The Fiction Factory: Being the experience of a writer who, for twenty-two years, has kept a story-mill grinding successfully — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Fiction Factory: Being the experience of a writer who, for twenty-two years, has kept a story-mill grinding successfully
John Stuart Mill · en
Inclosed please find Chapter I of "Jack o' Diamonds; or, The Cache
in the Coteaux." Perhaps Western stories are bugbears with you (they
are, I know, with most publishers) but there are no Indians in this
one. I should like to go ahead, write this story, submit it, and let
you see what I can do. I am able to turn out work in short order, if
you should desire it, and feel that I can satisfy you. All I wish to
know is how long you want the stories, what price is paid for them
and whether there is any particular kind that you need. I have an
idea that the Thrun case would afford material for a good story. At
least, I think I can write you a good one with that as a foundation.
Please let me hear from you.
Yours very truly,
John Milton Edwards.
To this Edwards received the following reply, under date of March 30:
We have your favor of March 25th together with small installment
of story entitled "Jack o' Diamonds." Our careful reading of the
installment leads us to believe that you write easily, and can
probably do suitable work for our Ten-Cent Library, though the
particular scene described in this installment is one that can be
found in almost any of the old time libraries. It is a chestnut. A
decided back number.
What we require for our libraries is something written up-to-date,
with incidents new and original, with which the daily press is
teeming. I inclose herewith a clipping headed, "Thrun Tells it All,"
which, used without proper names, might suggest a good plot for a
story, and you could work in suitable action and incident to make a
good tale.
If you will submit us such a story we shall be pleased to examine
same, and if found suitable we will have a place for it at once. We
pay for stories in this library $100; they should contain 40,000
words, and when issued appear under our own _nom de plume_.
Installment "Jack o' Diamonds" returned herewith.
Thus it was up to Edwards to go ahead and "make good." Such a climax
has a weird effect on some authors. They put forth all their energy
securing an order to "go ahead" and then, at the critical moment,
experience an attack of stage fright, lose confidence and bolt, leaving
the order unfilled.
Years later, in New York, such a case came under Edwards' observation.
A young woman had besieged a certain editor for two years for a
commission. When the coveted commission arrived, the young woman took
to her bed, so self-conscious that she was under a doctor's care for a
month. The story was never turned in.