 The American publisher, Scribner's, paid £5000 advance for United States publishing rights.At that time Churchill envisaged writing 180,000 to 250,000 words to be published in no more than two volumes.Cumulative sales of the first volume were 17,000 copies, 15,000 for the second and 10,000 for the third and fourth, which was a respectable though not exceptional performance for such a work.