6 SEPTEMBER 1946, Page 22

Shorter Notices

A COMPARISON of this new revised edition with the first, which appeared in 1926, shows how amply events have justified Sir Stanley Unwin's,teaching. Vastly as the practice of publishing has changed in the last twenty years, the change has been almost entirely in the direction of giving added force to principles which were too often generally ignored in the interval. The process, therefore of bring- ing this book up to date, to make it more in accord with modern book-trade practice, has not necessitated any substantial modifica- tions of the author's earlier conclusions. Here, in fact, is an abso- lutely indispensable text-book for the aspiring publisher and an extremely useful guide-book for an ambitious author. In it the whole process of publishing, from the moment the M.S. arrives in the office until it appears on the bookstall as a finished product, is traced in considerable detail, and the complex problems of printing, publicity, selling and author's agreements are explained in a way that makes them clear to the most uninitiated. If, in fact, it were possible to acquire the art of publishing from the study of a primer, then Sir Stanley Unwin is a teacher who would ensure that there be no failures in the book-trade.