I see that publishers, faced, like everyone else, with rising
costs, arc proposing to recoup themselves to some extent by reducing authors' royalties. Not being myself guilty of any prospective authorship above the low level of this column, I speak with no prejudice on this matter. But I do really hope the publishers will think again. I suppose there may exist some- where plutocratic authors of best-sellers, capable of buying up half-a-dozen publishers without feeling it ; but most of the authors I know are about as unlike that as you could imagine. Life based on royalties is a precarious affair and costs have gone up for authors as much as for any other mortals. The publishers' proposals seem calculated to impose the maximum amount of hardship, without, I should have imagined, bringing the publishers themselves substantial relief. Are the authors to be docked before the booksellers ?
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