Publishers and Authors
SIR,—Authors in general will agree heartily with the observations of Janus in your issue of March 30th concerning the proposed reduction of authors' royalties. Of course, the publishing of books is now a purely commercial, and not a literary, occupation. There is nothing wrong in this. The publisher is a business man to whom books are merely saleable
-- or unsaleable commodities, and he is fully justified in picking the type of commodity which is most likely to bring him a substantial profit. His problem is how to prevent a dangerous fall in profits, and this he pro- poses to do at the expense of his authors. I suggest that he has other, and more respectable, alternatives. He might well consider (1) the reduction of salaries and of profits from shares within his own firm, (2) a total revision of the over-generous terms which he grants to the bookseller, and (3) restraint in publicity and advertising.—Yours
faithfully, C. E. VULLIMAY.
Lollesworth Cottage, West Horsley, Surrey.
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