WCP5059

[1]¹

14^th Feb[ruary] [1]900

D[octo]^r. Alfred Russel Wallace.

Dear Sir,

Our proposal as to a lower royalty on repeat sales applied only to those made at a reduced price, as it is clearly stated. You have evidently overlooked this point. All sales ^{(wherever made)} made at the regular rate are subject, in all our agreements, to the full royalty. Your suggestion, however, quite meets the point. If we are able to get an ed[itio]ⁿ. taken up for India & one or more of our Colonies² — as we quite hope to — we will treat this as a special matter, & discuss the proposal we shall make with you. We cannot hope to induce a Colonial publisher to purchase largely on speculation unless we made him a [2]³ [MS damaged] they have a reduced royalty [1 word illeg.] for all special sales? The matter is of vital importance to the publisher only in the case of cheap books, where the rate between the costs of production <and the> price of realization is so disadvantageous, the margin of profit coming in only by very large sales.

Please return [to] us the draft agreement,⁴ which we will modify as you suggest in this respect, & also as regards the "thirteenth copies".⁵

We are, dear Sir, | Yours very truly | Swan Sonnenschein & Co[mpany]. L[imi]t[e]d.