Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-29

topS VII Ills tlUNti, dDout lHc SdfhS
that the author gets. But, the author
has only made an outlay OF his time
whereas the publisher has to put out
the actual cash.
market the book laying out his money
and II 1bling on 1t. The gamble mostly
results in a loss for the purchaser. With
his remaining profit of from 10 to 20
cents per copy, the publisher. it will
easily be seen, has to sell a whole lot of
copies of a novel in order TO get back
his outlay for the making OF the book.
SometimeS-often. in fact-the publisher is
stung in advance by paying advance roy
alties to the noveiist' He takes a. chance,
before the author has submitted more
than a scenario and q chapter or two Of
the book. by dishing out, say, $500 in ad
vance royalties to the author. This, in
addition to all Of the other heavy ex-
penses Of publishing even the lightest
piece of current fiction, must be made
up before the publisher is in a way of
making a nickel. AS a matter Of fact, it
generally is not made up.
Where would the publisher or the au-
thor come i'm if original novels were to
be published at so cents per copy? II
the publisher sold two or three hundred
thousand copies of novel published at
such price there might be something
in ii for him as well as something in it
for the author. But not otherwise. Per-
haps five novelists now writing in this
country could sell high as two or
three hundred thousand copies Of their
novels published at the fifty-cent retail
rate, and these five would make a living
out of their fiction. But what would
happen to the new people in the fiction
field? The new writers must make their
way. Most Of them making their first
essay in the fiction field would be lucky
sold as hig! as 10000 copies. That. al
lowing for 10 per cent royalty for them.
or ) cents per copy, would net them $500.
That isn't the kind Of money calculated
to induce worthwhile people to enter the
fiction field. A man or woman. living
very moderately. can easily spend four
times $500 in everyday living expenses
while engaged in writing a piece of tic-
ton that has any value at all.
Thus with the fifty-cent original novel
in vogue the field would be left to the
few novelists who already have reached
the goal, and there would be no encour-
agement whatever for the new writer's.
Nor would it be in the least profitable
for the publishers to get out the few
books of the few arrived" novelists at
80 cents q copy. The publisher would
prcbably net profit OF, say, cents per
copy on the ffty-cent book after paying
for the making of the book, authors roy
atty advertising, and SO on; and he d
have to sell enormous numbers of cop
les CT the book to get his outlay back
ard to pay the expenses of his plant
The uniformed agitators for the four
bits novel point to the Seaside Library
and other like series of books that were
cheaply published up to a period ending
about twenty years ago They wholly
forget that the books that thus were
published at the cheap price We're all
stolen books books boldly and con-
sciencelessly pirated mainly from Eng
lish publishers, on which the American
publishers had to pay no royalties what
ever owing to the fact that the interna-
tional copyright law was not then in
operation.
AS a strict matter-of-fact, the fifty
cent reprint book. so-called, already is
having an exceedingly damaging effect
upon the fiction trade. The reprinted
novel is the novel that the reprinting
firm buys the copyright Of from the pub
Usher after the book has had big run
at the regular publication price of $1.5O.
After a novel has been out for about two
years, and has sold, say. 100000 copies,
the reprinting firm buys the copyright
from the original publisher and gets out
a cloth bound edition of the book to sell
at 80 cents; often the edition is sold in
department stores at as low as 40 cents
a copy.