sful authors often run up into the thousands of dollars.

If the agreement is to publish on the royalty plan, the offer to an
unknown author will be that of a ten-per-cent. royalty on the retail
price of his book after one thousand copies shall have been sold. It
costs from $300 to $500 to publish one thousand copies of the ordinary
one-dollar book. One hundred or more of these are given to editors or
critics for the sake of the advertising contained in such notices as
they may write about the book. The remainder are sold in the trade at a
40-per-cent. discount from the retail price. The disposal in this manner
of 1000 copies of a book not only pays the cost of its publication, but
generally yields a small profit to the publisher.

By getting a one-dollar book for sixty cents, or "forty off," as they
say in the trade, the dry-goods stores, who now sell a great many books,
and the regular retail booksellers, are able to offer it at 65 or 70 or
75 cents, and still make a profit on it; while at the same time the
publisher is obliged, by his agreement with the trade, to charge the
full list price for every copy of a book that he sells at retail. For
this reason it is generally cheaper to buy a book from a dealer than
from the publisher.

If a book is successful enough to run into a second edition or reach its
second thousand, which very few first books ever do, then the author
begins to receive ten cents for every copy sold. If, however, it fails
to pass its first thousand, he receives nothing for his labor, except
the advertising of his name gained by the publication of a book. A
well-known and popular author whose work is certain to sell, bringing
out a book on the royalty plan, receives from 10 to 15 per cent. on
every copy sold from the very first.

The copyright life of a book, or the time during which it will pay its
author a royalty, is fourteen years, and may be extended, by
application, fourteen years longer.

If the publisher and author agree to bring out a book "on shares," it
means that they shall share equally all expenses and profits. In any
case a long and formidable contract, is drawn up, which both parties
must sign before the book can be "put in hand," or enter upon the second
stage of its building.

After a publisher has arranged to bring out a book, the questions for
him to decide concerning it are: At what time of year shall it appear?
Whether or not it shall be illustrated? What shall be its size