Many of the books accepted by the Press are such as in the ordinary way of business would not secure a publisher except under subvention from the author or some favourer of learning; and of these the remuneration (or at least the direct remuneration; for the publication of solid books, like the knowledge of Greek in former times, ‘not infrequently leads to positions of emolument’) is recognized as being nominal, and necessarily inadequate to the labour and skill lavished upon the work. But for books commanding a remunerative sale, if they are of a suitable kind, the Press is prepared to pay the full market value; and it is believed that not many of its authors are dissatisfied with the bargains they have made.
‘It is an immense advantage to an author to be printed by a famous Press’, is the opinion of a veteran of letters, whose name appears in many publishers’ catalogues. It is the aim of the Oxford Press to place at its authors’ service its capacity for accurate and beautiful printing and binding, the goodwill attached to the University imprint, and the selling power enjoyed by its very large organization in the United Kingdom and throughout the world. Publication by the Press gives to an author the further security that his book will not be remaindered, pulped, or allowed to go out of print on the mere ground that it does not enjoy a rapid sale.
It is still sometimes said that ‘the Press does not advertise’. It is believed that Oxford books, in an exceptional degree, advertise themselves and each other—‘the Oxford book’, says an American advertisement, ‘is half sold already’; but the magnitude and variety of its business enable the Press to maintain an elaborate organization of ‘publicity’, which directs its efforts both to the booksellers and to the public at large. It relies largely upon the distribution, in many thousands of copies annually, of its catalogues and bulletins, on the direct dispatch of prospectuses to a large yet carefully selected constituency of buyers in various fields, and on the incalculable factor of public and private discussion. The value of judicious newspaper advertisement is not overlooked, as readers of the Times Literary Supplement well know.
