Original sentence: She decided to publish the book herself and, on 16 December 1901, the first 500 copies of her privately printed The Tale of Peter Rabbit were made available for distribution to family and friends
Edited sentence: , a firm which had earlier rejected the tale.By year's end there were 28,000 copies in print, and a year after first publication there were 56,470.Conan Doyle acquiring a copy for his children.Even before the publication of the tale in early October 1902, the first 8,000 copies were sold out.He turned Potter's tale into didactic verse and sent his version with her illustrations and a portion of her revised manuscript to Frederick Warne & Co.His recommendation coincided with a sudden surge in the small picture book publication and, by publishing Peter Rabbit, Warne could compete in the market.In 1901, a Potter family friend, Canon Rawnsley, decided to take matters into his own hands.Leslie Brooke who enthusiastically endorsed Potter's work.Meanwhile, she continued to distribute her privately printed edition to family and friends with A.Negotiations dragged on into the new year and a contract was signed in June 1902.Potter agreed to an initial publication of 5,000 copies priced at a very small sum with modest royalties for herself.Potter initially resisted the idea of colour illustrations— describing the greys and browns of rabbits as uninteresting—but later realized her tone had been a mistake.Potter was intimately involved in the publication of the trade edition of the tale redrawing when necessary, adjusting the cadence, and correcting punctuation.She decided to publish the book herself and, on 16 December 1901, the first 250 copies of her privately printed The Tale of Peter Rabbit were made available for distribution to family and friends.She then sent Warne several colour illustrations and a copy of her privately printed edition which Warne handed to their eminent picture book artist L.Warne editors declined Rawnsley's version but asked to see the complete Potter manuscript.Warne wanted colour illustrations throughout the 'bunny book' (as the firm referred to the tale) and suggested cutting the illustrations from forty-two to thirty-two indicating those to be eliminated.Warne's interest had much to do with publishing a book to compete with the success of Bannerman's wildly poular Sambo.When the first printing of 250 copies was sold out another 200 were prepared