WHAT AUTHORS EARN

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 April 1933, Page 8

WHAT AUTHORS EARN

£75,000 FROM A BOOK. The revival of book publishing in Australia illustrated by the new houses now equipped for the work, makes interesting an examination of the position abroad. This would apI pear to be a golden age for authors in England and America (says “Newspaper News”). The late John Galsworthy is said to have made £20,000 a year, which might be termed a very good average, although even it would not compare with the earnings in individual years of some of his colleagues. The late Hall Caine, for example, once made an annual income of £60,000, and Sir James Barrie has earned as much as £44,000. As a - record for earnings from an individual book, the £75,000 made -by P. C. Wren from “Beau Geste” would probably be hard to beat. H. G. Wells made about £60,000 from his “Outline of History.” There are a number of British authors who are reputed to earn round about £20,000 a year from their works. These include, of course, Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells and Somerset Maugham, although earnings from plays are probably included in the case of Shaw and Maugham. The late Edgar Wallace was also easily in this class. Among Australians, Henry Handel Richardson has probably created a record with “Ultima Thule,” the last volume of her great trilogy, “The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney.” This book was placed on the Book Club list in America, which alone meant the sale of 80,000 copies. More than 150,000 copies of C. J. Dennis’s long poem, “The Sentimental Bloke,” were sold in Australia. Popular novelists like Jeffery Farnol, Zane Grey, Harold Bell Wright and others, who produce, on an average, a novel a year, must calculate their incomes in thousands.