Letter from Leonard Woolf to Norman Leys, written by Virginia Woolf (c March 1925)

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[[1]]

 

[[MS 2750/255/64]]

 

D[ea]r. Leys

 

I am in bed with an attack of what your profession w[oul]d I suppose call infl[uen]za. I cannot therefore come & see you: you must come to London if you want to see me - & if you come Tuesday I must see you at whatever time you fix but if it [1 word illeg.] you must come to the [1 word illeg.] office if [1 word illeg.] here.

 

You told me in your previous letter that I could tell Clark that he should prepare for printing 2nd ed[ition]. of 1,000 copies. This I have done. It is no good sending the corrections in driblets - they must have them all together.

 

 

[[2]]

 

As to your questions, I have said over & over again that

 

1. on the whole I think you w[oul]d be well advised to be content with selling out your first edition

 

2. But that if you reprint you sh[oul]d. do it at once.

 

No human being can tell you what is going to happen, but it is not probable that a book like Kenya will sell more than an average of 10 copies a month after the first 8 months of sale. It is extremely improbable that it will sell more than 100 copies in 1926 of course it may, it may sell out the 2nd ed[ition]. of 900 copies by Jan. 1st 1926 - but if it does that does not mean that it is not true [illeg. characters crossed out] now that it is highly improbable that it will

 

 

[[3]]

 

I can only tell you what is probable or improbable. A cheap edition would practically extinguish the ordinary edition. I should have to go carefully with the question of costs with Clark before I could give you any useful figures for a 3/6 edition  I should advise you to wait until you see how sales are going before you do anything about advertising a 2nd edition. You ought to be prepared to spend from £15 to £20 if necessary. There w[oul]d. be no difficulty about financing the 2nd ed[ition]. as there[?] will be money due to you before the bill has to be paid.

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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 2750/255/64

Letter from Leonard Woolf to Norman Leys, written by Virginia Woolf (c March 1925)

Library:

University of Reading, Special Collections

Typist:

Virginia Woolf

Archival Folder:

Leonard Woolf writes to tell Leys that he is in bed with a bout of influenza so can not visit Leys, asking that Leys comes to London instead. He reaffirms that he has prepared R & R Clark to print a second edition. Woolf also informs Leys that no one will be able to tell him what will happen in terms of sales. Woolf also discusses a cheap edition and what to do regarding the advertisement of a second edition. There is no salutation or valediction with this letter.

 

a handwritten letter by Virginia Woolf writing on behalf of Leonard Woolf