about thirty copies:
Smith on tho Strand will take twenty;
the Grosvenor Gallery library on
aristocratic New Bond street, will order
ten Thee are the three great
libraries that lani books. The thousands of
smaller libraries all over England are gener-
ally affiliated with Nudes or the Grosvenor
They pay from $50 year upward and get a
certain number of volumes a week, waich
they re-lend to their customers. Smith on
the other hand, does a large provincial
business, every book stall on the railroads
being an agency and the enterprisng Sir
Joseph Porter will deliver books at any
station in England If the critics speak well
Of the book the libraries viii at once order
fresh supply. If the praise becomes general
and very warm the presses and binders have
TO work night and day to keep up with the
demand