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10,000 Tampa Avenue
Chatsworth, California
December 11, 1945
Mr. Ross G. Baker
The Bobbs-Merrill Company
468 Fourth Avenue
New York City
Dear Ross:
Thank you for both your letters of December 5th. I am glad that the pamphlet is now in the shape you wanted. It was one of the hardest assignments Iâve ever had to do.
I am happy that you liked âAnthem.â Your commentââI donât believe I ever was more delighted to see the word âIâ than when it showed up in Anthemââwas a very valuable one. If that was your reaction to the book, I did accomplish my purpose in it.
Have you made the corrections of the plates of âThe Fountainheadâ according to the list of errors I left with Mr. Hurley? When you have a corrected copy out, would you send it to me please?
For how many copies have you ordered paper beyond the 90,000? You didnât mention it and I naturally would like to know.
I am returning the enclosed Literary Guild ads. Thank you for sending them to meâI did want to see them. I have a copy of the black-and-white one; itâs vulgar, but not too bad as an ad. The colored one, however, is so appalingly dreadful that I donât want to keep it. No wonder it did not sell the book for the Guild people.
Those to whom such an ad would appeal could never read or like âThe Fountainhead.â I donât even think they could readâperiod. And thereâs no moron on earth who wouldnât see that the quotation from the daily Herald-Tribune (in the box) is an out-and-out panning. Why do the Guild people really do such things to an author and to themselves? Apart from the fact that itâs a gratuitous insult to meâis it practical? How do they expect to sell a book that âchanges peopleâs livesâ by calling it âa six-ring circusâ?
When they have on their hands a book thatâs growing in sales through its serious, philosophical,
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inspirational aspectâwhat kind of sense is there in trying to palm it off as a cheap, lurid dime-novel? Is that good business?
No, I am not writing this as any kind of reproach to youâsince you had nothing to do with the composition of this ad, and you did me the courtesy of sending it to me when I asked for it. I am writing this only because there is an extremely valuable lesson for us in this ad. Iâd like you to consider it when you plan your own ads and publicity for the book. I could have told you two years ago that such an ad would flop and that the Literary Guild would not get any response to it. I suspect that you would have then thought Iâm just an author who wants to be âhighbrow.â So Iâm glad the Literary Guild did use this ad and did flop with it. Now you have an objective, practical demonstration. I think Bobbs-Merrill can save money, by learning from an experiment on which the Literary Guild wasted its money.
When you hear talk, comment, raves, fan letters, all on a single themeâan ecstatic kind of admiration for the figure of Howard Roarkâyouâre not going to sell the book as âthe great story of an amazing woman.â You arenâtâbecause it ainât. Furthermore, thereâs been nothing but books about âamazing womenâ ever since Scarlett OâHaraâpractically every book ad has tried to feature that ideaâand the public is sick of it. If thatâs all a book has to offerâthereâs no attraction in it any more, itâs been worn out. BUT you have a book about an amazing manâa strong, positive characterâa hero who is really a heroâand that, after a decade of male mush, is such a surprise to the readers that itâs one of the main reasons of the bookâs popular appeal. Yet the Guildâs sales experts hide thatâand feature a naked woman. Whatâs the sense in it?
As a practical suggestion: I think you should have some ads that contain some copy about the bookânot just old quotations; every book can muster a few favorable quotations, thatâs not much of a sales point any more; quotes can be usedâbut not as the chief attraction. I think the copy should tell the readers something of the real nature of the bookâat least a hint, an indication or a come-on. If we want to attract new readers, why not feature that which got us 200,000 old ones? Why hide the actual sales power of the book from its potential buyers?
I see youâre afraid of the word âindividualism.â I think youâre wrong, but okay, you donât have to use it. Use an equivalent. Take a tip from the Kings Features Syndicate people. Did you notice their
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caption for the strip? âBased on the great, best-selling novel of a man who dared to pit his genius against the world.â They did thatâI had nothing to do with itâI never discussed the subject of a caption with them and never saw it until I received the proofs. There is what I consider good salesmanship. They knew it was a manâs storyâand they stressed its real theme in a dramatic way.
If you donât want to stress philosophy in adsâstress Roark. The effect will be the same, only in popular form. I suggest something like this:
âThe story of a great man who stood alone against the world.â
âHoward Roark did all the things you were taught to believe as evil. Read this book to find out why thousands of readers consider him the noblest character in modern fiction.â
âWhy do most men think theyâre Howard Roarkâand most women wish it were true?â
Isnât this last one lurid enough (by implication) even for the taste of the Literary Guild people? Yet itâs trueâand the readers, seeing such a line in an ad, will stop, wonder and feel intrigued.
As for quotes, there are two which you havenât usedâand they would be excellent, not by themselves, but with the above kind of copy:
âRoark is like the sun…to see anybody else afterward is impossible.â
Saturday Review of Literature
âHoward Roark towers over any man in the United States…Â Howard Roark is the hero (a real hero, not just the âcentral characterâ) in the most original and daring book of fiction written in this countryâThe Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.â
N.Y. Journal-American
You told me that you thought of advertising the book as âa modern classic.â You were right. Try it. A book expert in New York told me that the biggest fiction sellers of all times (and the surest receipe
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for a best seller) have always been religious novels with a good story (âBen-Hurâ âQuo Vadis?â âThe Robeâ)âand that âThe Fountainheadâ is a religious novel. So it isâbut not in the conventional sense of the word; it gives to modern readers the same thing which simpler people get from a Biblical storyâa sense of faith, courage and moral uplift. Why not try handling and selling the book as that? The results might surprise youâas this book has surprised you many times.
All this is in the nature of suggestionsânot reproaches. I donât want you to think that I donât appreciate the fact of your advertising the book as you promised. I do appreciate it and am pleased to see good-sized Bobbs-Merrill ads. I merely hope that the above analysis might help your copy-writers to get some good punch lines into the ads.
With best regards,
Sincerely yours,
Ayn Rand