NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 419, 30 January 1909, Page 9

NOTES.

■ "ANewZealan.dor/'vwriting'from'-Welling-ton ,m. the "Publisher's Circular, ,, makes some suggestions for English publishefsv(say s the' Westminster Gazette"). Here is an extract rroni his. letter:—"How is it that you English people are letting the Americans capture such ajjig market here. for. their fiction? Jivery. New: Zealand, bookshop-you go into has- piles .of American- novels. Some of it is really clever- stuff and other the trash.; I think much of/the Yankee's success il ■r 5 attractiveness of his covers and .the fact, too;.;that hisYoutside wrapper is generally . illustrated, and thus' tb/boot makes . an- attractive appearance in.the' shop :windows,'-';': The.same writer, states that tho ,JNew-- Zealanders are "a great book-buyine ipeople. b Wellington, with some .sixty thou,sand inhabitants,'can boast of "fifteen really decent -bookshops;' three at : least are worthv of a city three , times the size." ■ .': ;:.Mr; Edward H. Cooper contributes a" long letter-to the "Athenaeum" 'complaining that the .publication, of the cheap*«utidn or tae Letters of Queen. .Victoria" and of "Queen Alexandra's . Christmas . 'Gift-Book" has "ruined the present publishing season rather more- effectively than a pari-JSuropeaii war could, have done. An unusually large number of books have.been published,•- and the proportion of failures has , been unprece-' dented. - Men and women'who could trust to a sale, bf 5000, or 6000' copies: of a novel equally with authors who can command much larger sales,'.find that, this year,\the sale of their annual novel' , has reached: a tenth part of the usual figures. Publishers who have advanced sums' from £50 to £1000 on royal- ■ ties, are confronted with. serious losses;.' the booksellers who. gave large -orders for the works; of popular writers would cheerfully sell their stock , of. novels, at 'a shilling a .volume. .; . ;"■ No doubt (the "Westminster Gazette" remarks); the;two works referred "to have.' affected tho. publishing season to some 'extent; but, it. .is. difficult to. see why-, the Royal books should; prejudice the sale of novels. We are , assured, however, that so it is, and Mr. Cooper appeals to the King to bring out; the. fnturo. instalments ■• of - the "Letters, of- Queen ;Victoria" .earlier in the year, and to. Queen Alexandra to-publish her next work very much earlier. '..■;•■ ■ The best selling, or,, at all events, the best circulating book, in America is not a novel by anybody, but 1 the "Year-Book" of tin Department bf Agriculture. / first edition-of the hew number has ' jus' been ordered—36o,ooo copies 1 Nor will thai be the end of the sale, for an issuo of 500,000 is authorised by Congress and t)i< remaining' copies will be printed as the tic- , mand warrants. We arc told that 80fl n pounds of gluo'and thirty.barrels of flour will be. used for pasting the covers on i the "Year-Book.' , . . . -.