READERS of the Author are earnestly desired to make the following warnings as widely known as possible. They are based on the experience of six years' work upon the dangers to which literary property is exposed :

(1.) NEVER sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, unless an opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures is given them.

(2.) NEVER enter into any correspondence with publishers, especially with advertising publishers, who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. (3.) NEVER, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to any one firm of publishers.

(4) NEVER accept any proposal of royalty without ascertaining exactly what the agreement gives to the author and what to the publisher.

(5.) NEVER accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice.

(6.) NEVER, when a MS. has been refused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work.

(7.) NEVER sign away American rights. Keep them. Refuse to sign an agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher. If the publisher insists, take away the MS. and offer it to another,

[PRICE SIXPENCE.

(8.) NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with

business men.

Society's Offices :

4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.

T

NOTICES.

THE Committee have to announce with great regret the resignation of the secretary, Mr. S. Squire Sprigge. He finds himself unable to give his whole time to the Society, and the greatly increased work which has now to be done makes it necessary that the secretary should henceforth devote the whole of his time to that work. When

Mr. Sprigge became secretary three years ago, the

number of members was 250. It has since trebled and the work has more than trebled. This rapid increase is, the Committee feel, largely due to the zeal and the intelligence which Mr. Sprigge has brought to the work. The kind of work is often of an extremely delicate nature; authors are not always in the right in their disputes; and, when they are, it is not always expedient to set things right by the immediate intervention of the lawyer; many disputes have been amicably arranged by Mr. Sprigge in interviews and by conversation; in such a position as that held for three years by Mr. Sprigge, enemies may be very easily made. It may be said of Mr. Sprigge that he has made very few, and of those few, some-the persons, namely, who live by dishonest practices-are of the kind whose enmity is an honour. Mr. Sprigge retires at the end of March. The Committee hope to appoint his successor before that date, in order that he may have a little time to learn the work.

The Committee very seriously entreat members to sign no agreements without submitting them, confidentially, to the secretary. The points, however, which are most to be kept in mind are, (1) what the author gives up-his copyright, his American rights, his rights of translation, and, in most cases, his control of his own property. (2.) What consideration he gets for it. (3.) What the publisher proposes to reserve for himself. If a royalty is offered, the author must ascertain what that means, both in view of a limited and of a large sale. If he is to share in profits after the book has paid its expenses, he must have it distinctly laid down in the agreement that expenses mean actual expenses paid for production, and not a fancy charge, giving the other side a fraudulent profit at the outset. Also he must have something to say in the matter of advertisements, remembering that it is not an uncommon practice for the fraudulent publisher to charge what he pleases under this head, and to "spend the money" (!) on advertising in his own periodicals or trade lists.

In other words, the Society earnestly and unceasingly exhorts those who write books to take as much care of their property in books as they do of their property in houses, and lands, and shares. It may be only a very small property, or it may be large-in either event let it be guarded as carefully as any other kind of property.

There is no subject on which everybody is so willing and ready to write as on the subject of publishing, and there is no subject on which there prevails such extraordinary ignorance. This is because the figures of one side only have been accessible. Those of the other side have now been presented by this Society, and anyone can ascertain by the help of these figures, or by special application to the secretary, what these figures are, and what they mean. To those who do know what this means and why they have been so carefully withheld, the ordinary article which treats of publishing is a thing which would be contemptible if it was not pitiful and mischievous. Let it be remembered that the Society has a mass of publishers' accounts, printers' estimates, information from booksellers, bookbinders, printers, advertising agents, agreements and returns, which has never before been collected together, and could never be collected except by such a Society. It is hoped that members will consult the Secretary and use this knowledge freely in their own interests. It is also hoped that editors will recognise the fact that

no articles on publishing methods are worth the paper they are written on unless the figures on both sides are attainable.

66

The recent labour agitation in the bookbinding trade has resulted in the concession of an eight hours' day with higher wages to the workmen in the trade. As to the justice of the case we are not called upon to speak. The working of the result is that for ordinary binding an advance of 7 per cent. will be made on bookbinders' charges to publishers for books, and of 12 per cent. (perhaps) for magazines. In other words, bookbinders say, practically, we are already cut down as far as we can go. Somebody else must bear this burden." Let us see what it means. The cost of binding an ordinary octavo volume ranges from 4d. to 7d. An advance of 7 per cent. adds d. on the 4d., and d. on the 7d. In case of any attempt being made to reduce royalties on the plea of this increase, these figures should be borne in mind. It is not, however, in books so much as in magazines that the difference will be felt. If the 12 per cent. advance is made, it will make a difference to a sixpenny magazine, perhaps all the difference. Would the world be any the poorer if the sixpenny magazine became a shilling magazine? The New Review began at 6d., was advanced to gd., and will immediately become 18. So much the better for everybody.

On November 1st the readers of the Author, and members of the Society, were invited to subscribe in order to present Mr. R. U. Johnson, Secretary of the International Copyright League. On December 1st the Committee announced that they had received enough money to carry out their intentions. A silver salver has been purchased, and will be sent to New York immediately. The subscription was limited in amount, so as to enlarge the number of those who might wish to join. Many who would have joined were prevented by the announcement that enough had been received. If we had wanted more money the list could have been extended indefinitely.

conservative, and a churchman-indeed, he was one of the late Beresford Hope's friends-a good hunting man-with all the best traditions attaching to his class. Some years ago he instituted a May Queen ceremony. For twenty years he was afflicted

with blindness.

Another, and a more prominent member from the literary point of view, has been lost in Mr. W. G. Wills. If success proves greatness, he was a great dramatist. If prolific production means greatness, he was great. The time has not yet come for his work to be judged impartially as to its place in literature. Few will forget, who ever saw those pieces, "Oliver," and "Charles the First." He possessed the first and greatest gift for one who aspires to be a dramatist. He could hold his audience. He has been charged with the sadness of his pieces. They are lugubrious. It was, however, in the nature of the subject that they should be so. The man himself was far from being lugubrious. His muse was tearful, but his heart was light.

We have also to regret the loss of Mr. G. T. Bettany, who died of heart disease at Dulwich on December 2nd. He was born at Penzance in 1850, and, being intended for the medical profession, entered Guy's Hospital in 1868. After graduating B.Sc. at London University with First Class Honours in Geology, he proceeded to Cambridge, where he took his B.A., coming out (bracketed Third) in the First Class of the Natural Science Tripos in a remarkable year, Professor H. N. Martin and the late Mr. Frank Balfour being respectively first and second. Mr. Bettany lectured for some years at Newnham and Girton Colleges, and at Guy's Hospital, but ultimately decided to devote himself to literature. His chief works are "The Morphology of the Skull," which he wrote in collaboration with Professor W. K. Parker, F.R.S., “Eminent Doctors; their Lives and their Work,' "Life of Darwin" (Great Writers' Series), "The World's Inhabitants," and "The World's Religions." At the time of his death he was writing a "History of Christianity," and a "History of Guy's Hospital," the latter in collaboration with his friend Dr. S. Weeks, F.R.S. Mr. Bettany was a contributor to the Times, the Athenæum, the Contemporary Review, and "Dictionary of National Biography," and has, with only one or two exceptions, edited more books than any man living. The "Minerva Library of Famous Books," of which he was the originator and sole editor, is now generally admitted to be

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A

W. W. SKEAT.

THE COST OF PRODUCTION.

NOTHER edition of this very useful little work is now ready. Those who possess the earlier editions will please note that since they were issued there has been a rise in compositors' wages, which, so far as London is concerned, will affect the item of composition, or setting-up, and press work, or machining, to the extent of about 15 per cent. It has not, we are assured, touched prices in Edinburgh.

Those who consult the book should also bear in mind that our estimates are very liberal, so as to be on the safe side. A printer's bill is a very elastic thing, one that may be shortened as well as lengthened, in a most surprising manner. For instance, a certain piece of work required for the Authors' Syndicate, which began by costing 36s. a week, has now gone down to 15s., without the least alteration in length. And the other day the account of a book was sent in which showed the cost of production considerably less than the estimate in the Society's book. Nor is this the only occasion in which we have found the figures supplied to us to have been liberal ones.

AMERICAN COPYRIGHT.

I.

the death of James Russell Lowell, late President of the League, to be reported at the December meeting, which will also receive reports, elect officers, and decide upon the future policy of the League.

II.

The following is important. It is an extract from a communication made to an English editor by an American house :

"In the case of the publisher of a magazine who uses matter which is also copyrighted in the United States, we think it very important that he should secure from the author in writing his or her authority, not only to publish it in their magazine, but also his or her authority to export it, i.e., the said magazine to the United States; also to sell the same in the United States. This authority should be given in legal form, and signed in the presence of two witnesses, and copies of the authority should be sent over to us, so that in case questions should come up here we should have positive proof that the author had given his authority to import and sell the publication in the United States."

The Associated Press of New York has been interviewing English publishers as to the working of the Copyright Law. As reported, the general opinion seems to be that none of the evils prophesied for the printing trade are likely to come to pass. Composition in America is twenty-five per cent. at least more than it is here. American authors are asking larger prices; literature which appeals to the million will undoubtedly be greatly affected by the Act; other literature, naturally, to a much less extent. The benefit to the author who commands a hearing in America will be enormous.

An American writes to remonstrate with an expression used in the Author. It described the

Council of the Authors' Club, was held at the rooms of the Club, 19, West 24th Street, on Friday afternoon, Nov. 20th, Dr. Edward Eggleston, third Vice-President, in the chair. On motion the meeting was adjourned to a date in December, to be determined by the Secretary, of which due notification will be given. At a preliminary meeting of the Executive Council of the League some routine business was transacted, and a committee consisting of Mr. E. Stedman, first Vice-President and acting President of the League, and Mr. R. U. Johnson, Secretary, were appointed to draft resolutions on

points out that the printers are no more protected than they were before. This is quite true; the expression should not have been used. We regret

that it was used.—EDITOR.