“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.

(9:23.) Give us a moment … Prentice does more than it knows it does. [...] In its way Prentice is an educational institution. [...]

[...] 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. [...]

(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. [...]

(9:38.) He therefore became upset whenever there were difficulties in which you and Prentice disagreed, or you and he disagreed, and he became highly uneasy if you and Tam seemed to disagree. [...] He began to feel somewhat humiliated that as a woman he needed his husband to take care of such matters, and he felt threatened not only by such circumstances, but of course by the changes going on at Prentice itself and by Tam’s own growing restlessness. [...]

[...] He valued the relationship with Prentice (long pause), and he valued the idea of distributing the books in foreign lands, even if that venture meant misunderstandings or quite deliberate translations such as the shortening of one book, feeling that Prentice, while negligent, was not deliberately negligent, and that the situation would be righted and the material restored. [...]

If you hold grudges, if you—and I mean both or either of you—concentrate upon past dissatisfactions with Prentice to whatever degree, and if you project those differences into the future, then to that degree will such be your future experience with Prentice.

You have said you have but one publisher, where Prentice has many authors, and that is the point. [...] Taking that for granted, and taking for granted the state of your society as it exists in your beliefs, then Prentice has treated you both very well—and me.

[...] 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. [...]

(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. Your situation is much more important to me than anything Prentice may do or not do.”)

(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. [...]

[...] 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. [...]

Remembering your past ideas toward Prentice, he wondered, regardless of what you said, if you thought he should stay with them. He was very afraid of losing a contract with Prentice for Aspects, and a Bantam contract, while waiting around for another arrangement. At the same time he was afraid of making demands at Prentice for fear he would discover that they didn’t care if he stayed or not. [...]

[...] If you did not really approve of Prentice as a publisher, then he wondered seriously whether he should follow through with a new house, and with the hopes that Eleanor offered. You typed my book, and I appreciate the work and the reasons, but Ruburt felt it was also because you did not trust Prentice, and always that you thought another publisher would do a better job overall.

Ruburt felt that you did not trust his relationship with Tam as far as the spontaneous handling of business was concerned, and that perhaps the dissatisfaction you expressed about Prentice had to do with a certain emotional sloppiness, where both he and Tam did not have the proper regard for detail, and lacked a kind of integrity that you valued.

[...] 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. [...]

[...] 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. [...]

(Long pause.) Because the book met criticism at Prentice does not mean that you or it were not protected. (Pause.) The word “protection” in this context is interesting, of course, since the disclaimer is supposed to protect Prentice from any court action. [...]

[...] 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. [...]

Ruburt sees, and so do you, that other publishers would be glad to take our work—and you no longer feel “trapped” by Prentice, and “Prentice’s incompetence” in certain areas. [...] It does become safer, and even you personally this time can see Prentice as a creative adjunct with which you can work.

(A hassle began developing last Thursday, involving Pat Golbitz at Pocket Books, Grace Bechtold at Bantam, and Tam, John Nelson, and Jane at Prentice-Hall. [...]

(Perhaps we should be flattered that the last we heard of the bidding saw Bantam making an offer to Prentice of $50,000 for the present Seven, plus the next two.... [...]

[...] Earlier I asked Jane if she was willing to stick by her decision to forgo public life, as stated in the letter she wrote Prentice today, and she said yes. [...] 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. [...]

He felt that he was at certain times caught between you and Prentice: more worried about dealing with your attitudes toward Prentice than he was about dealing with the situation itself, with Prentice. [...]

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

(“Realize that since ‘79 at least I’ve felt to some degree that I had to protect my work even against Rob, whose ill feeling at Prentice might.... [...]

[...] I happened to discover a full-page ad of Prentice-Hall’s in the New York Times book section for April 27, 1975. [...]

[...] I’m in favor of taking drastic action [to get action from Prentice-Hall re ads], but I know you’re not.”

[...] Prentice would have taken it had you allowed another writer to report the experience. [...]

Now: (Louder:) The same applies to your dealings with Prentice. [...]

[...] You mentally change your account with Prentice from Framework 1 trial-and-error, a framework which has brought you some good rewards, but not as good interest as you would like. [...]

When either of you concentrates upon your dissatisfactions with Prentice, or number its particular failings, or picture covers you did not like, or whatever, it is like Ruburt concentrating upon his symptoms. [...]

[...] You cannot expect Prentice to understand the nature of your own idealism, or Ruburt’s, in such a way that Prentice as an entity can apply that idealism to its packaging. [...]

Do not think in terms of a generalized ideal situation, but in terms of better covers, better communication with Prentice in both friendly terms as per Ruburt’s calls to Tam, and in the definitive terms of clearly stating specific requests. [...] Prentice is not a great trade publisher. [...]

[...] Or Ruburt, feeling displeasure with Prentice on any occasion, would find it difficult to admit to you.

[...] 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. [...]

[...] I’d just gotten nicely into that project when the disclaimer business started over Mass Events—it seems like months ago; actually, this may be the third month following the interruption, an incredible gap in creativity, for which I blame Prentice, no doubt about it. [...]

You do exaggerate the Prentice relationship negatively. [...] You accuse Ruburt of never forgetting a thing that you said of a negative nature, but you hold all of Prentice’s errors in your mind, and so far refuse to concentrate upon any good in that relationship.

[...] You go from that to the neighbors, the environment, Ruburt’s condition, and Prentice.

(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.)

Because of the Prentice situation, and because of the decision not to work on our book for a while, he felt blocked, not knowing how or when to move ahead (underlined). For all of your own regrets and recriminations about Prentice, for example, he was himself pleased by Tam’s letter today, that that bridge toward motion had not been severed. [...]

[...] 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. [...]

(For the moment I’d forgotten the notes I wrote concluding the last session, deleted for November 12, having to do with Seth suggesting we throw our hassles with Prentice and foreign publishers into Framework 2; I’d written that I didn’t know whether or not I was capable of doing that at this time. [...]

[...] There are reasons beyond business that make the people at Prentice involved with books rather than, say, toy manufacturing, or other even more profitable ventures. [...]

[...] It is also perceived to whatever degree possible (underlined) by all those at Prentice who are involved. [...]

[...] 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.

You are yourself progressing, believe it or not, for as you look at Prentice other dimensions are being added to your sight. [...]