The Truth About Publishing

Résumé · THERE was a time when the craft of publishing was regarded as something as mysterious as the ‘black art’, and perhaps scarcely less sinister. Even to-day the misunderstandings are scarcely cleared up: and the ‘man in the street’ is still under the impression that the publisher is out to fleece the poor author while making enormous profits for himself. The only way to remove that impression is for the publisher to display his whole craft—frankly to lay all his cards upon the public's table: and this is what Mr. Stanley Unwin has done. In this book he describes with utter fidelity the reception and reading of manuscripts—with well-merited praise of the publisher's reader; the ‘casting off’, and estimating of costs; the publisher's dealings with the author in all forms of agreement; the craft of book production; the business of selling and advertising; questions of copyright and ‘rights’ generally; publicity, reviewers' copies, free copies, and literary agents.