Alan Earney, October 15, 1963: Difference between revisions

But now I have a bit of news which I expect will prove upsetting to you. Caught in a financial situation which seemed to offer no issue, I talked Walter Minton into releasing me for one novel, and I’m now going to do a serial which will be printed in ten-thousand-word installments over the next eight months. I also signed a contract with Dial and Dell for hard cover and paperback rights and they agreed to pay a vast, indeed an unbelievable sum for the book. As part of the arrangements they insisted upon buying the English paperback rights for a paperback company which is their subsidiary or associate in England. I did my best to try to strike this last clause, because as I say I’ve been quite pleased with the way you’ve presented my books. In fact, as I all but told Victor Weybright,<ref> Victor Weybright was an editor at Andre Deutsch.</ref> you were doing a tastier job. But the amount of money was so vast and indeed the amount offered by the English paperback company was so great, that I was not able to afford to refuse this extra specification of the English rights. Indeed there was not even opportunity to consult you, for the transaction took place in a record forty-eight hours. The wheeling and dealing was much like Hollywood. While I know this news can give you small pleasure, I would like to repeat that I have no ill feeling towards your house—quite the contrary—and expect that we’ll be together again after this serial is published.