The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-29

cents:
mot bit! Not a bit Go to it However, we We
lent - 1.-THE C. Az $500 at one time or
another in advance moneys on a projected novel.
Travel as far as you like with him. but remember
that he can't give you novel until he has given us
one or has repaid that 81, 800"
And So He Was Published.
What to dot IT'S indeed pretty problem If
you pay Octave & Duodecimo s., 500 you can have
the c. A. s next wordsworth several times as much
any book Of tales at the least On the other hand
there is certainty that the c. A. will deliver you
the manuscript of novel. He has been going to
deliver it to Octave & Duodecimo for three years.
And you can afford to tie up $4,000 on the chance
that he'll do for you what he hasn t done for them.
Because $4,000 is, to you lot of money.
In the particular instance where this happened
Except for details, we narrate an actual occur
renee the beginning publisher went ahead and
published the book of tales and afterward another
book of tales, and let Octave & Duodecimo keep
their option on the c. A. 8 next novel, if he ever
writes any The probabilities are that the C. A. will
write short stories for the rest of his life rather than
deliver a novel from which he will receive not one
cent until s., 500 has been deduced from the royal
ties.
are KeeneSC on advance money.
The English writer who will undertake to do book
without some cash In hand before putting pen to
paper is a great rarity An American publisher
who wants English manuscripts and goes to London
without his check book WON'T get anywhere little
real money will go far. 1t will be almost unneces
sary for the publisher who has it to entrain for
those country houses where English novelsts drink
tea and fondle roses. Kent, Sussex, Norfolk, York
WaSSpX n Will fO Mr.
BRITLING will motor into town to talk about con-
tract. All the London clubs will be named as rem
devious. Visiting cards will reach the publishers
hotel, signifying the advent of Mr. PERCIvAL FoTH
ERINGAY of Houndsditch, Bayswater, Mapping Old
Stairs, London, w. C. 2. All, yes, FoTHERINGAY;
wonderful stories of Whitechapel and the East End
really Knows the people-what?
Fad or Fatality
1t has to be said that advances on books seem
to retard their delivery. We have in mind famous
English author Though he might as well be Ameri-
can so far this particular point is concerned)
who got advance of $500 (wasn it y some years
ago from Quarto & Folio-on a book of essays.
Quarto Folio have carried that title in their
spring and fall catalogues of forthcoming books
ever since. Spring and fall they despair afresb.
Daylight saving did nothing to help them-an hour
gained was a mere bagatelle in the cycles of time
through which FGds and Fatalities keeps moving in
regular and always equidistant orbit. If some day
the League of Nations shall ordain that the caen-
dar be set ahead six months Quarto Folio may get
the completed manuscript of FGdS and Fatalities
American authors are much less nsistent on ad-
vance payments than their cousins 1900 miles re-
moved. A foremost American publishing house has
two infexible rules: No advance payments and no
verdict on uncompleted manuscripts. Infexible-
but is to be suspected that though this house
bends the rule there times when it has to break
it. What won't bend must break There are few
authors for whom any publisher will do anything
except 60 to Jail Probably you would make the
same extensive efforts to retain your exclusive
rights in South African diamond digging which
had already produced bunch of Kohinoors.