For months, publishers have predicted a reduction in the prices they pay for books by name authors or books that are perceived as big sellers.

Some publishers predicted moderate advertising growth for 1994.

In a letter to his brother Harry, Baum wrote that the book's publisher, George M. Hill, predicted a sale of about 250,000 copies.

No wonder that his publisher is predicting great things for the book, which started to reach the stores late last month.

About a decade ago, some publishers were predicting that books would soon be a thing of the past, and that we would all be reading downloadable texts on portable hand-held screens.

Because a publisher cannot predict accurately how the public will receive a new author, they usually print a small first run and follow it with reprints as needed.

The book's publisher (Little, Brown & Company) did not predict good sales and limited the first edition to 3,000 copies, published at the author's expense.

And with paper mills here doubling their book-paper capacity this year, Colombian publishers predict an aggressive expansion in the 1990's.

Its publisher, Warner Books, predicts it will be the largest-selling novel in hard-cover of all time, with three million copies in print by Christmas.

One publisher after another predicted that the books would revolutionize publishing.