Malcolm: I was beginning to think it was pestering time. I wasn't quite sure, it's about a month isn't it?
Hardy: Is it a month? It's as long as that is it? (laughs) I know I said two or three weeks, so it was very restrained of you.
Malcolm: Yes, I was beginning to itch for the phone, I've just been so busy otherwise, that probably saved you from my pestering.
Hardy: Anyway, I have now finished reading the book.
Malcolm: Oh good.
Hardy: And like Alan Ryan who read it before, I feel much more warmly towards it having finished it. And we would like to do it. That is to say, I mean I know you want a commitment sufficient to take you through the last stage of revision and that is what I'm offering. I'm not offering a totally unconditional commitment because obviously if what you do seems to us to make it worse then we would write to say so.
Malcolm: Of course, yes.
Hardy: But we feel confident enough to say go ahead and do that.
Malcolm: Oh great!
Hardy: I was, I was quite gripped by the end, the last two chapters. I was reading with the kind of attention that one gives to a novel, which is not very usual with a philosophical work. line 20
Malcolm: Oh great, it's very nice of you to say that.
Hardy: I think the fact that we both reacted in the same way to the later parts of the book suggests to me that there is something about the book which causes that and I've had another look at it with that in mind, and the first chapter is indeed both very long, much longer than any of the others and somehow less lively. Maybe it's just that one needs to get to know the people and more used to the mode of the book, but there may be a sense in which - and this is something to bear in mind perhaps as you revise - It may be a bit stiffer and more stilted and less relaxed.
Malcolm: I think you're probably right, yes.
Hardy: If there's any way of cutting that first chapter into separate sections, possibly two or three, where the natural breaks occur, without substantially affecting the flow of the argument, I think that might be a good thing, because somehow it's the length of that first chapter that makes it difficult to get going on the book. We both found that once we got past that we went on much easier. line 40
Malcolm: Yes well that's certainly a valid point. There's a certain amount I can cut out in that first chapter, but also, as you say, there's the break. One obvious break is where they go to the zoo park, the evolution bit, which has to be in there. Perhaps as you've got to the end of it you see why, how the various strands all interweave together, hopefully.
Hardy: Yes, yes, oh absolutely. Certainly the book has a very careful structure, there's no doubt about that. Have you got a pen? I've got various points written down here which I'd quite like to convey to you on the telephone rather than writing a long boring monologue about them.
Malcolm: Okidoke, right, I've got a pen, yes.
Hardy: Right... Starting right at the top we both feel that the title is very boring...
....
Hardy: The next thing I'm going to do this end... I mean is this a unique copy of the book that I have?
Malcolm: No, I have another copy.
Hardy: Do you want this back to work on?
Malcolm: Ermmm, I don't think so.
Hardy: I can let you have it back, it's just that I would like to have it accurately cast off so I can let you know that your 180,000 [words] is right.
Malcolm: No, keep it and cast it off accurately.
Hardy: It won't take more than a week or two,
Malcolm: Yes, yes.
Hardy: Then we can do costings and I can talk to you again about length and then having got to that point let me revisit it and we'll talk about it some more. I mean the book has a natural length, obviously, and I don't want to ask for unnecessary cuts, but at the same time length equals cover price, and of course...
Malcolm: Ya, ya, ya.
Hardy: I see much more having finished the book the point of the detail in the scientific sections, but the book could nevertheless bear some cuts... line 220
Malcolm: Mm. Some of it can go, some bits I know can go.
Hardy: ...but at the same time I think there could be some trimming without destruction of... I wouldn't want to discourage you into making every statement a kind of grey standard length. I will let you know what the actual length is and then we'll have some costings done on the basis of the actual length and we'll talk more precisely then about what kind of saving might yield what kind of price-reduction. That again depends on whether we do it in hardback only or in hardback and paperback. I'm still wavering on that one.
Malcolm: Mmm.
....
Hardy: Yes, one could mark those in the text by extra space. Anyway, I will not go on at any greater length. I mean if you want I'll be getting in touch again when I've done the costs and cast-off and so forth and then we can, er, talk about some sort of contract.
Malcolm: Great! Fantastic news! Really good!
Hardy: It seems to me that because it's such a risky venture I'm not going to be terribly generous financially, ermm... I mean what I think we should agree is that you have a fair royalty so that if the book is a success you will do well out of it.
Malcolm: Yes.
Hardy: But I don't want to pay you in advance money that has been very riskily invested.
Malcolm: Sure, sure I wouldn't expect that, yup.
Hardy: Okay?
Malcolm: Great! That's very good. I'm just in the middle at the moment... I couldn't do anything immediately because we've got the Brighton Festival going on here and I'm involved in all sorts of things, but everything finishes in a week or two... and by then perhaps I can get down to it.
Hardy: Right. Good. line 340
Malcolm: Great!
Hardy: Okay, well if you have any further thoughts or questions do come back to me with them. In the meantime...
Malcolm: In the meantime I'm waiting for you, you'll do the cast-off and...
Hardy: ...I'll write to you. Okay?
Malcolm: Splendid! Well thanks very much, that's er, that's made my day, (Hardy laughs) not to say my life.
Hardy: Well let's hope it does well. Okay?
Malcolm: Okay. Thanks very much.
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