£10,000 FOR A NOVEL
_ ftir Henry Lucy, who is publishing his diary, sheds a ray of now light on publishers, who stand in general esteem as rapacious., He,says,: "Disraeli was the last novelist who received £10,000 for a single work, and that proved so disastrous to the publisher that the author offered to return part of the money. If the head of the firm of Smith, liilder and Co. would some day give the. world a selection of his reminiscences -there would be found among them an interesting record of how he imce offered £10,000 for a novel. It was for "Romola," the work George Eliot ranked most highly iu her catalogue of accomplished worki. When she had finished it she sent a note to Mr, George Smith announcing, that she had a new novel ready for the press, and offering to read it to him. Mr. ( Smith made haste to accopt the invitation, and was so much struck with "Romola" that, in one of his impulses of magnificent generosity, he offered £10,000 for the copyright _ At that timo the 'Cornhill" was in its youthful prime, and he thought that even this big price would bo returned by the lift a now novel by» George Eliol would give the magazine. He proposed, as the work was of something* over thu averago in length, to run the novel through more than tho ordinary twelve numbers. To his proposal the fastidious author: objected, , on the ground that having written with a view to periodic publication it naturally and artistically fell into twelve parts. The end of the negotiations was that the publisher yielded to the author on this point, the author sacrificing £3000, a pretty substantial sum' to pay. for a- whim. The public .did not. fancy "Romola" r/uite so enthusiastically as its author did, and I am not,, quite sure that the princely publisher has yet seen U«lr m<. £7000
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Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 306, 14 September 1918, Page 7
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319£10,000 FOR A NOVEL Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 306, 14 September 1918, Page 7
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