Copy outletter book British Library Add MSS.55381 (2) P. 661

Dear Madam,

We shall have much pleasure in taking the stock of your books under our charge and publishing them for you on commission. When we have had a little experience of them and how they sell now, we shall be better able to advise and suggest something definite with regard to cheap editions or the like.

The Trial we calculate could be got into 2 nice crown 8vo volumes selling at 12/-. We will give £200 for leave to print & publish an edition of 2000 copies. We would propose that the leading should be taken out and the types made solid for a cheap edition uniform with the Heir of Redclyffe. We are willing to go on with this at once & also take charge of your other books as we said

The chief clerk of Messrs Smith the Great Railway people complains of the colour in which your books are bound on the ground that it fades. He recommends blue, a colour we use for Tom Brown’s Schooldays & other books which have a large sale.

I am, dear Madam,
Very respectfully yours
Alex. Macmillan