Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-11-17
Interesting Facts About the Book
Publishing Business.
MORE FAILURES THAN SUCCESSES
Profits Are Not as Large as Most
People Think.
THE MATTER OF ROYALTY
Special Correspondence OF The Evening Star.

Speclal correspondence OF Inc Evening Stdr-
NEW YORK, November Is. 1900.
The head of one Of the most famous
book publishing concerns in this country
was talking the other afternoon about
books and the publication thereof. He
made some observations along This line
that are worth setting forth.
1.-THE wonder is not great" he said, that
so many persons take their pens in hand
to write books. A successful book Is
mint, both for the author and the pub
Usher. But there is no legitimate business
undertaking that 1 know of that is more
Of gamble than the bringing out of a
book. I am referring now exclusively to
fiction. The element of speculation doesn't
enter into the publication of books on his
torical, scientific. biographical or other sub
Jects of that character. Few publishers
will publish a heavy book unless the
writer thereof is a man with an established
name In his specially. and such books are
not expected to have phenomenal sales.
They go to the libraries of people of means
who have standing orders with their deal
ers for all books of that class and the pub
asher is satisfied to get his money back on
them. The publication of such books will
add to the prestige of the publishing firm,
but not one in hundred Of them will make
any money for the firm, unless the work Is
some great affair that has been in prepara-
ton for years by some very noted man.
1t Is the successful work Of fiction that
fetches in the big money. The men and
women of today are almost exclusively
readers of fiction. They haven't the time.
even If they had the inclination. to read
heavy books, and there are enough heavy
| books already extant, without considering
| the perennial stream of new ones flowing
from the presses, to bewilder one who even
De Quincy who said that the greatest
number Of books an indefatigable student of
eighty years could read and absorb during
his long lifetime, by giving his undivided
than 5000 volumes. There were many
times 5000 standard works. some of them
In many volumes, even in De Quincey's day.
Lost a Good Thing.
ut Is the successful novel, then, that
brings in the big money. As you are not to
publish my name, I will tell you, in all
humiliation and self-depreciation, that I
absolutely declined last winter a work Of
fiction of which more than $4,000 copies
have been sold since Its publication by an
other firm, q trifle more than four months
ago. The book did not strike me as pos
sessing any particular merit, nor did 1t
strike my professional readers that way.
1t went through the hands of three readers.
All Of them reported to me that, while the
book contained some clever bits, it seemed
to them to be too servile an imitation of
another extraordinarily successful book,
published about year before, to prove
genuine go. Moreover, the writer of the
book wanted a considerable advance on the
novel before Its publication. and 1 only
make advances to authors whose reputa-
tons are already firmly established So the
young man who wrote the book went to
another publishing firm, showing them
what he had, and they took it eagerly and
made him the advance he asked for. They
doomed the book vastly before its publica-
tion of course. Well, as 1 have said, 49,
go copies Of that book have been sold in
bit more than four months, and it is still
going tremendously. 1t will doubtless pass
the 200, 900 mark within this year. 1t is
good book, but not a great book. 1t has
just happened to find the world Of novel;
readers. that's all. Better books have been
published since that have not had one
twentieth part Of this books success. One
never knows how the public is going to re-
cetve q new work of fiction. There
many instances to prove this. No cultured
person, for example. would call Mr. Barnes
of New York. or Mr.. Potter Of Texas lit
erature. Yet you will have to search the
records to find the titles Of books that had
such a vogue as those two, or that sold so
tremendously.
Errors of Judgment.
'One Of the leading publishing firms in
America has the peculiar distinction of hav-
ing turned down two Of the most tremend-
GUS sellers In the way of novels that have
appeared in many years-David Harum'
and When Knighthood Was in Flower
The firms readers reported in positive
terms that neither of these books would
'do'-and look at them! A good many years
ago this same firm refused to accept Plain
Tales From the Hills from Rudyard Kip
ling. 1t is a gamble of the purest ray
serene. say. this fetching out Of new
works Of fiction.
Moreover, you have got to give a book
time before you conclude that it has scored
failure. David Harum' fell dead. 1t
looked like a sure loser. 1t was four
months before word got around among fic-
ton readers that here was something
unique. Then the publishers were startled
by the orders they received. A Chicago
newspaper man published book of stories
They were clever stories that had been
originally published in a Chicago newspa-
per. The book was still-born. Five months
after 1t was published. however, and during
the five months less than 1900 copies had
been sold, 1t was suddenly galvanized to
life, and up to date something like 100000
copies Of it have been sold. A Pittsburg
young man. now dead, ratified off some lit
tie sketches Of overnight designations for
private circulation. The advertising agent
of firm saw the sketches and liked them
so much that he had them printed in the
form Of booklets advertising his firms
goods Hundreds of thousands of these
booklets had to be printed to supply the
demand, and then publisher comes along
assemblies the sketches in book form and
sells nearly 100000 Of the books out of
1 never even begin to get nervous over a
work Of fiction that 1 publish until year
after publication. L have had large and
unaccountable demands for books two
years after their publication-books that
L couldn't have given away before the
unaccountable demand for them set in
Must Stand ON It's Merits.
Let me tell you another peculiar thing
about books You can't make a book go
by advertising it. You can advertise al
most anything else on earth or in the wa
tiers beneath the earth into success, but
not book. The best you can do by lot
of preliminary advertising is to exhaust
an edition so, but If the quality that
strikes fiction readers is not in the book,
you won't get 1t beyond the second or third
edition. and you lose out on that PROPOSE
tion because you have vainly spent a lot
of money advertising.
Il advertise all of the books I publish, of
course. simply to bring them to the atten-
ton of fiction readers, but after that l
know that the book has got to stand on its
merits. Flatterng reviews do little toward
the sale of a book. Some of the very dead
est things have my shelves have been
books that the reviewers almost unanimously
lauded to the skies. Vice versa, some of
the biggest sellers l ever brought out were
damned most nainfully hr n r.ro ~,