The Shadow of Great Britain

He quickly came out to interrupt: ”Of course, poetry isn’t the worst-selling genre on the market. If we were to talk about which type of book has the worst reputation among readers, I bet it would definitely be philosophy. Nowadays, even if people like Locke and Boyle came back to life, it would be hard to make philosophical books gain readers’ attention again.”

Disraeli said this while observing Albert’s change of expression.

The young man seemed even easier to fool than he imagined. He didn’t even inquire about this morning’s news but instead joked: ”I think philosophy isn’t necessarily the hardest to sell. Based on my observations while browsing bookstores in Coburg, philosophical works occasionally sell two or three copies, but theological books often sit on the shelves for at least half a year.”

Disraeli breathed a sigh of relief and responded with a smile: ”I actually forgot about theology. It seems the situation in Coburg is similar to that in London. In London, picking two or three dozen theological works at random doesn’t guarantee that one will break even. The theology category has a bit of a ’winner takes all’ vibe, with most theologians’ works not fetching a good price, and all the sales seem concentrated on a few theologians’ works. For instance, those by Robert Hall, Charles Simeon, and Alexander Fletcher, whose books are generally massive ten-volume sets and priced steeply in pounds, yet still manage to sell two to three thousand copies in half a year.”

Albert listened intently, grinning as he asked: ”Since poetry is hard to sell, and philosophy and theology are ignored, what type of books sell best in London? Or, if it’s convenient, I’d like to know what Empire Publishing’s bestseller is. With so many bestsellers in your arsenal, surely there’s one that keeps the printing press running all night?”

Eld couldn’t help but puff his chest with pride upon hearing this: ”Of course, that’s Mr. Eld Carter’s...”

”It’s Carter!” Albert got excited upon hearing the name of the Scott successor.

”No.” Unexpectedly, Arthur poured cold water on him: ”To be precise, it’s Mr. Eld Carter’s friend Charles Darwin’s publication, ’Beagle Voyage Diary.’

”’Beagle Voyage Diary’?” This answer caught Albert somewhat by surprise. He hadn’t read the book yet, but he had heard his cousin Victoria mention it: ”Do London readers really like this kind of travelogue-style work?”

”That’s right, and it’s not just you; we also find the book’s sales astonishing,” Arthur recounted with enthusiasm: ”Even though we’re confident about this book, the most optimistic among us couldn’t have imagined that the first edition of 1,500 copies of the three-volume ’Beagle Voyage Diary’ would sell out in half a year. After all, we set the full set’s price at a hefty 8 pounds and 8 shillings. After the first edition sold out, apart from reprinting a deluxe edition, we tried releasing a more affordable, plain edition without illustrations. The result was even more surprising; over three years, four additional prints of the plain edition sold a total of 10,000 copies, while the deluxe edition’s sales also reached 3,000 copies.”

Arthur wasn’t deceiving Albert about the sales situation of ’Beagle Voyage Diary.’

In terms of publishing profits alone, Darwin’s ’Beagle Voyage Diary’ can be described as a miracle.

The deluxe set priced at 8 pounds and 8 shillings, even after deducting costs for paper, copperplate printing, binding, taxes, and author royalties, maintained a profit of around three pounds per copy. And the 10,000 copies of the plain edition, despite being priced as low as one pound and four shillings, benefited from lower printing costs due to the absence of illustrations and luxurious covers, still allowing a profit margin of five shillings per copy.

Altogether, just the two versions of ’Beagle Voyage Diary’ alone brought Empire Publishing Company a profit of up to 20,000 pounds over the past few years.

If judging solely by publishing profit, Darwin’s single-book performance could utterly overshadow the bestselling authors at Empire Publishing. Whether it be Great Dumas or Dickens, even if you called over Balzac and Hugo from Paris, these four in their lifetimes couldn’t hope to match Darwin on single-book income.

Take Dickens’ ’Oliver Twist,’ for instance. Though ’Oliver Twist’ is a similarly monstrous bestseller with sales approaching 10,000 copies, and it also has deluxe and plain versions, its deluxe three-volume set is only priced at 1 pound, 11 shillings, and 6 pence, while the plain version is a mere 8 shillings.

And Hugo’s ’Notre-Dame de Paris’?

The 1831-published ’Notre-Dame de Paris’ was priced in France at only twelve francs, which converts to less than half a pound.

That means a single deluxe edition sale of ’Beagle Voyage Diary’ almost equates to selling 18 copies of ’Notre-Dame de Paris.’

If Hugo wanted to match Darwin in sales revenue, ’Notre-Dame de Paris’ would need to sell seventy to eighty thousand copies.

But as we all know, such a sales volume in the current European market is entirely impossible.

Never mind seventy or eighty thousand copies—’Notre-Dame de Paris’ has been published for six years now, yet its original French edition sales haven’t even broken 3,000 copies. Even factoring in the Empire Publishing agency’s English version, it barely scrapes past 4,000 copies.

And of course, Hugo is quite dissatisfied with this. In the past few years, when ’Notre-Dame de Paris’ was selling poorly, he even complained to Great Dumas in a letter, saying: ”Parisian readers would rather spend money on some sordid little pamphlets than twelve francs for a whole cathedral’s story.”

It must be said, among the stellar authorship gathered at Empire Publishing, the first to achieve financial freedom through writing turned out to be that bald Charles Darwin, which is quite envy-inducing.

Even, the popularity of ’Beagle Voyage Diary’ has sparked a surge in travelogue books.

Especially those works depicting fascinating locations, with authors skillfully utilizing their material, are eagerly sought after.

The imitatively styled ’Danube River Navigation Journal’ sold 1,400 copies, while Holman’s massive four-volume ’Global Navigation Record,’ despite its length and higher pricing, also sold 700 copies.

As for Captain Ross and Captain Baker’s explorative works on the Arctic Ocean, despite both being high-priced publications, the sales figures are jaw-dropping, with the former selling 2,000 copies and the latter 1,000 copies.

Additionally, Bentley Bookstore’s release of ’Lamartine’s Holy Land Pilgrimage,’ Stewart’s ’Three Years in America,’ MacFarlane’s ’Eastern Travelogue,’ Barrow’s ’Ireland Travelogue,’ and last year’s two-volume ’American Travelogue’ co-authored by Reid and Masson all exceeded 1,000 copies. Even something like ’American Baptist Church Visitation Record’ sold out its first edition within three months.

If it weren’t for the fact that the things Arthur did on the European Continent were rather hard to speak of, and many details inconvenient to mention in public settings, he would have planned to publish a book titled ’European Continent Travelogue: See How I Covered for the Juans’ Escape from Paris,’ ’Gottingen Study Tour: Me and My Friend Garibaldi,’ ’Druiysk Thriller: Does an English Fourth Rank Diplomat Disguising as a Russian Sixth Rank Civil Servant Count as a Demotion,’ or ’Spiritual Adventures from St. Petersburg: Who is the Conscience of the Caucasus, Me or David Eckett.’

Needless to say, just looking at these titles, you know any one of these would sell over 2,000 copies.

If coupled with the high pricing of deluxe editions, wouldn’t that easily amount to tens of thousands of British pounds in earnings?

Alas!

Picking sesame seeds while losing the watermelon.

If one had known that travelogues would sell so well in recent years, even if sacrificing for the cause of Young Italy or demonstrating the strategic resolve expected of a British diplomat during the Caucasus incident, then what?

(There’s still one more Chapter to be updated today, slightly later)