In the introduction to “The Cost of Production,” a pamphlet privately issued to our members, allusion has been made to this subject in the following words: “ Here, as in other details of the publishing trade, no method prevails; no settled charges allow the author to estimate how much he may correct, and how he may escape an enormous addition to the Cost of Production.”

In proof of this it is only necessary to refer back to the publishing transactions detailed in Chapters IV. and V.

The offer made in the agreement which accompanied the estimate given on page 39 ran as follows:-

“The expenses, of the author's proof corrections to the extent of one-half pound sterling, as per schedule, shall be debited to the first account, but should such expenses exceed this amount the author shall refund the excess to the publisher on publication of the work.” The estimate, is for the half-profit production of a book of nine sheets of sixteen pages a sheet. Therefore, of the ten shillings only five comes out of the publisher's pocket, and this is the extent to which they will be liable for expenses incurred in “ author's corrections.” A fraction over sixpence per sheet! In this agreement then the expenses of author's corrections cannot be estimated from the same standpoint as in most of those which follow, where something between five and ten shillings per sheet is always provided for. But by looking at the estimate we find that a reason is given for the charge.