[_29 Apr. '09_]
Some time ago a meeting (henceforward historic) took place between Mr.
Longman, Mr. Macmillan, Mr. Reginald Smith, Mr. Methuen, and Mr.
Hutchinson [All baronets or knights now, except Reginald Smith, who is
dead] of the one part, and Mr. Bernard Shaw, Mr. Maurice Hewlett, and Mr.
Anthony Hope of the other part. Mr. Longman was the host, and the
encounter must have been touching. I would have given a complete set of
the works of Mrs. Humphry Ward to have been invisibly present. The
publishers had invited the authors (who represented the Authors' Society),
with the object of dissuading them from allowing their books to be
reprinted at the price of sevenpence. Naturally, the publishers, as
always, were actuated by a pure desire for the welfare of authors. Messrs
Shaw, Hewlett, and Hope have written an official account of their
impressions of the great sevenpenny question, and it appears in the
current number of the _Author_. It is amusing. The most amusing aspect of
the whole affair is the mere fact that one solitary Scotch firm, Nelsons,
have forced the mandarins, nay, the arch-mandarins, of the trade to cry
out that the shoe is pinching. For the supreme convention of life on the
mandarinic plane is that the shoe never pinches. The publishers made one
very true statement to the authors, namely, that sevenpenny editions give
the public the impression that 6s. is an excessive price for a novel.
Well, it is. But is that a reason for abolishing the sevenpenny? The other
statements of the publishers were chiefly absurd. For instance, this: "Any
author allowing a novel to be sold at sevenpence will find the sales of
his next book at 6s. suffering a considerable decrease." Well, it is
notorious that if the sevenpenny publishers are publishing one particular
book just now, that book is "Kipps." It is equally notorious that the
sales of "Tono-Bungay" are, and continue to be, extremely satisfactory.
* * * * *
On the other hand, the remarks of the sevenpenny publishers themselves are
not undiverting. I have heard from dozens of people in the trade that
Messrs. Nelson could not possibly make the sevenpenny reprint pay. I have
never believed the statement. But the Shaw and Co. report makes Messrs.
Nelson give as one reason for not abandoning the sevenpenny enterprise
the fact that "the machinery already in existence is too costly to be
abandoned." Which involves the novel maxim that a loss may be too big to
be cut! Were their amazing factory ten times as large as it actually is,
Messrs. Nelson would have to put it to other uses in face of a regular
loss on their sevenpennies. However, there is no doubt in my mind that the
enterprise is, and will be, remunerative. The Shaw and Co. report is of
the same view. Did the mandarins imagine that they were going to stop the
sevenpenny, that anything could stop it? I suppose they did! More
agreeably comic than the attitude and arguments of the publishers are the
attitude and arguments of the booksellers. But the largest firms, Smith
and Son and Wymans, "do not find that the sevenpenny has interfered with
the 6s. novel." Be it noted that Smith and Son are now the largest buyers
of 6s. novels in England.
* * * * *
In the Shaw and Co. report, in the arguments of publishers, in the
arguments booksellers, not a word about the interests of the consumer! Yet
the consumer will settle the affair ultimately. That the price of new
novels will come down is absolutely certain. It will come down because it
is ridiculous, and no mandarinic efforts can keep it up. In the process of
readjustment many people will temporarily suffer, and a few people will be
annihilated. But things are what they are, and the consequences of them
will be what they will be. Why, therefore, should we deceive ourselves? I
quite expect to suffer myself. I shall not, however, complain of the
cosmic movement. The auctorial report (which, by the way, is full of
common sense) envisages immense changes in the book market. I agree. And I
am sure that these changes will come about in the teeth of violent
opposition from both publishers and booksellers. The book market is
growing steadily. It is enormous compared to what used to be. And yet it
is only in its infancy. The inhabitants of this country have scarcely even
begun to buy books. Wait a few years and you will see!