Plus ca change

...his main interest was the novel which he was writing: Failure. The drafting, writing, re-writing, typing, re-typing, submitting, putting aside, re-submitting, acceptance, further rejection, re-acceptance, setting up in type, piecemeal publication... a heartbreaking business undertaken in hopelessly unfavourable conditions... and finally the agreement: £30 down and the remote possibility of royalties; and the sale: three hundred copies; and the absence of reviews, except in the North London Gazette, the Jewish Magazine, the Madras Daily Courier, and the Saskatchewan Free Press - Failure.

from Rain on the Pavements by Roland Camberton (John Lehman, 1951, due from Five Leaves in June/July 2010)