Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/315

Rh Q. (Mr. Daldy). You spoke of the circulation in England and America. May I ask, do you send stereotype-plates to America?

A. I did at first send stereotype-plates to America, but, the thing having proved to be so great a loss, I now send a portion of the printed edition.

Q. (Chairman). May I ask why do you expect repayment of the cost of compilation to be so slow as you stated in your answer to my last question?

A. The reason is, that I made a promise to the compilers entailing that. The compilers are university men, to whom I could afford to give only such salaries as sufficed for their necessary expenses. To make the thing better for them, and to be some incentive, I told them that, when the printing expenses on any one part were repaid, I would commence to divide with the compiler of it the returns on subsequent sales; the result being that the cost of compilation comes back to me only at half the previous rate. I name this because it shows that, in the absence of a long copyright, I could have given no such contingent advantage to the compilers. I wish to point out another way in which a short copyright would have impeded me. As a further incentive to these compilers to do their work well, as also to make the prospect better for them, I gave them to understand that the copyrights and the stereotype-plates would be theirs after my death. Of course, with a short copyright I could not have done that.

Q. Then in your opinion it is only by a long duration of copyright that you can be enabled to recover any considerable part of the money that you have sunk in these publications?

A. Certainly. If it were possible for any one to reprint, such small return as goes toward diminishing this immense loss would be in part intercepted.

Q. But if this work, which you call "Descriptive Sociology," is so unremunerative, how do you imagine you would be in danger of having it reprinted under the suggested system of royalty?

A. It appears at first sight not a rational expectation, but it is perfectly possible. Each number of the work consists of a set of tables and a set of classified extracts. It was suggested by a reviewer of the first part, the English part, that the tables should be separately printed, mounted on boards, and hung up in schools. The suggestion was a good one, and I have even had thoughts of doing it myself. A publisher might take up that suggestion, and might issue those independently of me, and diminish what small sale I now have. Again, the work is very cumbrous and awkward; that can hardly be helped; but a publisher might see that the extracts arranged in ordinary volume form would be valuable by themselves apart from the tables, and might get a good sale independently; and again my small returns would be cut into.

Q. (Sir H. Holland). That objection of yours would be partly met