Short stories, of which we use about eight to a number, may be of almost any length, although those of 5,000 words or less are most in demand. We don’t want them either padded or unduly compressed. Sex interest here also, although we sometimes use other kinds--humorous, say, or a good occult or mystery tale. We do not object to unhappy endings. Action is a desideratum. Slow moving stories, depending principally on atmosphere and characterization, are not desired. A short play is published in every issue. These may be funny or serious. We want especially good acting plays, clever and skilfully plotted. We use a number of poems, mostly tense love verses or those of a humorous or whimsical sort. Occasionally blank verse is used. Poems may vary in length from the quatrain to forty lines. We seldom buy longer ones, although this is not a hard and fast rule. There is a good market here for short bits of prose, of six hundred words or less. These may be grave or gay, cynical or satirical. Jokes and epigrams are also in demand. Writers should make a little study of the magazine to which they desire to contribute, as in this way they will save their own time as well as the editor’s. We are only too glad to get in touch with new writers, and do all we can to encourage and develop them. THE EDITOR. _Snappy Stories._ THE NEW FICTION PUBLISHING COMPANY, 35-37 West Thirty-ninth Street, New York City. TELLING TALES In the ten years or so that I have been editing magazines that question “Why I Buy the Stories I Do” has been asked of me dozens and dozens of times, and I am as far as ever from being able to answer it. Authors and would-be authors are constantly coming and saying: “Mr. Clayton, what kind of stories do you want for your magazine?” and the only answer I can give them is, that I want any good story, providing it is not a sex story, and when they want to pin me down to what constitutes a good story I am utterly lost, and can only say that my idea of a good story is any story that I like. I presume that every magazine to be successful must be an expression of its editor’s individual taste. In other words, it must have a personality of its own, and that personality can only come from the man who makes it. Perhaps the point that appeals to me most strongly about a story is the _humanness_ of its characters. They must really _live_, so that the reader is impressed with their reality. Only thus may he come to feel toward them a friendly spirit which will lead him to take an actual interest in their adventures or misadventures, their love affairs, their successes or failures.