[[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.