[...] I am anxious that my Nibelung pieces should be published as poems very soon—at once. A pianoforte arrangement of the first piece—The Rhinegold—is to come out immediately, and I want at the same time to lay the entire poem before the public. Still, I will not on any account let this poem be published by the music-publisher (Schott, of Mainz, in this instance). That would mean that, being regarded as opera libretti, they would reach few but musicians, as happened to my earlier poems. They would be judged as such, and, as you know the poem, I need hardly labour the point with you that such would be a very senseless point de départ. Accordingly I am looking for a publishing house which will from the first give the book the right standing, and I have reason to believe that Cotta would be the best man for my purpose. I want someone who will offer my poem to Cotta in a manner to recommend it and catch his attention for it. A well-known writer would do this best, I think, but I am not closely acquainted with any.
You, as I hear, are still a kind of bookseller [...] so I ask you very cordially if you will take the matter in hand. [...] I expect, particularly after a while, a great, a widespread popular success for this poem, even among the reading public. Such a success can best be prolonged and increased by future performances of the individual pieces at the theatres. I have accorded the music-publisher of The Rhinegold the provisional right to print the separate pieces (in cheap editions) without stage directions as text-books for theatrical performances. I have made a special reservation for myself of a comprehensive edition of the poem as a whole, and it is this which I am tendering to the publisher I have in mind. I believe that the book will arouse great interest at its first appearance. Then, if in the first place the pianoforte arrangement of The Rhinegold succeeds with the public, musicians will be most anxious to get to know the whole poem. The demand will increase when the performance of The Rhinegold actually takes place, and will do so again later at each successive performance of the following parts which, as you see, I have—resigned myself to producing singly and gradually. In this way quite unusual fresh chances are open to the enterprises of the poem's publisher.—I believe that I must insist on an edition of two thousand copies, each copy (handsomely got up) to be priced at something up to two thalers gross. My honorarium for this edition should be calculated on the customary ratio. New stipulations for each new edition after that. [...]
You will, no doubt, be so kind as to lend the copy which I gave you and Cecilie to the publisher temporarily for examination. As soon as he comes to a decision, I will revise the manuscript quickly and send it straight from here to the press. [...]
[...] Negotiations under promising auspices are going forward with Dresden about my return to Germany. In the middle of the coming season Tannhäuser is to be given (by command) at the Grand Opera here and, for this, without knowing it, I had Princess Metternich to thank. As a result, everything is at my disposal. Only I still can make no money at all and have been obliged to pay out of my own pocket to a disastrous extent. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 462