"MY DEAR MR. HUNT:--
"It is an unpleasant story to tell, but since you desire it I will
repeat it.
"You recollect the letter I wrote you some time last December, and
the question I asked you in it. The 'long and friendly letter,'
of which you speak, told you of my waiting, and of my writing to
Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson's letter confirmed the statement of the
Segregationalissuemost. He said, 'There is a custom of the trade
which obtains for the first venture of an author unknown to fame, to
receive ten per cent. on the retail price of the books after the first
thousand copies are sold.... As to the price per volume of M. N.'s
works, I should think twenty to twenty-five cents per volume would be
the fair copyright. Sometimes a moderate copyright makes larger sales
by enabling the publishers to give larger discounts to the trade,'
etc., etc. I still supposed there was some good reason for my receiving
a lower rate than any he mentioned, and in my long letter I tried to
make clear to you the point which I wished settled. In your reply,
you said, by E----, 'Do you wonder, matters having been many times
explained, that he thought they must sooner or later explain themselves
through your memory? _We_ forget how, in a retired life, things work
in the mind,' etc., etc. My memory is not wont to play me false; and
so far from matters having been many times explained, they have not
been explained at all. I have never so much as sought any explanation
till now. Never but once has the subject been referred to between us.
That was years ago, soon after the publication of 'City Lights,' and
while prices were as yet unfixed. You then said, of your own accord,
that owing to fluctuation of prices and general uncertainties, you
were making arrangements with your authors to pay them fifteen cents
a volume instead of a percentage. To this I readily assented. All
that you said did not take five minutes, and all that I said did not
amount to five words. I had a great deal more faith in your honorable
intentions toward me than I had in my literary power to serve you. I
had far more anxiety lest I should make you lose money, than I had lest
you should make me lose it.
"I decided that if I were indeed brooding in a retired life over a
trifle, it was time to refer the matter to some one whose life was
not retired, and who was better able than I to judge. I gave the
whole matter to Hon. Mr. Dane. He made inquiries among the publishers,
without using your name, or in any way bringing you in question; and
as the result of his investigations, he reports ten per cent. on the
retail price as the very lowest paid to the author. One publisher told
him that they considered a book that was not worth to its author ten
per cent., was not worth publishing.
"How, then, could I avoid the conclusion that you have been paying
me all these years from one fourth to one third less than the lowest
market price? For, notwithstanding the fixed sum was to avoid a change,
change has not been avoided. When a book was published whose retail
price was one dollar and fifty cents, the author's part went down to
ten cents. That is, the author's price was fixed against a rise, but
flexible toward a fall.
"Is not this enough to explain my 'change of sentiment' and my 'sudden
dissatisfaction?'
"Mr. Hunt, I cannot talk of this. I have suffered a loss that money
cannot measure, nor words express. The writing of this letter is the
most painful work my pen has ever done. My faith in you was perfect,
and my friendship boundless, and it has all come to this.
"I was thoroughly identified with you. I counted your prosperity mine.
Not a word of praise or censure was passed upon you that I did not
feel. Had your needs demanded it, I would gladly have offered twice,
and thrice, and four times any reduction, and have reckoned it only
pleasure.
"If I have failed to make anything clear, you can refer to Mr. Dane. No
one but himself knows anything about it; but how can it be kept longer?
And yet how can it be told?"
When Mr. Hunt rendered my account, and paid my money to Mr. Dane, I
found that they had allowed ten per cent. on the new book, "Rights of
Men."
Mr. Hunt did not reply to my letter, but sought an interview with Mr.
Dane, of which the latter gives the following account:--
"ATHENS, _March_ 2d, 1768.
"I have had a long talk with Mr. Hunt; longer than I can write. He
asked me at first what you wished; said he had a long letter from you,
referring him to me, etc. I told him that it seemed to you, as it did
to me, strange that, while almost any author was receiving ten per
cent. on sales, you were allowed much less, and that was what had not
been explained. He expressed all through the greatest regard for you,
and surprise that you should have so little confidence in him. I told
him I should be very glad to be able to assure you that he had done
everything toward you that his confidential relations required, and
that I felt sure it was best, in every business point of view, that he
should continue your publisher.
"He said your books are published more expensively than most books;
that a great deal has been always expended for advertising; that it
costs, for instance, $1,000 for one page of the 'Adriatic,' ---- copies
being printed; that they employ one man at a yearly salary of ----
dollars to attend to having their books properly noticed in the papers;
that all the machinery for a large sale is expensive; that they make
forty per cent. discount to the trade--more on large orders; that Mr.
Somebody makes estimates of the actual cost of books published, and
submits them to him, and did so with yours, and so a fair price was
fixed; that you have made more out of the books than the publishers,
and that they could not and cannot afford to pay more than what has
been allowed; and upon my suggestion that more had been allowed on
'The Rights of Men,' he said that was a thin book, and took but little
paper, and so cost less. He says others will pay you much more for a
single work in order to get you, but thinks the style, etc., would not
be satisfactory, etc. In short, Mr. H. claims that in all respects,
they have done their best as publishers and friends for your reputation
and pecuniary interests in the long run.
"Mr. H. said he was sorry you did not call as he suggested, and talk
about the matter; that he should never cease to be your friend--'I wish
you would tell her so;' that in your letter you had almost charged
him with dishonesty, which certainly you could not mean, etc. Upon
my inquiry, he said they made less on the books at the present high
prices, but he gave me no special estimates. He said he had arranged
with other authors at a specified price per copy, but did not tell me
what price. As the interview was at his request, I had no demands to
make, and could do little but hear him. I told him I should write you
to-day, placing the matter before you as he presented it; that I could
not, without inquiry, say to you that I was or was not satisfied that
all was right, but should be very glad to see your pleasant relations
continue; and so it ended."
This explanation was not satisfactory. If my books were published more
expensively than most books, Mr. Hunt should have told me before.
When the first one was to be published, he asked what style I should
like, and suggested that of the "City Curate." I preferred "Sir
Thomas Browne." He made no objection, nor even hinted that it was
more expensive than the other. He wrote to me, "It will be a beauty,
and look like 'Sir Thomas Browne,' in its red waistcoat." And again:
"I am glad you like the costume into which we put your first-born."
The following books were simply published in uniform style with the
first, and nothing was ever said about it between us. As to the cost of
advertising, why should it cost him more to advertise than it did other
publishers, or more to advertise me than other writers? What, again,
had I to do with the cost of the machinery for large sales, or with the
rate of discount, unless they were gotten up and arranged solely or
chiefly on my account? In that case I must indeed have been disastrous
to my publishers, for I cannot think my sales have been exceptionably
large. The reason alleged for the increased price allowed on "Rights of
Men," seemed trivial. True, it was but a thin book, and took but little
paper, and so cost less. But it was not so thin a book as "Holidays,"
on which they allowed me but ten cents, while on "Rights of Men,"
accounted for after I had begun to look into the matter, they allowed
fifteen cents. Yet both books were sold at the same retail price,--one
dollar and fifty cents. "Rights of Men" was one hundred and forty-four
pages thinner than "Winter Work," one hundred and twenty-three pages
thinner than "Cotton-picking," ninety-eight pages thinner than "Old
Miasmas." Those books were sold at a retail price of two dollars, while
this was one dollar and a half. On those books they allowed me seven
and a half per cent., while on this they allowed me ten per cent.
But "Old Miasmas" is one hundred and fifty-one pages thinner than "City
Lights;" "Cotton-picking" is one hundred and twenty-six pages thinner
than "City Lights." All three of the books are sold at the same retail
price,--two dollars. And on all three I was allowed but seven and a
half per cent. That is, while all goes smoothly, a thinness of one
hundred and fifty-one pages is of no account. It neither makes the
price of a book less to the buyer, nor the pay of a book greater to
the author. But when ripples begin to rise, a thinness of ninety-eight
pages makes the buyer's price less by fifty cents, and the author's pay
greater by one-fourth. Thinness, thou art a jewel!
One thing more: as these books are published in uniform style, if
they are published more expensively than most books, they must have
been so published in the beginning. Therefore the relative pay of the
author should then have been less. But the first contract is made out
according to the usual custom, at ten per cent. on the retail price.
When the author was unknown and the sale uncertain, he received ten per
cent. After he became known, and the risk, one would suppose, must have
been diminished, he went down to six and two-thirds per cent. Great is
the mystery of publishing!
Thinking it possible that smallness of sales might have something to do
with it, I wrote to Mr. Dane:--
"I can't tell a lie, pa. I wish I was satisfied, but I am not. If Mr.
Hunt had said this to me in the first place, I dare say I should have
been. The best light is this: that I asked him a question to which, for
three months, he made no reply. You asked it, and he answered at once.
This, however, is a slight matter. I can talk about it, and scold him
for it, and, without ever forgiving him, live on in perfect good-humor.
It is a surface matter, and if this is all it is nothing.
"But I cannot thoroughly feel that this is all, and I cannot be the
same without feeling so. Mr. Jackson knew the style of the book, so did
Mr. Campton, and they knew the expenses of printing; and if Mr. Hunt
had so much regard for me as he thinks he had, why did he let me go on
making myself wretched for weeks, when an hour's time would have set
everything at rest? He who really regards me, will regard my whims as
well as my wants. And this was not a whim, either; it was a sensible
and natural question. Mr. Hunt is mistaken in supposing I did not mean
what I seemed to mean. I did mean just that. If I had meant less, I
should have felt less. I am not a simpleton to break my heart over a
difference of opinion....
"I do not think it necessary to apply to any others than Marsh &
Merriman, and Mr. Campton. If they think everything is as it should be,
then be it resolved that it is. Enough testimony is as good as a feast.
Why should others pay me more for a single work in order to get me? Can
they afford to pay more than he? But there is no good in talking upon
uncertainties. When we have found out any actual data, we can cipher on
interminably. I trust you are pleased with the prospect. I do not think
it is of any use to stop here, because inwardly I am no more content
than I was when I began--not so much, in fact. I am at one of those
places where it is easier to go forward than backward. Indeed, from
this point it is impossible to go back to where I was when I started.
"Having slept over it, it occurs to me to say that I think you better
see Mr. Campton and perhaps no one else.... I am afraid it will somehow
get out."
Mr. Dane took my accounts to Mr. Campton and laid the facts before him,
making thus the matter personal for the first time. He reported:--
"I have had a long talk with Mr. Campton, and stated to him all
that Mr. Hunt said as reasons for his course, as well as what the
sales had been, etc. He says your books are not within his--Murray
& Elder's--usual line of publication, but he knows all about them.
He says nobody would ask you to receive less than ten per cent, on
the retail price, and any publisher in Athens will give you more for
anything you may offer, and that now you ought to receive for all past
sales at that rate on all the books, and that you would be entitled to
that even on a book where only two thousand copies sold.
"Mr. Campton measured and counted the pages, etc., in your books, and
figured the cost and all the items. At outside present prices it costs
to compose and stereotype such a book, $1.25 a page, or $500 for 400
pages. That is the whole outlay for the plates ready to print. After
that, the books cost, all told, say 52 cents per copy.
"The publisher receives, including what he retails and gives away, an
average of $1.20 per copy on the whole editions.
"Such books of 400 pages cost each copy:--
Paper and press-work, .24
Binding, .23
Stereotype plates, $500,
10,000 copies, each, .05
----
.52
Retail price, $2.00
40 per cent. off, .80
----
$1.20
.52
----
.68
Of which the publisher has .53
The author .15
'Old Miasmas' has only 310 pages, and so costs less by 25 per cent.
Mr. C. says the books can be made at 15 per cent. less than these
estimates, but he wanted to keep within bounds.... The advertising,
etc., are part of the usual machinery of all publishers. He says B. &
H., so far from making unusual discounts to the trade, have recently
published a list prescribing so little discounts that 'the trade' are
offended."
I also directed Mr. Dane to write to some of the Corinthian publishers
to ascertain their custom. He wrote to Pearville & Co., and received
the following reply on March 20:--
"DEAR SIR,--In reply to your favor of 18th, beg to say that, in the
absence of any agreement, we should pay to the author 10 per cent. on
the retail price for all copies sold. This on $2.00 would give the
author 20 cts.; and 1.50, 15 cts. per copy.
"Very respectfully, B. PEARVILLE & CO."
My confidence in Mr. Hunt was lost, and I was too much disheartened to
do anything more except to close my connection with the firm, so far as
I could. I wrote to Mr. Dane:--
"Do not _you_ be disturbed by this unhappy complication. If you do, I
shall be _désesperé_ indeed. There is nothing to be done between Mr.
Hunt and me. There is nothing between us worth preserving.... The case
has been presented to him. He is not inclined to do anything, and I
certainly cannot press him. Either he feels that he is right or that he
is wrong. If the former, any proceedings on my part will only bring on
active antagonism. If the latter, the consciousness of it is penalty
severe enough to atone for all. Moreover, so far as I am concerned, no
money could make amends for what it would cost me; and in fact, having
lost so much, I think I rather enjoy losing the money too.... I would
not see Mr. Hunt any more. Let it all go."
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