27

‘mouton mange tout’

voorstel een investering per intekenaar (meestal zijn het bibliotheken) van $1125 a $1500 in één jaar (plus dan natuurlijk nog de “nieuwe” delen). 51 [I would like to know whether you think this is too many or too few or just right. [...] If we assume that the average sales price is $15 per volume, my suggestion means an investment of $1125 to $1500 per subscriber (usually libraries) per year (plus of course the “new” volumes).] It is evident from a letter dated December 4,1969 from Mouton’s sales chief Van der Wilk to Van Schooneveld that the inclusion of reprints in the series had consequences: Zoals ik je vorig jaar mededeelde, hadden wij op dat moment ongeveer 150-160 direkte afnamen bij het verschijnen van een herdruk. Dit aantal is terug gelopen tot 106. [...] Nijhoff neemt namelijk geen enkel risico meer met deze serie en bestelt nog slechts 39 exemplaren i.p.v. 55 in het verleden. 52 [As I shared with you last year, we had at that moment about 150-160 standing orders when a reprint came out. This number is now a mere 106 [...]. Nijhoff apparently does not want to take any risk with this series and only orders 39 copies instead of the 55 that it used to order.] The reprints were a factor here. On March 11,1970 Van der Wilk mentioned: ‘Dezer dagen ontvingen wij wederom 10 opzeggingen hetgeen ons totaal aantal toch bedenkelijk beneden de 100 brengt.’ 53 [‘We just received another 10 cancellations which brings our total well under 100.’] The reprint plan in cooperation with Francis corporation in Liechtenstein, that was started in 1968 on a large scale, ended in 1971. This probably happened out of neces sity. There is no indication in the papers that supports the position of ex- Mouton employee Anton Gerits, 54 whereby Mouton would have been con tractually bound to include in the series all titles which Europe Printing reprinted. However, Van Schooneveld does mention: ‘Toen Francl op de proppen kwam, hebben we de controle over de herdrukken verloren.’ 55 [‘When Francl turned up, we lost control over the reprints.’] Years later, Francl completed on his own several multivolume works that Mouton no longer reprinted in their entirety. These reprints (for example, Slavisticprint ings and reprintingsVoL 114/24 and Vol. 149/3, both from 1981) give‘Europe Printing Establishment, Vaduz, Liechtenstein’ as sole publisher. The Edicom annual report for 1971 mentions with respect to Mouton a 20% rise in sales, and an increase of the outcome by 20%. The report states: