The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-05-19
book brought its author another

DOCK Drought It's author another
comfortable fortune.
Beatrice Harraden made no
money from her great success,
Ships That Pass in the Night, "
which went far into the hundred
thousands, because in this country
there was no copyright and the
English rights had been sold out
right by the author for G2o.
William Dean Howells, holding
first rank as he does, has never
had a great sale for any of his
books. Mark Twain, on the other
hand, had a highly renumerative
income until, as with Scott, fnan-
cial disaster plunged him deep into
debt. F. Marion Crawford and F.
Hopkinson Smith both found their
profession highly renumerative.
From Richard Carvel'' as a
book and from the royalties from
the play Winston Churchill re-
Ceived over 5000, 900, and THE
Crisis" "Con1ston and Mr..
Crewe's Career" have not been
far behind. One OF the most aston
ishing examples OF profit when re-
viewed as price per word IS that
of Booth Tarkington's Monsieur
Beaucaire, which, totaling only
about II 900 words, sold 100 900
copies in the original edition and
50, 900 in a subsequent cheaper
edition.
Richard Harding Davis is esti-
mated TO have made when he was
an author solely $4,000 annually
from royalties on his books. Rob
ert w. Chambers, James Lane
Allen, Thomas Dixon, Alice
Hogan Rice and Kate Douglas
Wiggin command a twenty per
cent. royalty, or about thirty cents
for each copy sold.
The sale Of George Barr Nc
Cutcheons novels in four years
amounted in round numbers to
900, 900 copies, His first book,
"Graustark, " reached a sale of
1000 the copyright the author
sold outright for $500. He made
no more such mistakes 4 million
copies of Florence Morse Kings
ley's Titus are said to have
been sold, but she received only
$1,000 for the story, having written
it for a prize contest, one of the
conditions being that the winning
author should relinquish all claims
to royalty.
One comparative glance is OF in
. terest. Poe, who died in want,
was glad to receive a S. bill for
one of the best of his tales. Ex-
/ President Roosevelt received an
offer from one publishing firm of
/ SIoo, 900 for a book about his visit
to Europe and another firm bid
$50, 900 for a book on sports and
hunting.
Concerning the writing Of books
as an income producing vocation
it is interesting to learn from
Clement Shorter the English con-
ditions governing the publication
of novels. George Gissing admits
that he received only L2o for the
serial and book rights of one Of his
finest novels Since then things
have greatly improved, but Mr..
Shorter saws that he has seen
many agreements and that pub
fishers constantly refuse to pay
anything at all until there is a
sale of 500 copies of a book Some
of the most reputable publishers
in England are in the habit of do.
ing this. One
agreement that passed through my
hands the other day gave the
author nothing for his first novel
up to 500 copies. After that ten
per cent. was to be paid and the
author tied up for three novels.
One publisher frequently pays $50
for all rights in a novel. But
even with these hard dealings the
position is very much better than
it was fifteen or twenty years ago,