Copy outletter book British Library Add MSS.55386 (2) P.752
Dear Miss Yonge,
I have been going carefully into the question of the Cameos, and this is the result. If we mean to have a large sale, which I think you might have, we must make it rather cheap. At the same time we cannot expect a sale that would justify us in printing a very large number. This may come afterwards. I thought of printing in the first instance 3000 of a volume to sell at 6/-. Now in order to do this it ought not to contain more than about 430 to 440 pages. This would necessitate your giving not more than about 600 pages of g[illegible] in the first volume. Now there are two ways open. 1. of abridging what you have written if that is possible or 2. giving less. Of the two methods I confess myself unable to decide without reading over what you have written carefully, and even then I would prefer leaving the decision in all ways in your hands. For I know it is very hard to meddle with an artists work at any time. Commercially, however, there is no doubt that if it were possible to get vivid pictures into a rather 3. or 3 rather than 4 – it would be better to take the smaller number of volumes. Now if you could get the whole into the space I said –about 600 of your pages or 450 of ours, we might print 3000 copies, stereotype the book for new editions, and pay you £100 for the first, leaving the plates your own property. Tell me how this looks to you. If we print the larger quantity we must make the book 7/6 in order to do the same. I would rather have had the smaller prices.
I hope to write to you in a few days about a possible cheaper reprint of your works which you have once spoken to me about. [illegible] [illegible], re our printing rooms, and I am trying to see how it will look and work in a size like our [illegible] Shakespeare. I send you the Scotts Poetry which we have just reprinted in the same size. I will write you more particulars in a few days. I am in hopes we might make a success of a new cheaper edition of your works but I will write to you more in detail shortly.
I meant to have written a longer letter but this last day of the year has been a good deal interrupted and I did not want the year to close without telling you about the cameos and my my idea of the [[topic:264]cheap edition] of your novels. I shall be glad to hear how you can meet our requirements about the cameos and the size of the book, or increasing the number of volumes or the prices of each
with all kindest new year wishes,
Yours very faithfully