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Opening the text

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

It was during this year of 1901 that Edwards had a fleeting glimpse
of fortune as a playwright. His story, "The Tangle in Butte," had
been read by an actor, a leading man in a Kansas City stock company,
who wanted dramatic rights so that he might have a play taken from it
and written around him. Edwards proposed to write the play himself.
He did so, and was promptly offered $5,000 for the play, payable in
installments after production. Following a good deal of correspondence
it was decided to put on the piece for a week's try-out in Kansas City.
Edwards waived his right to royalties for the week, models of the
scenery were made, rehearsals began--and then the actor was suddenly
stricken with a serious illness and the deal was off. When he had
recovered sufficiently to travel he went East, taking the play with
him. For several months he tried to interest various managers in it,
but without effect.

The year 1901 closed for Edwards with the sketches for the trade paper
no longer in demand; but, otherwise, he faced a steadily brightening
prospect for the Fiction Factory.

  1900:
  Circus Series, 28 @ $40 each                     $1120.00
  Circus Series, Completing unfinished story          20.00
  Five-Cent Library, 23 @ $40 each                   920.00
  Trade Paper Sketches, 10 @ $10 each                100.00
  "He Was A Stranger,"                               250.00
  "The Man From Dakota,"                             200.00
  "What Happened to the Colonel,"                     75.00
                                                  ---------
      Total                                        $2685.00

  1901:
  Five-Cent Library, 10 rewritten @ $30 each      $  300.00
  Five-Cent Library, 8 @ $50 each                    400.00
  Five-Cent Library, 16 @ $40 each                   640.00
  Four Boys' Serials @ $100 each                     400.00
  "The Tangle in Butte,"                             200.00
  "Tale of Two Towns,"                               150.00
  "A Vassar Girl,"                                   100.00
  Trade Paper Sketches, 9 @ $10 each                  90.00
                                                  ---------
      Total                                        $2280.00

  =Very Often.=

  _Poeta nascitur; non fit._ This has been somewhat freely translated
  by one who should know, as "The poet is born; not paid."


FOOTNOTES:

[G] What do you think of _that_!




XV.

  FROM THE
  FACTORY'S FILES


A letter of commendation from the reader of a story to the writer is
not only a pleasant thing in itself but it proves the reader a person
of noble soul and high motives. _Noblesse oblige!_

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

Opening the text

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

Cook, William Wallace

Authorship; Fiction

It was during this year of 1901 that Edwards had a fleeting glimpse
of fortune as a playwright. His story, "The Tangle in Butte," had
been read by an actor, a leading man in a Kansas City stock company,
who wanted dramatic rights so that he might have a play taken from it
and written around him. Edwards proposed to write the play himself.
He did so, and was promptly offered $5,000 for the play, payable in
installments after production. Following a good deal of correspondence
it was decided to put on the piece for a week's try-out in Kansas City.
Edwards waived his right to royalties for the week, models of the
scenery were made, rehearsals began--and then the actor was suddenly
stricken with a serious illness and the deal was off. When he had
recovered sufficiently to travel he went East, taking the play with
him. For several months he tried to interest various managers in it,
but without effect.

The year 1901 closed for Edwards with the sketches for the trade paper
no longer in demand; but, otherwise, he faced a steadily brightening
prospect for the Fiction Factory.

  1900:
  Circus Series, 28 @ $40 each                     $1120.00
  Circus Series, Completing unfinished story          20.00
  Five-Cent Library, 23 @ $40 each                   920.00
  Trade Paper Sketches, 10 @ $10 each                100.00
  "He Was A Stranger,"                               250.00
  "The Man From Dakota,"                             200.00
  "What Happened to the Colonel,"                     75.00
                                                  ---------
      Total                                        $2685.00

  1901:
  Five-Cent Library, 10 rewritten @ $30 each      $  300.00
  Five-Cent Library, 8 @ $50 each                    400.00
  Five-Cent Library, 16 @ $40 each                   640.00
  Four Boys' Serials @ $100 each                     400.00
  "The Tangle in Butte,"                             200.00
  "Tale of Two Towns,"                               150.00
  "A Vassar Girl,"                                   100.00
  Trade Paper Sketches, 9 @ $10 each                  90.00
                                                  ---------
      Total                                        $2280.00

  =Very Often.=

  _Poeta nascitur; non fit._ This has been somewhat freely translated
  by one who should know, as "The poet is born; not paid."


FOOTNOTES:

[G] What do you think of _that_!




XV.

  FROM THE
  FACTORY'S FILES


A letter of commendation from the reader of a story to the writer is
not only a pleasant thing in itself but it proves the reader a person
of noble soul and high motives. _Noblesse oblige!_

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

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

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