Loading your reading…

The Fiction Factory: Being the experience of a writer who, for twenty-two years, has kept a story-mill grinding successfully — John Shaqi

The Fiction Factory: Being the experience of a writer who, for twenty-two years, has kept a story-mill grinding successfullyCook, William Wallace

Philosophy

The Fiction Factory: Being the experience of a writer who, for twenty-two years, has kept a story-mill grinding successfully

Name: The Fiction Factory: Being the experience of a writer who, for twenty-two years, has kept a story-mill grinding successfully
Author: Cook, William Wallace

Cook, William Wallace

Authorship; Fiction

To regain a foothold with his publishers, following the disastrous
year of 1897, had cost Edwards so much persistent work that he would
not cancel a single order. He hired a stenographer and for two weeks
dictated his stories, then again resumed the writing of them himself,
in bed and with the use of the improvised table. Success awaited all
his fiction, even when turned out in such adverse circumstances.
This, perhaps, was the best tonic he could have. He improved slowly
but surely and was able, in addition to his regular work, to write a
hundred-thousand word novel embracing his Arizona experiences. This
novel he called "He Was a Stranger."

The title was awkward, but it had been clipped from the quotation,
"he was a stranger, and they took him in." The story was submitted to
Harte & Perkins, but they were not in the mood for taking in strangers
of that sort. But the year following the novel secured the friendly
consideration of Mr. Matthew White, Jr., and introduced Edwards into
the Munsey publications.

Another novel, "The Man from Dakota," was returned by Harte & Perkins
after they had had it on hand for a year. It was declined in the face
of a favorable report by one of their readers because, "We have so many
books on hand that must be brought out during the next year that we
cannot consider this story."

The year 1899 closed with Fortune's smile brightening delightfully for
Edwards, and the new century beckoning him pleasantly onward with the
hope of better things to come. The returns for the two years, standing
to the credit of The Fiction Factory, are summarized thus:

  1898:
  "Lovers En Masque,"                       $ 300.
  "Golden Star Library," 16 at $40 each,      640.
  Boys Serial,                                100.
  "A Blighted Heart,"                         300.
                                          --------
  Total                                     $1340.

  1899:
  "Won by Love,"                            $ 300.
  3 "Golden Stars" at $40 each,               120.
  35 Five-Cent Libraries at $40 each,        1400.
                                          --------
  Total                                     $1820.

  Edwards lives in the outskirts of a small town, on a road much
  travelled by farmers. Two honest tillers of the soil were passing
  his home, one day, and one of them was heard to remark to the other:
  "A man by the name of Edwards lives there, Jake. He's one of those
  fictitious writers."

       *       *       *       *       *

  Edwards has few friends whom he prizes more highly than he does Col.
  W. F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill," and Major Gordon W. Lillie, "Pawnee
  Bill." While the Wild West and Far East Show, of which Cody and
  Lillie are the proprietors was making its farewell tour with the Last
  of the Scouts, Major Lillie had this to tell about Colonel Cody:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Fiction Factory: Being the experience of a writer who, for twenty-two years, has kept a story-mill grinding successfully

No reviews yet