Letter from Leonard Woolf to Norman Leys (23/02/1926)

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[[1]]

 

[[MS 2750/255/100]]

 

Norman Leys, Esq., M.D., 
Brailsford, Nr. Derby.

 

February 23rd. 1926.

 

Dear Dr. Leys:

 

This is in answer to your two letters.

 

(1) I find it very difficult to suggest three publishers. As far as I know the selling organisation of publishers is a pure myth. I don't know of any publisher who, in face, has branches or agents in India, Cape Town & the U.S.A. The Oxford University Press has a branch in India which is a genuine thing. Macmillan in London is, I am told, an entirely separate firm from the United States Macmillan, and in fact you find books published by the U.S.Macmillan published in England by other firms. Cape would almost certainly tell you that he had agents almost everywhere. He probably has, but an agent can do very little in selling the book, certainly in the U.S.A. The only way of selling a book in the U.S.A. is to have it published by a firm inthe U.S.A. The sale of a cheap edition of "Kenya" would not be through the ordinary channels if it was to be a big sale. I daresay Cape would be fairly good, as, although his ordinary publishing is not on those lines, he is one of the few business like publishers in London. I don't believe Macmillan would be any good at all. The best people would really be a firm like Hutchinson or Hodder & Stoughton but then i doubt whether they would look at it; and then there is always the danger that in those immense firms nobody really looks after it.

 

(2) I don't want to prevent you taking it elsewhere if you want to. But before you do I suggest that we ought to go into the matter and get a proper estimate for a cheap edition - which we have never yet done.Before doing that, it would be advisable to see you. I could see you any afternoon next week except Monday & Tuesday. If it were Wednesday I should have to go off at 4.30 to the Labour Party Committee

 

 

[[2]]

 

N.L.------p.2.

 

Feby 23rd. 1926

 

(3) Yes, I wrote the leader in the Manchester Guardian.

 

Yours | Leonard Woolf [signature]

Rights Statement:

Reproduced with permission from Penguin Random House UK Archive and Library owner of the Hogarth Press archive collection, held by the University of Reading Special Collections. With thanks to the Society of Authors This item has not been made available with a CC BY-NC-ND licence. Please see the terms of use page for further information.

Source: MS 2750/255/100

Letter from Leonard Woolf to Norman Leys (23/02/1926)

Library:

University of Reading, Special Collections

Archival Folder:

Leonard Woolf answers Leys questions mainly regarding a choice of publisher for a cheap edition and provides him with further advice. Woolf also advises obtaining a proper estimate for a cheap edition.

 

Typescript letter signed by Woolf