thing. It will be business for the publisher to take advantage
of his necessity quite the same as if it were his fault; but I do
not say that he will always do so; I believe he will very often
not do so.

At one time there seemed a probability of the enlargement of the
author's gains by subscription publication, and one very
well-known American author prospered fabulously in that way. The
percentage offered by the subscription houses was only about half
as much as that paid by the trade, but the sales were so much
greater that the author could very well afford to take it. Where
the book-dealer sold ten, the book-agent sold a hundred; or at
least he did so in the case of Mark Twain's books; and we all
thought it reasonable he could do so with ours. Such of us as
made experiment of him, however, found the facts illogical. No
book of literary quality was made to go by subscription except
Mr. Clemens's books, and I think these went because the
subscription public never knew what good literature they were.
This sort of readers, or buyers, were so used to getting
something worthless for their money, that they would not spend it
for artistic fiction, or indeed for any fiction all, except Mr.
Clemens's, which they probably supposed bad. Some good books of
travel had a measurable success through the book agents, but not
at all the success that had been hoped for; and I believe now the
subscription trade again publishes only compilations, or such
works as owe more to the skill of the editor than the art of the
writer. Mr. Clemens himself no longer offers his books to the
public in that way.

It is not common, I think, in this country, to publish on the