The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-10
THE LITERARY BROKER.
He Helps the Author to Market and
| FrOfiteth Himself.
(From the New York Evening Post.)

| (From the New York Evening Post)
So large is the literary market. and so
complicated its ramifcatlons. that it is
| difficult for an author to be familiar with
| its details. Hence the literary broker.
who is as necessary to him as the Wall
| Street broker is to an Investor. Literary
| brokers are new arrivals in the world of
| finance. There have been literary agents
for centuries. but in nearly every instance
they were the employees of writer's, of
publishers or of both. The broker of to-
| day is an independent business man,
whose trade is connecting link between
authorship, newspaperdom, the book
| world. the stage, and foreign lands. He
| expresses the growth of literature as an
| industrial force.
Many causes have contributed to the
| change Common-faw copyright has been
developed and strengthened by legislation
until statutory copyright as 1t now exists
protects ideas as thoroughly as the patent
| law protects inventions. Even farther
| reaching is international copyright, which
enables a successful writer to find profit
able markets in a dozen lands. Another
important factor has been the legal recog-
milton of other incorporated rights. DR..
Johnson enjoyed the common-iaw copy
right Of very questionable protection.
| Kiplins. Doyle Harte, Parker, and Glenn
ems have first the book copyright; second
the magazine copyright: third, serial
/ rights; fourth the rights of dramatiza-
ton, and fifth, the rights of translation.
| The creation of Sherlock Holmes illus
| trates the possibilities of modern author
ship. The stories in which the famous
| detective is the leading character have
appeared in British and American maya
zines, in daily and weekly newspapers,
have been published in book form. been
/ df.1r, nd Ft,rI,
| and have been translated and proved
! profitable in other tongues. To take ad-
| vantage of these rights requires time,
| labor and business ability. few au-
thors possess the leisure and the COM
mercial talent requisite for this kind of
| work, Aut only one-half are willing to
! engage in that kind of enterprise. They
! find it tnore profitable to keep on with
! their library work and transfer every
| thing elsS to capable brokers. The vast
body of Authors dislike business and hand
| all such matters over to professional
agents. For this reason the literary brok-
| er of the present time, especially when
| successful. has as much business as he
can attend to, and is often compelled to
! turn away applications from writer's of
more than Ordinary ability.
The growth OF literary brokerage has
| been rapid. II seems to have started in
Great Britain in the 70s and in the Uni
| ted States at about the same time. or
possibly few years later. In the S0s
| the agents on both sides of the ocean
| reached out across the seas and invaded
each others territories. Today at the
| beginning CT the new century, there are
| at least fifty internations brokers whose
| business may be compared TO that of the
great merchants in the leading seaports
of Christendom According to an old edi-
| tor on Park Row the first big step in the
| development of this branch of literary
| industry was made in selling the serial
| or newspaper rights of Brete Hartes
| short stories. II proved slight success
and, what was of more Importance, Ii
clearly showed that the system could be
| made highly lucrative in the course of
time. In Great Britain the first notice.
able fact was the selling of the serial
| rights TO newspapers of the writings of
| two well-known noyelists The broker
| had no trouble with the authors, nor
! with the publishers He sold the rights
| 10 ten papers, and was encouraged by
| his undertaking.
| For a short time the book publishers
expressed fear that the appearance of
| the stories in the papers would injure
the sale of books, but to their agreeable
surprise the results were the opposite
of what they expected. The serial pub
| LEGATION proved an admirable advertise
ment for the books. His first success
emboldened the broker to more extensive
J operations. Inside of eight years he had
| built up a large trade. and today is the
| official representative of nine American
and Canadian and forty English and
Scotch writer's. He also handles the man
uscripts OF at least hundred coca
| sionals.''
There are two other huge concerns in
London which conduct about big a
business. In this city there are three
prominent houses whose transactions
reach about the same total as their Brit
| ish rivals. In addition are some smaller
concerns which do profitable but not
over-large business. The principal houses
pursue simple and efficient methods. In
the late autumn they issue a programme
for a long period in the coming year.
One just published gives the list OF novels
and short stories beginning in January and
running through to the middle of Novem-
| Der. Another catalogue by an American
| house covers the entire year. and third
one embraces the period from January TO
| July. These lists enable editors to pick
out reading matter weeks and months in
| advance and give newspaper critics and
reporters 4 capital insight into the news
| features of the book world.