Dear Sirs:
Be kind to authors. You depend on them. They do not wish to cheat you. Publishers, however, may wish to do so, and they will cheat authors, if they get the chance.
I’ve been there and done that. I self-published a book on papal coins. It was
work. I sought publishers and was told that no, no, body was interested in the topic.
So, I self-published a run of 1,200 copies, plus 50 hardbound copies. I hear the hard copies are a growing
rare book on
e-bay. Twenty-five were sold by
CNG; I used 25 to give rewards to friends and institutions that helped me with the book. These include the National
Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the
Smithsonian Institution, the
Library of Congress and the
Library at Catholic University at Washington, D.C. This institution possesses all the
history and theology works from the Albani
Library, owned by Camerlengo Cardinal Annabile Albani, who issued many Sede Vacante coins.
Annabile was never ordained. He also collected drawings and engravings, which he sold to the
King of
England. This forms the heart of the Royal
Collection, featured on PBS from time to time. Annabile used the
money to dower
his illegitimate daughter into a
very fine marriage. As a longtime friend of English Kings, he was a tourist attraction for the English in
Rome. For them, a glimpse of the cardinal was just as important, socially, as a viewing of St. Peters. He died between 1740,
his last issue of coin, and 1758, when Cardinal Girolomo Colonna issued a Sede Vacante coinage.
I sold 1,000 copies of the book nobody wanted starting at $25 for a single copy. The three [European] dealers who bought 100 copies each got it for $12.50
per. I made lots of
money. Only the Internal Revenue Service knows the real
price of production
per copy.
Why the difference? Book publishing is a business, not a hobby. You godda make
money or go to the cleaners.
Writing books is
work, not play, so authors feel they are entitled to the fruits of labor. Read Leo XIII on that in "Rerum Novarum" [1891].
I recently conversed with a "publisher" of coin books. He offered to take a completed manuscript, edit out all my wit and
good humor, publish it, and reward me with 50 copies!
He would inject faux scholarship. He must deal with some truly gullible coin collectors or people desperate to see their name in print. I’ve been at this over 35 years, and that was the most stupid offer I’ve ever
had.
Work Continues,
Follibus Fanaticus
