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42.
I enclose herewith a statement of the sales of "Dubliners" to the end of the last half year. You will see that at that time thirty-nine more copies had to be sold before the royalty begins.
No; Mr. Pinker was never Mr. Wells's secretary. Before he started as a literary agent, now many years ago, he was editor, or assistant editor, or something of the kind, of "Black and White" — in its early days, of course. I get a letter from him to-day asking if I am prepared to exercise my option on your novel. Surely, unless you have altered the arrangements you told me you were making, this is not a matter about which I am to deal with him? I should like you to tell me definitely. In any case, I am not quite ready yet to speak about the novel but I hope to write to you very soon. Sincerely yours,
[Statement of Joyce's Dubliners account with Grant Richards, dated December, 1914, and enclosed with letter no. 42 above.]
| June 15 | Number of copies printed | 1250 | |
| Dec 31 | Copies free (for review, etc.) | 117 | |
| " on hand | 634 | 751 | |
| " | Copies sold | 499 | |
| 499 461 | |||
| No royalty is payable till after 500 copies are sold. |
The figures 499 461 refer to the royalty agreement between Joyce and Richards which provides that for royalty purposes thirteen copies count as twelve. Aside from the 120 copies taken by Joyce, only 379 copies of Dubliners had been sold. Stunned by the poor sales of his book Joyce called the state of affairs "disastrous" in a letter of 7 May. He insisted that Richards deal directly with Pinker in the future.
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