“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane also discussed with Tam a number of points growing out of our last royalty statements; some of these are quite legitimate gripes that we’ve kept quiet about for some time. Her implications to Tam were clear enough—we hope: that for the first time she was thinking of alternate courses of action to being published by Prentice-Hall, perhaps trying other publishers, Eleanor Friede among them. I was all for that, I told her. During the week after the Dutch edition arrived, we received from Tam the contracts for God of Jane and Mass Events, both of which contain phrases and clauses in an effort to get around Prentice-Hall’s habit of withholding percentages of earnings against returns. She told Tam she wouldn’t sign them, nor do I want her to. Prentice-Hall even wants to apply any losses for God of Jane against Mass Events after 18 months, in an effort to make one book pay for another! As it is, Prentice-Hall is now applying earnings from the paperback Politics against the hardcover losses—a method Tam says is common in the trade, but which I think is ethically dishonest, to say the least. They did the same thing with Adventures; in this case, that action wiped the board clean for the hardcover Adventures, and even showed a small profit from the paperback sales. But still, it costs us. I view such tactics as the publisher’s way of guaranteeing their publishing costs with no risk to themselves. Instead of charging hardcover losses against taxes as a business expense, say, they charge the author for them; this means they do not have to pay the author any royalties on paperback sales, for at least several years. I don’t think Jane yet grasps the implications here.

(Jane immediately called Tam, to learn that, ironically, all of the bigwigs at Prentice-Hall are in Europe, attending the book fair at Frankfurt, Germany, I believe is where it is. It appears that we can do little until the 22nd of October, although I plan to start writing letters before that. I bitterly resent the cutting in the first place, and the time that will be spent away from Mass Events, now, as I do all the work necessary to make our points. Jane finally agrees that we must take certain actions now in our professional lives, and we don’t know what will happen. I can only think at this writing [on the 14th] that we must do all we can to stop such practices by foreign publishers, or we’ll surely regret it deeply in the years to come. We definitely know we’ve been taken advantage of, but basically feel it is Prentice-Hall’s fault for not checking the work in progress.

(The upshot of all of this at the moment is that Jane will not be signing any contracts at this time, and that we’ll be informing Prentice-Hall that we won’t be contracting for any work for them until our questions and assurances are amply demonstrated. I see no other way to head off lots of trouble in the future. I’m personally quite willing to let the chips fall where they may, to coin a phrase, but I’m not at all sure that Jane will agree to go along. My thoughts are that she’d be so terrified to find herself without a publisher that she’d stand for a lot more than what has happened, bad as that is. But we’ll see. I for one have to do or say something, or I’d spend my days thinking about what a fool and coward I was not to stand up for my rights. Our meek acceptance of the deal, I’m afraid, would only lead to more of the same. This would surely drive me out of publishing if I let that happen. As it is, my opinion of Prentice-Hall has sunk to a new low, and it was low enough to begin with.

(Yesterday we received from Prentice-Hall the Dutch edition of Seth Speaks [Seth Spreekt], published by Ankh-Hermes. We saw at once that the book had been rather drastically cut—not only my own notes, which contain excerpts from Seth material at times—but Seth’s material itself. This is particularly obvious in the appendix, where only a few pages are left of all of that material. No greetings or responses are included except in isolated instances, nor any good-evenings and closing notes. Times are also left out, and no words are underlined. I suspect also that throughout the book, without my having checked yet, portions of the sessions have been cut whenever they were dependent upon notes that were cut. Some of the sessions, then, are only a page and a half, or two, long.

(I told Jane at 8:39 that I didn’t know whether or not Seth was through with his Prentice-Hall material, and she said that we’d gotten to the heart of it. In answer to my question about material in the last session, she said that yes, she still felt to some degree that she had to protect her work from me and my feelings about Prentice-Hall. She continued that she felt that my feelings about Prentice-Hall had influenced my own feelings about Mass Events, and so they have. She then said that she also thought my feelings about Prentice-Hall had influenced my feelings about Seth’s next book more than my feelings about her did. [...]

[...] I said that I reacted much more deeply to my feelings about her than any I have about Prentice-Hall; I was much more concerned about her own condition. “Prentice-Hall is a faceless entity out there that we come into contact with once in a while,” I said, “but I see and live with you every day. [...]

(The day before yesterday we received the first copy from Prentice-Hall of God of Jane. Today I picked up at the office for her the new reading glasses Jim Adams prescribed for her. [...]

[...] She’s helped a great deal here, writing the initial version of certain notes, which I’ll then add to before returning the manuscript to Prentice-Hall for printing.

There is no need, then, to be surprised if some of our ideas frighten Prentice-Hall.

[...] Prentice-Hall is, of course, well-intentioned, and under their belief system it is nearly sacrilegious to be anything more than officially disapproving of medical matters. [...]

(“No, I was just going to ask about Prentice-Hall.”)

[...] We do feel let down on the issue of foreign rights by Prentice-Hall, and the overseas publishers as well. As I’ve said to Jane more than once, “I wonder what we ought to know that Tam hasn’t told us”—meaning of course that every time a hassle develops with Prentice-Hall we find out a new batch of information that Tam has known all along but never relayed to us. This makes for a series of ugly surprises along the way of our travels with Prentice-Hall, since they always seem to involve money in a negative way, or royalties being withheld, etc. [...]

(We’ve lost the old sense of freedom we had with Prentice-Hall, where we can just do our work, ship it to them, and expect it to be well handled, with royalties paid every so often and a trust both felt and expressed between the two sides. [...] Prentice-Hall even wanted to have Jane sign contracts giving them the right to take money from Mass Events to pay for God of Jane. [...]

(Yesterday we learned that P. Grenquist and others from Prentice-Hall met representatives, including the owners, of Ariston at the book fair in Frankfurt—another bit of information Jane and I wouldn’t have been told without asking; my present suspicion is that eventually Jane and I will learn that those in charge at Prentice-Hall knew all along that both Ariston and Ankh-Hermes had made changes in Seth Speaks, with their casual okay. [...]

(I also think Prentice-Hall will go through the formality of protesting the cuts to the foreign publishers, without exacting much of any retribution, especially with all that money invested in plates. [...] I always thought the foreign sales were great for the foreign publishers, though, since they owe Prentice-Hall only 6%.

[...] I for one have no real idea of how Prentice-Hall may react, although Jane told me today that she’s picked up that Prentice-Hall plans to be much more aggressive on questions concerning publicity. I don’t think there will be any hassle, for surely the people at Prentice-Hall know enough about Jane’s abilities and sales and productive talents to know a good thing when they have one, whether or not publicity is involved. [...]

(I did want the situation resolved, however, because I could see it drifting toward a larger hassle with Tam and publicity at Prentice-Hall. Prentice-Hall was bound to be confused about our motives and intents, and also there was the latest evidence that the uncertainty or resistance would lead to aggravated symptoms on Jane’s part. [...]

(This session came about because of a phone call I took today from the publicity department at Prentice-Hall. [...]

(She’s received several recent requests for such interviews from or through Prentice-Hall, and the call this morning brought the matter to a head. [...]

[...] I started it because of a couple of questions I had about our relationship with Prentice-Hall. [...] The fact that such ideas do not occur to entities like the legal—or even the editorial—departments at Prentice-Hall shows, I think, the great gap that exists between our own views of life and theirs. [...]

[...] Discussed also were the memos the legal department has been sending to the board of directors at Prentice-Hall. [...]

(On top of all of this, we received from Prentice-Hall on Monday the revised movie contracts for Oversoul Seven, and now must see Bill Danaher again about new notarization, etc. [...]

[...] Even today Jane talked to Tam Mossman, her editor at Prentice-Hall, about various matters involving the book. [...]

(We hadn’t asked that Seth discuss the Prentice-Hall situation this evening — but when Seth came through with a rather ironic smile. [...]

I would like to give you some insight as to why Prentice-Hall is our publisher to begin with. [...]

[...] (Pause.) Prentice-Hall, in capsule form, so to speak, is a representative of the most diverse kinds of thought currently held in your country — that is, under it’s overall auspices you have the most conventional establishment-oriented textbooks, devoted to continuing traditional ideas. [...]

[...] In your world, therefore, as Prentice-Hall is related to your joint experience; that is, to your experience and Ruburt’s, you form that company. [...]

It does no good to say that Prentice-Hall exists also outside of your experience with it—and that the people there have their own reality, for in such a way you put part of the responsibility upon another agency. [...]

(Speaking of Prentice-Hall, today Jane received her first copy of God of Jane—a handsome-looking volume that I hope does well as the years pass. We’d been wondering if Prentice-Hall was going to stick to its schedule in bringing the book out early in June, and lo the book arrived without any fanfare at all. [...]

[...] The question I asked at its end—about what effects my opinions of Prentice-Hall might have had on Jane over the years—has been on my mind ever since I asked it, and Seth replied that it was “too big a subject” to go into at once. [...]

[...] But I told Jane that now I’d need advice on how to handle my reactions to Prentice-Hall so as not to alarm her further. [...]

He considered Prentice-Hall a further excellent step upward, a reputable-enough publisher. [...]

(A couple of days ago Jane received from Tam a letter written to Tam by Saul Cohen, the editor at Prentice-Hall who’s evidently been assigned to shepherd Jane’s work through production. [Tam is still her regular editor.] In the letter Cohen had good things to say about her work, and the chances that Prentice-Hall will publish Seven III, the first five chapters of which Tam has forwarded to Prentice-Hall. There seems to be a chance also of trying to get Prentice-Hall to publish the three Seven books in simultaneous hardcover and trade paperback editions, if we interpret the letter correctly. [...]

[...] It then became evident that a lot of her poor feelings lately have been connected to worries over work, what Prentice-Hall would or wouldn’t publish, etc.—an old reaction that I should have been more prepared for, I guess, but had lost sight of in our day-to-day hassles. [...]

This will also be reflected in your concerns with books and [your publisher] Prentice-Hall — with any of your business concerns. [...]

(I had to stop and think, since I’ve been pretty angry and upset about communications with Prentice-Hall lately. [...]

[...] The book has just come out and we’ve seen reviews for it in many publications; the contrast between the reception accorded the book, and Jane’s, reminded me of my poor opinion of Prentice-Hall’s handling of Jane’s books. As I told Jane after the session, I realized that Prentice-Hall’s treatment of our books reflects our own ambiguous attitudes-—we want her books to be well known, but don’t want to get involved in the process personally—but, perversely, that doesn’t stop me from getting mad at Prentice-Hall, even if they are doing what we want them to. I suppose what bothers me about the whole thing is a sneaking feeling I have that Prentice-Hall’s attitude would be the same no matter what we thought; that they aren’t on the ball in that department.

[...] I plan to send their proposal and letter to Lynne Lumsden, our editor at Prentice-Hall.

[...] She left the room door open when she left, so that hall noises intruded.

(I couldn’t help noticing as I walked down the hall on my way out, how busy all the patient rooms were, the cacophony of sounds, the numerous visitors, patients and nurses and aides. [...] The hall was a community in itself, accepted by all.)

(For the record: Seth referred to Tam’s letter in which he informed Jane that Prentice-Hall had granted her a continuation of the old contract terms and royalty rates. The new organization at Prentice-Hall, the General Publishing Division, has announced a new, reduced system of royalties, but Jane continues as she has been. Tam also sent Jane a copy of the new Prentice-Hall contract form, but informed her that she can continue to use the old one she’s accustomed to, if she wants to.)

[...] It can hardly be a coincidence that last week, too, we received our copies of Mass Events from Prentice-Hall, along with word from Tam that the controversial book is now being shipped nationwide. [...]

(This afternoon Jane received a royalty check from Prentice-Hall for $819.00, covering sales to June 30 of The Seth Material, hard and soft cover, and the first copies of Seth Speaks. [...]

[...] The publicity department at Prentice-Hall told Jane last week that this program was thinking of asking us to be on the show, and that possibly we’d be contacted this week.

(A note: Publicity at Prentice-Hall also told Jane that Newsweek Magazine might do a story or review re Seth, and that this might take place within two or three weeks, etc. [...]

To you the hall was a neutral-enough meeting place, but not one of intimacy, and to some extent at least it symbolized the relationship—at least as far as you were concerned—in that while you were a child of your parents you felt to some degree a stranger, and the hall lacked intimacy. [...]

[...] It sounded very much like another instance of the workings of Framework 2; 2. Some comments on my recent dream involving my meeting my parents in the great marble hall, as I called it. [...]

[...] You were aware of your parents in Framework 2 (in my dream of Oct 19, 1977) with the hall as your symbol. [...]

On April 2, 1968—I sent it to Prentice Hall

[...] Today Jane told me that she thought Seth would go into the famous—or infamous—disclaimer that Prentice-Hall wants to attach to Mass Events. We’d received a formal letter about that from the legal department of Prentice-Hall last Friday; today Jane had been “picking up” on it. [...]

[...] Jane had been tempted to pass up the session and continue work on God of Jane, but I reminded her that I could use Seth’s information on the disclaimer in our reply to the legal department at Prentice-Hall. [...]

(Jane expected Seth to continue with his Prentice-Hall material tonight, when I asked if she had any questions. [...]

(I’m doing my best to stay out of interfering with Jane’s dealings with Tam and Prentice-Hall. [...]

[...] All of these points could be subsumed under the one broad question that I wanted Seth to go into when he’d finished with the Prentice-Hall material.)

(Long pause.) Ruburt’s material about Prentice-Hall was quite correct. [...]