Wells as seen by his Publisher

Abstract

We were not selling nearly enough books to keep us in business. It was as simple as that. Trade was shocking, as Hitler bawled his menaces at the world’s statesmen. Our list was good; some of the authors highly distinguished; production under Lloyd’s direction was first-rate; the advertising, which I laid out myself, was copious and in my own opinion splendidly devised. What then was lacking? Sales know-how! It is this which in most cases is the Achilles heel of the new and untried publisher. We had one good traveller in London, Roth, who performed miracles in selling dangerously radical books to ultra-conservative booksellers. But outside London and overseas, there were faults to find, faults which I had no means of remedying. And inside the office not one of us had the experience or instincts of a sales manager, that vital executive who drives the travellers on to do their best, supplying them as he does so with a constant stream of accurate and useful information. The fact was, we lacked punch!

An Occupation for Gentlemen (London: Hutchinson, 1959) pp. 242–50, 266–9.