Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Money paid for copy or copyright; compensation for literary work.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Nay, I will venture to say, that no work of imagination, proceeding from the mere consideration of a certain sum of copy-money, ever did, or ever will, succeed.

    The Fortunes of Nigel 2004

  • Cave, it seems, judged rightly for his profit, for by the additions that arrived afterward they swell'd to a quarto volume, which has had five editions, and cost him nothing for copy-money.

    The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1994 Edition) 1909

  • Cave, it seems, judged rightly for his profit, for by the additions that arrived afterward they swell’d to a quarto volume, which has had five editions, and cost him nothing for copy-money.

    Paras. 301-350 1909

  • Baretti says, he is the first man that ever received copy-money in Italy [457]. '

    Life of Johnson Boswell, James, 1740-1795 1887

  • What weight was given to this supplication does not appear; probably very little, for the translations were not extended, and as to getting back any part of the copy-money, it is not probable Tonson's most sanguine expectation ever reached that point.

    The Dramatic Works of John Dryden Scott, Walter, Sir 1882

  • The allowance for copy-money furnished a little fund for the _menus plaisirs_ of the circulating library and the theatre; and this was no trifling incentive to labor.

    Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume I (of 10) 1824

  • I may then give them a new impulse by a preface and notes; and if an edition, of say 30 volumes, were to be published monthly to the tune of 5000, which may really be expected if the shops were once cleared of the over-glut, it would bring in £10,000 clear profit, over all outlay, and so pay any sum of copy-money that might be ventured.

    The Journal of Sir Walter Scott From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford Walter Scott 1801

  • He says there are some properties of works that will revert to me, the copy-money not being paid, but it cannot be any very great matter, I should think.

    The Journal of Sir Walter Scott From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford Walter Scott 1801

  • What weight was given to this supplication does not appear; probably very little, for the translations were not extended, and as to getting back any part of the copy-money, it is not probable

    The Dramatic Works of John Dryden, Volume 1 With a Life of the Author Walter Scott 1801

  • But, notwithstanding this variety of winds and seasons, to which my writings had been exposed, they had still been making such advances, that the copy-money given me by the booksellers, much exceeded anything formerly known in England; I was become not only independent, but opulent.

    My Own Life Hume, David 1777

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