AUTHORS AND THEIR PROFITS.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 36, 10 August 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

AUTHORS AND THEIR PROFITS.

In a speech to the London Booksellers a few weeks ago, Mr. Hall Came threw a good deal of light on the workings of the publisher's trade, and the classes among which the profits of a successful book are divided. Mr. Came shows that the lion's share of the booty f alls neither to the author nor to the bookseller, but to the printer and publisher of the book. Taking the case of a successful six-shilling novel, he stated that the printing and binding cost no more than one shilling a copy. "If produced in good numbers, it can be done for a penny less ; it sometimes costs a penny more. To advertise a successful novel, a publisher may Bpend twopence a copy, but where he knows his business, and where the sales are in twenties and thirties of thousands, he does not usually spend nearly so much. The author's royalties on a six-shilling novel, vary from 15 per cent, to 25 per cent, and only in two known instances have authors received more. Thus the payment of the most highly-paid English novelists — two novelists excepted — is Is 4J per copy. So tho writing, printing, binding, and advertising of a popular six-shilling novel have cost 2s 4Jd." The speaker went on to say that the average price at which the publisher sold to the wholesale bookseller, was three aud sixpence, or a fraction under, which, after deducting ls4Jd for the author's royalty, and say Is 2|d for the expenses of printing, binding, and advertising, left a clear profit to the publisher of lid a copy. The small bookseller had to buy at 4s to 4s 2d, and to keep pace with his brother publisher in the heart of London, had to sell again at 4s 6d. Deducting the cost of carriage, this left him the miserably inadequate profit of 3£d on each book. The remedy, in Mr. Caine's opinion, was to dispense with tho publisher altogether. "If an author might publish his book for himself, _aud send it direct from the printer and bookbinder to the shop of the bookseller, he would not only put more money into the bookseller's pocket, and more into his own pocket on each copy sold, but he would enormously increase the chances of sale by vitalising the trade of book-selling, and by ensuring a wider distribution." At the conclusion of the address, the meeting resolved to take steps to bring about a reform on the lines suggested by Mr. Oaine.