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
When you take down your "Who's Who" to look up some personage
sufficiently notorious to have a place between its red covers, if you
find at the end of his name the words, "editor, author," you may be
sure that there is no cloud on the title that gives him a place in the
book. You will know at once that he must have been a good author or he
would never have been promoted from the ranks; and having been a good
author he is certainly a better editor than if the case were otherwise,
for he knows both ends of the publishing trade.
Having been through the mill himself, Mr Harriman has a fellow-feeling
for his contributors. He knows what it is to take a lay figure for a
plot, clothe it in suitable language, cap it with a climax and put it
on exhibition with a card: "Here's a Peach! Grab me quick for $9.99."
Harriman's "peaches" never came back. The author of "Ann Arbor Tales,"
"The Girl and the Deal," and others has been successful right from the
start.
No request for material received at the Edwards' Factory ever fails of
a prompt and hearty response. A short story and a novelette were at
once put on the stocks. They were constructed slowly, for Edwards could
give them attention only during odd moments taken from his regular
work. The short story was finished and submitted long in advance of the
novelette. This letter, dated Sept. 18, will show its success:
"My Dear Old Man: Why don't you run on here and see me, now and
again. Oh, yes, New York's a lot better, but we're doing things
here, too. About 'Cast Away by Contract,' it's very funny--such a
ridiculously absurd idea that it's quite irresistible. How will $75
be for it? O. K.? It's really all I can afford to pay for a story
of its sort, and I do want you in the book. Let me hear as soon as
possible and I will give it out to the artist.
Very truly yours,
"K. H."
And so began the business with Mr. Harriman. He still, at this writing
(1911), has a running account on the Factory's books and is held in
highest esteem by the proprietor.
A letter, written May 13, 1905, (a year dealt with in a previous
chapter), is reproduced here as having a weighty bearing on the events
of 1906. It was Edwards' first letter from a gentleman who had recently
allied himself with the Munsey publications. As a publisher Mr. F. A.
Munsey is conceded to be a star of the first magnitude, but this genius
is manifest in nothing so much as in his ability to surround himself
with men capable of pushing his ideas to their highest achievement.
Such a man had been added to his editorial staff in the person of Mr.
R. H. Davis. Mr. Davis, like Mr. Bryan, hails originally from Nebraska.
Although he differs somewhat from Mr. Bryan in political views, he
has the same powers as a spellbinder. He's Western, all through, is
"Bob" Davis, bluff, hearty and equally endowed with stories, snap and
sincerity.
"Dear Sir:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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