It is doubtless true--indeed, I believe the records of every
publishing house in the country will sustain this statement--that
while no house has failed at some time in its career to reject at
least one manuscript that was afterwards a highly successful book,
mistakes of this kind have been extremely few; whereas the mistakes
made by the same houses in accepting manuscripts that were afterward
found to be unprofitable have been numerous. A further fact, which is
seldom borne in mind, although it ought always to be remembered in any
discussion of literary success, is that highly successful books
usually bring to their publishers as much surprise as they do to any
one else. This is distinctly true of novels by new writers, whose
"big-sellers" have seldom or never been anticipated. It is well known
in the trade that at least two, and probably a half-dozen, books
highly successful during the past ten years, and all the works of new
writers, were sent to press for the first edition, with a printing
order for only two thousand copies.

The public has gotten very much into the habit of judging the fortunes
of a publishing house by the successful fiction which it puts forth,
and this is also true of many men in the trade, whose means of knowing
better ought to be ample. Probably the literary gossip prevalent in
newspapers and periodicals is largely responsible for this habit. The
facts are, however, that, from these books alone, no publishing house
in this country is, or could be, well sustained. Unless there be in
the background some other publishing enterprise that is producing
constant revenue from year to year, mere fiction will accomplish
little to make or save the publisher. The real sources of stability
lie elsewhere, far beyond the ken of the superficial observer, and
they are very commonly overlooked. In one instance, this mainstay is
religious books; in another a cyclopaedia; in another medical books, or
educational; in another a dictionary; in another a periodical; and
fortunate the house that has not one, but two or three, such sources
of prosperity.

It might be set down as an axiomatic statement that no large
publishing house in this country could possibly live exclusively from
what are known as miscellaneous books, by which is meant current
fiction and other ephemeral publications. The worst thing about such
books is that they create no assets; their life is short, and once it
is ended, the plates have value