size of
its sheets, sent off to a publisher, and, with his occupation gone, the
anxious author waits days, weeks, and sometimes months, for news of his
venture.

Very few publishers have either the time or inclination for a personal
reading of books in manuscript, and for this work they employ skilled
readers upon whose judgment they can rely. Some houses thus retain as
many as six such readers, and very often a manuscript book must pass
through the hands of all these, taking its turn with scores of others,
before a decision is reached concerning it. Each reader hands in a
written opinion as to its merits and demerits, its chances of success or
failure. Sometimes, if these opinions are conflicting, the publisher
hands them all, together with the book in question, to a seventh
reader--a sort of a court of final appeal--and requests him to write an
opinion on the opinions. Even if all the opinions are favorable, the
publisher may still refuse to bring out the work in question. There are
a hundred good reasons for declining to publish a book, and the
manuscript must run the gauntlet of them all. It may be too long or too
short, or too similar to something else already in hand. Its principal
characters may be too young or too old. It may not be in a certain
publisher's peculiar line, or it may contain sentiments of which he does
not approve. He may already have accepted as many books as he cares to
issue in that year. This one may be interesting but badly written, or it
may be beautifully expressed and as dull as dishwater. Thus an endless
list of "mays," "ifs," and "buts" present themselves, by any one of
which the fate of the book may be influenced. The one question to which
they all lead is: "Will it pay? If so, we will publish it; if not, we
won't."

Of course publishers and publishers' readers sometimes make mistakes
concerning the value of a book, and decline one that, in the hands of
another publisher, or brought out at the author's expense, achieves a
tremendous success. In fact, there is hardly a popular book about which
some tale of this kind is not told.

Our book having escaped the many perils that beset it, and been
accepted, the publisher makes the author one of three offers for it. He
will buy it outright, publish it subject to royalty, or on shares. If he
buys it and its copyright outright, he gives an unknown author for his
first book from $100 to $400, rarely more; while offers to well-known
and succes