Literature and Life | Page 8

that the author
could very well afford to take it. Where the book-dealer sold ten, the
book-agent sold a hundred; or at least he did so in the case of Mark
Twain's books; and we all thought it reasonable he could do so with
ours. Such of us as made experiment of him, however, found the facts
illogical. No book of literary quality was made to go by subscription
except Mr. Clemens's books, and I think these went because the
subscription public never knew what good literature they were. This
sort of readers, or buyers, were so used to getting something worthless
for their money that they would not spend it for artistic fiction, or,
indeed, for any fiction at all except Mr. Clemens's, which they probably
supposed bad. Some good books of travel had a measurable success
through the book-agents, but not at all the success that had been hoped
for; and I believe now the subscription trade again publishes only
compilations, or such works as owe more to the skill of the editor than
the art of the writer. Mr. Clemens himself no longer offers his books to
the public in that way.

It is not common, I think, in this country, to publish on the half- profits
system, but it is very common in England, where, owing probably to
the moisture in the air, which lends a fairy outline to every prospect, it
seems to be peculiarly alluring. One of my own early books was
published there on these terms, which I accepted with the insensate joy
of the young author in getting any terms from a publisher. The book
sold, sold every copy of the small first edition, and in due time the
publisher's statement came. I did not think my half of the profits was
very great, but it seemed a fair division after every imaginable cost had
been charged up against my poor book, and that frail venture had been
made to pay the expenses of composition, corrections, paper, printing,
binding, advertising, and editorial copies. The wonder ought to have
been that there was anything at all coming to me, but I was young and
greedy then, and I really thought there ought to have been more. I was
disappointed, but I made the best of it, of course, and took the account
to the junior partner of the house which employed me, and said that I
should like to draw on him for the sum due me from the London
publishers. He said, Certainly; but after a glance at the account he
smiled and said he supposed I knew how much the sum was? I
answered, Yes; it was eleven pounds nine shillings, was not it? But I
owned at the same time that I never was good at figures, and that I
found English money peculiarly baffling. He laughed now, and said, It
was eleven shillings and ninepence. In fact, after all those charges for
composition, corrections, paper, printing, binding, advertising, and
editorial copies, there was a most ingenious and wholly surprising
charge of ten per cent. commission on sales, which reduced my half
from pounds to shillings, and handsomely increased the publisher's half
in proportion. I do not now dispute the justice of the charge. It was not
the fault of the half- profits system; it was the fault of the glad young
author who did not distinctly inform himself of its mysterious nature in
agreeing to it, and had only to reproach himself if he was finally
disappointed.
But there is always something disappointing in the accounts of
publishers, which I fancy is because authors are strangely constituted,
rather than because publishers are so. I will confess that I have such
inordinate expectations of the sale of my books, which I hope I think

modestly of, that the sales reported to me never seem great enough. The
copyright due me, no matter how handsome it is, appears deplorably
mean, and I feel impoverished for several days after I get it. But, then, I
ought to add that my balance in the bank is always much less than I
have supposed it to be, and my own checks, when they come back to
me, have the air of having been in a conspiracy to betray me.
No, we literary men must learn, no matter how we boast ourselves in
business, that the distress we feel from our publisher's accounts is
simply idiopathic; and I for one wish to bear my witness to the constant
good faith and uprightness of publishers. It is supposed that because
they have the affair altogether in their hands they are apt to take
advantage in it; but this does not follow, and as a matter of fact they
have the affair no more in their own hands than