Bookend
Bookbuyer
Vanity publishing, and variations on the theme, are age-old facts of life. Writers eager to see themselves in print have often to 'hurry the process by paying for the privilege, or at least by agreeing to share the financial risk. Hardy and Browning both did, while Swift and Macauley were prepared at times to write for nothing. Although, today, the Regency Press and others are still happy to profit from the egotism of would-be poets, there are few established firms who any longer subscribe to the view that an author should be published without payment. An exception apparently, is J. M. Dent.
Two years ago Dent's, of Everyman Library fame, decided to reissue a novel by their leading fiction author, Warren Tute. The work in question was The Rock, which was originally published fifteen years ago by Cassell and which — with hardback sales of over 20,000 and approaching half a million copies worldwide — lays claim to being one of the more successful British post-war sea stories. Dent's informed the author that, because of the risk involved, they could not afford to pay him any royalties on the first 2,000 copies sold and only 5 per cent thereafter, while Tute, preferring to see The Rock in print rather than out, agreed. Dent's printed 2,000 copies.
The fortunes of publishing move in mysterious ways. As a result of the new edition, Pan decided to purchase the lapsed paperback rights for £750 (of which Dent's were entitled to half), a Dutch publisher bought translation rights and Dent's themselves found it necessary to reprint. Warren Tute's suggestion that, in view of this unexpected success, they might consider an ex gratia payment, was rejected out of hand. He then decided to seek the opinion of the Society of Authors, of which he had been a member for nearly twenty years, and was informed that, "it does not seem to us that Dent's have behaved unfairly."
Dent's, who are certainly within their legal rights, argue that some earnings are better than none and that had they not reissued The Rock, none of the subsequent success would have occurred. Tute feels that this was more a matter of luck than judgement and that the ultimate outcome might have occasioned greater generosity on their part.
Less surprising than the attitude of Dent's (whose late founder was a staunch believer in authorship con amore) is that of the Society of Authors, who appear on this occasion to see little wrong in the principle of an establishtd author being published without payment. Bookbuyer, detecting a certain volte face, would venture to remind them of the words Of one of their own pamphlets:
"To many authors, the publisher — anY publisher — still appears immutably cast as their own predestined exploiter, and there are still operators — not only on the sleazy fringe of the book trade, but also in its plush centre—who justify that label, by skimping on royalties . . ."
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