st, and the
encounter must have been touching. I would have given a complete set of
the works of Mrs. Humphry Ward to have been invisibly present. The
publishers had invited the authors (who represented the Authors' Society),
with the object of dissuading them from allowing their books to be
reprinted at the price of sevenpence. Naturally, the publishers, as
always, were actuated by a pure desire for the welfare of authors. Messrs
Shaw, Hewlett, and Hope have written an official account of their
impressions of the great sevenpenny question, and it appears in the
current number of the _Author_. It is amusing. The most amusing aspect of
the whole affair is the mere fact that one solitary Scotch firm, Nelsons,
have forced the mandarins, nay, the arch-mandarins, of the trade to cry
out that the shoe is pinching. For the supreme convention of life on the
mandarinic plane is that the shoe never pinches. The publishers made one
very true statement to the authors, namely, that sevenpenny editions give
the public the impression that 6s. is an excessive price for a novel.
Well, it is. But is that a reason for abolishing the sevenpenny? The other
statements of the publishers were chiefly absurd. For instance, this: "Any
author allowing a novel to be sold at sevenpence will find the sales of
his next book at 6s. suffering a considerable decrease." Well, it is
notorious that if the sevenpenny publishers are publishing one particular
book just now, that book is "Kipps." It is equally notorious that the
sales of "Tono-Bungay" are, and continue to be, extremely satisfactory.

* * * * *

On the other hand, the remarks of the sevenpenny publishers themselves are
not undiverting. I have heard from dozens of people in the trade that
Messrs. Nelson could not possibly make the sevenpenny reprint pay. I have
never believed the statement. But the Shaw and Co. report makes Messrs.
Nelson give as one reason for not abandoning the sevenpenny enterprise
the fact that "the machinery already in existence is too costly to be
abandoned." Which involves the novel maxim that a loss may be too big to
be cut! Were their amazing factory ten times as large as it actually is,
Messrs. Nelson would have to put it to other uses in face of a regular
loss on their sevenpennies. However, there is no doubt in my mind that the
enterprise is, and will be, remunerative. The Shaw and Co. report is of
the same view. Did the mandarins imagi