“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(We didn’t ask that Seth discuss the Prentice-Hall affair this evening, but....)

This will be a fairly brief session, but we will begin with your dream about your parents (on Wednesday morning, October 10).

My own position cannot be as immediate as your own. I respect your emotional reactions whatever they are, and your right to them. (Loudly and amused:) Seth, it seems, speaks a bit more briefly in Dutch than he does in English —but the material is there, and if the Dutch have cut it, or your notes, it is, in the most basic of terms, now, their loss.

(Pause at 9:28.) Agreements of a legal order should, however, always be honored, and each society has been built upon that precept, so you have of course every right to state your objections—but more, to take precautions so that the same kind of situation cannot reoccur.

I do not want to upset you, but if the Dutch may cut a bit here and there, you might find that any French or Spanish translation might add a flourish here or there.

There are bound to be distortions—but the distortions themselves are meaningful. You have, again, a definite right to state your objections, and to change your contract accordingly in the future. You have every right to state your clear objections to Prentice about whatever issue you feel unfair. Regardless of all of that, however, and taking all of that for granted, if you will forgive me (whispering), I sometimes feel that you might perhaps both lack a certain trust (loudly) in the nature of your own intents, and in the activity of Framework 2 as far as it concerns you and that publishing house.

In Framework 2, for one thing, the probabilities concerning national economics are known, and your course is indeed being plotted, for your benefit, among multitudinous issues, of which you are not consciously aware. I tell you that such a mechanism does operate. Your characteristics, intents and purposes are taken into consideration, and constant readjustments are also made. You both wanted a year with lower taxes. That was indeed part of your intent, but then when this occurs we only hear cries of woe.

(But not from me, I told Jane the other night. I think that here Seth referred to Jane’s and my upset over the small amount of her royalty check this fall, and the way Prentice-Hall has taken to withholding certain percentages of profits against returns.)

In a manner of speaking there is no Prentice, but a group of individuals in certain positions. The creator’s feeling toward his creative product—or hers—largely determines its development, its progress, its distribution, and so forth.

(Is Seth saying here that Jane and I actually created, or wanted, the foul up with the Dutch edition? I should have asked, but Jane’s delivery was rather fast; nor did I particularly think of it, let alone not being in the mood.)

They have been conservative in many ways—but neither have they exploited Ruburt’s abilities, and neither have they made any attempt to tamper with the message, and some houses would have. They have not flooded the market, which in the long run could be quite detrimental, and in the main they have left you alone.

There are some reincarnational connections involving Tam, but the overall important point is that in its way, Prentice has attempted to maintain the books’ integrity, and not made any effort to distort the message, to sensationalize it, as for example the Bantam covers, or to personally exploit Ruburt, yourself, or the situation.

You could stand some more advertising, but high-fired promotional jobs are something else entirely, and would not suit your best interests.

He will shortly find that some days he can walk fairly easily—perhaps 10 steps—in that manner, or maybe even twice in one day, while for a few days in between he is not in good-enough balance. I would suggest walking three times a day now, as he has been doing, but one more time.