About Jack London's first novel: McClure, Phillips Co. agreed to pay Jack London an advance against royalties of $125 per month for five months beginning Aug. 1, 1900 while he wrote the novel. Jack made the novel twice as long. Also money arrangements continued somewhat longer until they had advanced $1,575. March 1901 he mails A Daughter of the Snows, to McClure Phillips & Co. McClure then sells the rights to J. B. Lippincott Company.
Jack London was ahead of his time liberating women when he introduced the independent, well-educated heroine, Frona Welse in this, his first novel. McClure was thoroughly disappointed with the novel; so was Jack. All through his career London would be accused of poor female character portrayal. The truth was that he was one of the few who portrayed the nontypical women of his time. Contemporary writers either put their women on a pedestal or in front of a hot kitchen stove. There was seldom any middle ground.
In summary, London's first novel was a failure, but doggedly he finished it. He lacked experience with a novel, he attempted to compensate by squandering enough material on it for a dozen novels, which aggravated his problem. - Kingman, Russ. A Pictorial Life of Jack London (Crown, 1979)
Source: Project Gutenberg e book number 14654. release date: 2005 - 01 - 10
