books are sure to sell is an object of
competition among publishers. If he is absolutely mercenary, he may
stand forth in the public market and commit his works to that one who
will take them on the best terms for the author and the worst for
himself, like the contractor who gives in the lowest estimate in answer
to an advertisement from a public department. Neither undertaking holds
out such chances of gain as independent speculation may open, and thus
there is an inducement to the enterprising publisher to risk his capital
on the doubtful progeny of some author unknown to fame, in the hope that
it may turn out "a hit." Of the number of books deserving a better fate,
as also of the still greater number deserving none better than the fate
they have got, which have thus been published at a dead loss to the
publisher, the annals of bookselling could afford a moving history.

When an author has sold his copyright for a comparative trifle, and the
book turns out a great success, it is of course matter of regret that he
cannot have the cake he has eaten. This is one side of the
balance-sheet, and on the other stands the debit account in the author
who, through a work which proved a dead loss to its publisher, has made
a reputation which has rendered his subsequent books successful, and
made himself fashionable and rich. There have been instances where
publishers who have bought for little the copyright of a successful book
have allowed the author to participate in their gains; and I am inclined
to believe that these instances are fully as numerous as those in which
an author, owing his reputation and success to a book which did not pay
its expenses, has made up the losses of his first publisher.

If we go out of the hard market and look at the tendency of sympathies,
they are all in the author's favour. Publishers, in fact, have, though
it is not generally believed, a leaning towards good literature, and a
tendency rather to over than to under estimate the reception it may meet
with from the world. In considering whether they will take the risk of a
new publication, they have no criterion to value it by except its
literary merit, for they cannot obtain the votes of the public until
they are committed; and, indeed, there have been a good many instances
where a publisher, having a faith in some individual author and his
star, has pushed and fought a way for him with dogged and determined
perseverance, sometimes with a success