Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-03-27

poet, while the perverse public insisted
upon calling him the great American
traveller. Will Carleton's publishers.
however, have never regretted accept
ing his manuscript, and Riley s poems
pass through many editions.
Every publisher receives offers by
letter of manuscripts that never reach
the publication office. The letters are
sometimes so crude and misspelled
that the publisher has no hesitation in
replying that the manuscript need not
be sent, as his list is full. 1t is his
disposition to send such a reply to
nearly every letter of the sort, but as a
matter of fact a well. expressed and
seemingly sane letter offering manu-
script usually ELECTS by way of reply a
request to submit the manuscript. All
manuscripts sent in thus voluntarily
are numbered and recorded, and the
readers receive the manuscripts with
out knowing the names of the authors.
Books are more frequently submitted
typewriter. This undoubtedly in
creases their chances of being thorough
ly read. There is, however, a vast
amount of very bad manuscript sent to
every publishing house, and it is the
jest of the trade that neat manuscript
on just the right kind of paper excites
the suspicion that the writer is an
amateur The proverbial bad writing
of great men has no longer Its old
terror for the printer since typewriting
has come into vogue. Washington
Irving's manuscript was famous for its
beauty and clearness, and so was George
K ennan's before he was attacked with
writer's cramp. 1t is still clear but
extremely laborious. Henry George
writes bad hand, and makes it worse
by all sorts of Authorizations peculiar to
himself. Luckily for the printer
member of Mr.. Georges family puts
all his manuscript into typewriting.
Publishers in New York, as else
where, issue a great many books that
have been written by request. Many
publishers have series of one sort or
another that is indefinitely long and
that grows by additions at irregular
intervals. Such series may have
been projected by the publisher, and
the initial volume is likely to have
been written by request, but so soon as
such series has been started many
letters come suggesting additional num-
beers of the series and Offering matter
for future volumes. Most of such
offers have to be rejected.
The subject of authors pay is inter-
minable, having been from time i'm
memorial matter of savage contro-
versy. British writer's or their agents
in dealing with American publishers
under the copyright law usually retain
copyright interest. but ask for an
advance on future royalties. The
publishers say that if the expected
royalties do not accrue, the authors
neglect to repay the advance, SO that
in such case the original payment was
really the price that the publisher
gave for his equity in the work. Only
a small proportion of books published
are bought by the publisher. As
rule. it is only authors of established
regulations that can demand other pay
ment than their royalty. 1t happens
occasionally that publishers do so we'll
with an unexpectedly successful book
that they send the author an honor
arium in addition to the agreedupon
royalty. The Harpers are said to have
sent handsome honorarium to the
author of recently much discussed
book. and Beatrice Harraden' Ameri
can publisher sent her an honorarium
of $500. after which she complained
because more was not sent Publishers
say that, with all their care and sift-
ing, only small number of the books
published yield fair profit Some on
which great expectations are built fall
fiat. and on the whole the reading pub
lie is as hard to calculate upon as is the
theater- going public Most books die
natural death in less than five years.
many are still-born, and of the few
that are regarded as highly successful
a considerable percentage are utterly
forgotten in ten years. 1t is a high
tribute to Nathaniel Hawthorne that
almost up to the time his copyright
expiled his heirs received several
thousand dollars year from the royal.
ties of his works.-New York Sun.