393 Walnut Street

Brookline

Massachusetts

Dear Mr. Greenslet:

We have decided to take the Warner Brothers offer of $40,000
for the moving-picture, and $10,000 more if the book sells 50,000
copies. So, naturally, I am anxious to reach that number, if pos-
sible. It is, of course, of mutual interest to us.

Is it not true that early advertising is far more important
than after a book has made its impression? You made it clear to me
[in the case of "Lisa Vale"]
that late advertising is futile, if a book hasn't gone over the
first hurdles. It seems to me the returns of the fifty-thousand
book-sales mark will justify the expense incurred. I don't know
how long your $5,000 allotment for advertising will last at the
accellerated rate I suggest, but the moving-picture sale justifies
my putting up some of the anticipated extra $10,000, if I get it,
for later advertising if your early advertising has good results.
I haven't talked with Lewis about this, however. He may not agree
with me. He will be here tomorrow.

I don't want a large, splurging advertisement, but a constantly
repeated one, so that the words, "Now, Voyager" become familiar
simply by being seen often. Probably you will reproduce the strik-
ing jacket design so that that will become familiar. You, of course,
know better than I what periodicals besides the Times and the Herald-
Tribune are best for advertising books. But it seems to me
that "Now, Voyager" should be advertised in both the Times and
Herald-Tribune every single week until our little campaign is over.
It may be an advantage that the reviews have been so slow. They
may prick our inflated hope for the fifty-thousand mark. Well,
perhaps we can reach thirty-thousand anyhow, with the boost of the
Warner sale. I think what is done in the immediate future far
more vital than even a week or two later. The alternating of the
advertisements, as you suggested, in the Times and Herald-Trbune
might be done later. But for the next four or five weeks I don't
think there should be a single opportunity skipped in the Sunday
edition of either the Times or Tribune. Each reaches different
readers, as a rule. There are comparatively few people, I think,
who take both the Times and Herald-Tribune Sunday book news sup-
plement. At the end of a few weeks the book's rating will be fairly
well established, and the advisability of further weekly advertising
in both papers can be considered.

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MS Am 1925 (1462), Houghton Mifflin Publishing Co. archive, Houghton Library, Harvard University