Page:The Works of H G Wells Volume 8.djvu/20

 Now books are meant to be read, and there is no interest in writing them unless you believe they will get to readers. So "Kipps" was clipped off short to the dimensions of a practicable book. The book had a mild success in England and America; its publishers betrayed no enthusiasm about it—and then it went on selling. It had sold, up to the date of writing this preface, about a quarter of a million of copies in various editions, and it still sells and sells.