Publish and Perish

Sir Walter Scott

SIR WALTER SCOTT: Terrifically popular in his day, Scott decided he should make money as the publisher as well as author of his own works. With that in mind he went into partnership with printer John Ballantyne and then with the publisher Archibald Constable. When Constable and Company went bankrupt after the great financial crash of 1825, Scott found himself in debt for over 100,000 pounds. It was a gigantic sum in those days, the equivalent of perhaps US$8,000,000 today.

A man of great pride, Scott refused the aid of friends and set out at age 55 to pay off the debt by writing. Between 1826 and 1830 he worked at a tremendous pace, completing (among other stories) three books in his Waverly series, two books of Scottish history, plus a life of Napoleon Bonaparte. He managed to pay off one-third of the debt before the exertion brought on a stroke. Scott was never the same and died two years later. Yet he finally reached his goal: after his death, the sale of rights to his stories brought in enough cash to pay off all his debts.