MAKING OF BOOKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 117, 20 May 1939, Page 20

MAKING OF BOOKS

EB®E|SBEKS:""BART.

wmmzs and facts

XNo^JU)

Written for the "Evening Post" by

AM.).

In, these columns there has been a discussion oii the state of our native literature arid its1 prospects. It occurs to me as worth while to say something about the relations between authors .-arid publishers, not only because the 'subject is interesting in itself, but 'because an-understanding of it-may help our writers and readers generally. Aj great deal of time^ahd disappointment -would be savett writers everywherevif they -knew mote about the publishing business, and .the'■'same knowledge is valuable to readers by showing them the pcmits of view of author and publishef,. giving ithem an insight into ,'methods of book production, and enabling them to-understand publishers' difficulties and distinguish between the styld alid prestige of different -houses.. '. ■■-/.'.'■'.■..' ...

THE PUBLISHING BUSINESS.

It is an old and deeply-rooted tradi-

tion that the publisher is the author's enemy. The trade is also suspect of being grasping and not unfrequently dishonest. "Now Barabbas was a publisher,^ wrote Byron, who, I understand, did pretty well out of his publishers. No doubt there have been, and are still, grasping and dishonest publishers, but the author is not the best of witnesses in such indictments. He is apt to think his work is better and more attractive to the public than

it really is, and in many cases he knows

little or nothing about business in 1 general and the publishing business in particular. That business is a complicated one, calling for rare knowledge ' and judgment. It is, to begin with, highly speculative '■ and risky. There is nothing in the entertainment world more risky save producing;plays; The

public" taste is' very difficult io gatig& .Books are expensive to .produce, > and A it is' very easy to lose heavily on them. To be successful, a publisher must be a good judge of public taste. He must -:alsb know'the printing trade thoroughly; • the varieties, uses, and appeal of paper, type and binding, the costs pi; all the processes from setting to Warehousing and distribution. He" must ■■ keep an- eye "oh. such contingencies as reprints and translations, and must be able to draw up a contract that will . :be advantageous to bis house and at ; the same time fair .to the author. In short, he must be a good judge of a book, its contents, and its appearance, and at the same time a capable business man. Now let it be emphasised that when I say book I do not. mean merely a novel. That is the mistake so many people make. They think of books purely in terms of fiction. There are thousands of books that are not

novels, and many of them are much

more profitable than many novels. One could live comfortably, so I imagine, on the profits from "Mrs. Beeton." The8 business arrangements considered necessary, for, say, a book of travel, a treatise on economics, or a study of French art, may not be the same as those embodied in a contract, for a novel. . , VARYING STANDARDS. Publishing houses vary in standard,. i and in methods. It is a business that; does hot require a great deal of capital as the commercial <world goes. A, -publisher need not be his/own printer^ comparatively few publishers are. All that anew publisher needs is an office,! sonic-capital to.give him. a start with, printers and journals, and a connection,1 ;with writers. There are quite a num-i, ber of comparatively new firms promi* ' jient in the English'publishing world; ../indeed the one that makes the most ; noise these; days is in this, class.* It is stated that at least two dozen publish-! ing houses have started business in England since the war, and that publishing has become over-capitalised. Some specialise in certain kinds of books. Dents, for example, are known all over the world for their cheap and good reprints of classics. The house of Gollancz is noted for its books with' & leaning to ' the Left in. politics and'economics. Some have a much higher deputation than others. for quality.; There, are houses on which you can rely with almost complete confidence. You may not like all their books, but /you, carr,be pretty sure that they will : be ,tip to a certain level; of quality. , "Those whose business or pleasure (or; both);i£is to study London publishing !aridread: English reviews get to know such firms. They may also observe the weight these carry; iri. review columns. It is; hardly too much to say ' that:there.are-some publishers whose books never are, and never will be, reviewed in journals.' It is not drily that a publisher'^ reputation may; be so poor that an editor or a reviewer will not think it worth paying any/attention to a book. The spate of \ review books in the season is so wide ■arid deep that it would not be surpris-ing-to find editors giving preference, when they sort the books but for review, to those publishers they have learned to trust. THE AUTHOR'S CHOICE. In the standard book about the trade and its relations with authors. "The Truth About Publishing," Mr. Stanley Unwin says: "Authors would be well advised to take as much, care in choosing a publisher as they would exercise in selecting a solicitor or a doctor (no wise man would choose either on the score of cheapness), and, above all, to refrain from handing over money to firms of which they know nothing without first making proper inquiry regarding their financial standing." But how is the author, especially* when he lives at the other side of the world, to tell one publisher from another, and whether a publisher is to be trusted? He. can keep his eyes open and use his judgment; or he can seek advice—say from a bookseller who knows books. Or he can employ a literary agent;' also after making inquiries. There are advantages and disadvantages about employing an agent. For one thing he charges a commission. For another, according to Mr. , Unwin, some of the best publishers avoid doing business with certain agents and vice versa; moreover, a publisher may be willing to make concessions to an individual that he would not grant to an agent, for fear of creating a .precedent. -But to a writer in New Zealand he has.: this, special value, he saves time. It takes three months, at least to get a manuscript back from England, so that if a manuscript has to go the round-q| firms before it is taken, monthV and'even years may pass before it is accepted~if ever. Moreover, an agent who knows his business may save time in another way, by choosing the particular firm to which a book will ..appeal. This is a factor insufficiently considered by

writers. There are certain firnris to whom a writer with knowledge of the trade would not send a sentimentallove story: there are others to whom; he would not send, a story in which sex is treated daringly. The agent has another use in these modern days; he arranges not only serial but dramatic, cinema, and radio rights, and if our. New Zealand author is lucky, enough .to be invited to break into these fields, he will find it awkward dealing with such opportunities at such a distance. The other day a New Zealand writer sought an agent's services as a result of the demand for his work oversea. Established writers with many irons in the fire find agents almost indispensable. "Such-and-such a paper rang up one day and asked me for an article," said a writer to me in a talk about his work. "I told him my terms and referred him to my agent." THE APPROACH. ! Publishing is a commercial business, and like all such undertakings must pay its way. It is true there are publishing houses prepared to take a risk with a book that they think deserves to be published; one house, indeed, has the name of being willing to incur almost certain loss on books dealing with^ sociology and politics if it considers that there is a public need for them. I don't. say this firm would do this with many books but from what I have seen of its productions of this kind I should say that a considerable risk is taken in quite a number of cases. The would-be author, of course, should not count on such treatment. He should be prepared to regard the publisher for what he is, a business man acting as his intermediary. The author wants to make money; let him bear in miud that the publisher also must make money or he cannot carry on. So in this spirit let him forward his book. The manuscript should be neatly typed and set out: that is to say, the chap,ters should be clearly defined; the margins ample; the spacing between lines double; and quotations of any length distinguished by close spacing. To submit an untidy manuscript is rather like going unshayed to interview someone about a job. He will *make a particularly favourable impression on the publisher or his reader if he Carefully edits the script, for uniformity of style—sees, for instance, that the Capitalisation of the same words is marked plainly throughout, and italics indicated where necessary. He should write his name and address in at least two places on the manuscript ton every chapter if the chapters are fastened separately) arid not only in his covering letter. And he need not enclose "flowers" of any kind in that letter. The publisher is not interested in the author's opinion of the work, or the opinion of the author's friends. If, however, the work is not fiction and breaks new ground, the publisher may be glad of a pointer to its contents. Interviews with publishers are only necessary in special circumstances. The manuscript is before him and in most cases that is all he needs. It is his business to judge it. How he does so, and what follows when he accepts it, we shall consider next time.