XXVI.
PATRONS AND
PROFITS FOR
TWENTY-TWO YEARS
On the 20th of this month (September, 1911) it will be just twenty-two years since Edwards received payment for his first story. On Sept. 20, 1889, The Detroit Free Press sent him a check for $8. On that $8 the Fiction Factory was started.
Who have been the patrons of the Factory for these twenty-two years, and what have been the returns?
A vast amount of work has been necessary in order to formulate exact answers to these questions. Papers and other memoranda bearing upon the subject were widely scattered. During Edwards' travels about the country many letters and records were lost. The list that follows, therefore, is incomplete, but exact as far as it goes. More work was realized upon, by several thousands of dollars, than is here shown. For every item in the record Edwards has a letter, or a printed slip that accompanied the check, as his authority. The errors are merely those of omission.
Titles of the material sold will not be given, but following the name of the publication that purchased the material will be found the year in which it was either published or paid for.
The finest music in the room is that which streams out to the ear of the spirit in many an exquisite strain from the hanging shelf of books on the opposite wall. Every volume there is an instrument which some melodist of the mind created and set vibrating with music, as a flower shakes out its perfume or a star shakes out its light. Only listen, and they soothe all care, as though the silken-soft leaves of poppies had been made vocal and poured into the ear.—James Lane Allen.
When William Dean Howells occupied an editorial chair in Harper's office, a young man of humble and rough exterior one day submitted personally to him a poem. Mr. Howells asked:
"Did you write this poem yourself?"
"Yes, sir. Do you like it?" the youth asked.
"I think it is magnificent," said Mr. Howells. "Did you compose it unaided?"
"I certainly did," said the young man firmly. "I wrote every line of it out of my head."
Mr. Howells rose and said:
"Then, Lord Byron, I am very glad to meet you. I was under the impression that you died a good many years ago."
ADVERTISEMENTS
Announcement
In addition to "The Fiction Factory," The Editor Company are publishers at Ridgewood, New Jersey, of The Editor, (The Journal of Information for Literary Workers), which has been published solely in the interests of writers for eighteen years, and of the following books:
THE WRITER'S BOOK $2.50 Compiled by William R. Kane. PRACTICAL AUTHORSHIP 1.50 By James Knapp Reeve. 1001 PLACES TO SELL MMS 1.00 (The American Writer's, Artist's
and Photographer's Year Book)
in its ninth edition.POINTS ABOUT POETRY .60 By Donald G. French. RHYMES AND METERS .50 By Horatio Winslow. THE FICTION WRITER'S
WORKSHOP.50 By Duncan Francis Young. HOW TO WRITE A SHORT STORY .50 THE EDITOR MANUSCRIPT
RECORD (loose leaf).50 ESSAYS ON AUTHORSHIP .25 THE WAY INTO PRINT .25 THE EDITOR COMPANY
RIDGEWOOD, NEW JERSEY
THE EDITOR
If you write, or if you have an itching to write, we want to talk to you.
The Editor, we may explain, is "The Journal Of Information For Literary Workers." It is not at all pretentious, and not at all dull. It is a matter-of-fact little magazine, always filled with good, readable articles on the technique of writing. Sometimes they are contributed by authors and sometimes by editors.
We aim to show our patrons, so far as such things may be taught, how to write fiction, poetry, articles and the like, and then how to sell them, provided they are up to the standard demanded by editors. We have been assured so many times that it wearies us, that our magazine has been the lever that pried open the editorial doors of pretty nearly every publication in the country. In addition to our articles we present our Literary Market department in which we list monthly the complete report of editorial needs, announcements, policies, changes, prize-contests, etc. This enables the writer to keep his finger on the magazine pulse; he knows what to write, when to write it, how to write it, when to submit it, what payment will be made, and countless other points. Authors such as George Allan England, who is selling regularly to McClure's, Red Book, Bohemian, etc., have been good enough to say that this department alone is worth the subscription price. Now add to the foregoing a spice of good verse, bright editorial comment, and you'll know why every editor and very nearly every author of note sends his writer-friends to us.
Why you can't write and do without the authors' trade-journal! You will always find something between the covers of the magazine that drives you to work, that spurs you to greater efforts, that puts you on the high road to success.
We pride ourselves on the fact that The Editor is a good, live text-book. It is a pretty sort of a teacher, you know, who never sees an educational journal; new methods and systems are cropping out constantly. And no writer—we leave this to you—likes to send a manuscript to a magazine that suspended a few months ago; nor allow an article to go unread that may cover just the point on which his or her rejections cling. The writer wants hints, helps, and as many of them as possible; everybody does. There is no magazine that better meets this want than The Editor.
We've succeeded in pleasing and making famous the promising writer-folk of this country since 1894. Mayn't we have you?
15 cents a copy $1.00 a year
THE EDITOR COMPANY
RIDGEWOOD, NEW JERSEY
Transcriber's Notes:
Inconsistent and occasionally inaccurate capitalization/italicization of publication titles are retained from the original.
Retained some archaic/unusual spellings from the original (e.g. "grevious," "Omniverous").
Retained inconsistent spellings from the original where different writers used different word variations (e.g. "installment" in the main text vs. "instalment" in a quoted letter). Inconsistent spellings within the same context have been normalized as noted in detail below.
Retained some inconsistent hyphenation from the original (e.g. viewpoint vs. view-point).
The original text contained several instances of "he" / "be" confusion. These have been corrected and are noted below. They are not the result of OCR errors; they are present in the original typography.
Page 10, normalized indentation before "The modest goal, the lesser fame."
Page 15, changed double to single quotes around "When the Editor's Eye Struck" and added missing end double quote.
Page 21, changed "ocassion" to "occasion." Normalized second appearance of "sewer-pipe" to include hyphen. Changed "Ewards" to "Edwards" ("first story for which Edwards").
Page 30, removed duplicate "by" from "spoiled by just such a slip."
Page 35, italicized nom de plume (in sentence about Boy's Story Paper) for consistency with all other appearances in the text.
Page 36, added missing colon to paragraph above "We are in a hurry for this series."
Page 43, changed double to single quotes around "Dalton's Double."
Page 46, changed two instances of "villian" to "villain" for consistency with the rest of the text (in sentence including "female villain").
Page 47, changed "pubilc" to "public" ("their reading public") and "succeding" to "succeeding" ("succeeding issues").
Page 48, changed "be felt elated" to "he felt elated."
Page 58, removed stray single quote after "9 o'clock in the evening."
Page 67, changed "decended" to "descended" and "prepetrator" to "perpetrator."
Page 68, changed "rememberance" to "remembrance" for consistency ("livid remembrance").
Page 69, changed "For day's while" to "For days while."
Page 71, there appears to be a missing word in "that it very humorous" but this error comes from the original.
Page 72, changed "entirely" to "entirety" ("satisfactory in its entirety") and "word was deturned" to "word was returned."
Page 74, changed "saticfactory" to "satisfactory" ("price was not satisfactory").
Page 77, changed "responisble" to "responsible" ("it was responsible for").
Page 82, "Mr. Perkins write:" appears to be an error, but it comes from the original. Changed "manusccript" to "manuscript" ("quality of the manuscript").
Page 83, changed "installemnts" to "installments" ("first two installments").
Page 90, if there is supposed to be special formatting in the example following "he did it thus," it is not present in the original book; nothing unusual has been lost in translation to digital format here.
Page 91, changed "Is seems poor policy" to "It seems poor policy."
Page 92, changed "lettters" to "letters" ("letters on a typewriter").
Page 97, changed double to single quotes around "The Man from Dakota."
Page 100, added missing open quote before "misfortunes never come singly."
Page 103, Changed "be" to "he" in "he faced a steadily brightening prospect".
Page 108, added missing space after comma in "November 19, 1904."
Page 118, moved comma from before " to after " in 13". Changed "must he high" to "must be high."
Page 120, added missing open quote before "Your last story, No. 285."
Page 122, changed "particluarly" to "particularly" in "not particularly encouraging." Changed "Edward's hope" to "Edwards' hope."
Page 126, changed "damm" to "damn" in "damn it utterly."
Page 127, changed "Edward's product" to "Edwards' product."
Page 141, removed unnecessary apostrophe after "Edwards" in "to Edwards it is a delightful confusion."
Page 143, added missing apostrophe to "Edwards' first advice" and removed unnecessary apostrophe from "which Edwards consulted."
Page 147, changed "Dilema" to "Dilemma" in "I shall require a single copy of 'The Billionaire's Dilemma.'"
Page 148, changed open double quote to single quote in "your short story: 'The Shadow of the Unknown.'" Changed "ficticious" to "fictitious" in footnote.
Page 149, changed open double quote to single quote in "'The Shadow of the Unknown,' writes the publisher."
Page 156, changed "royalities" to "royalties" ("Dillingham, last royalties").
Page 160, changed "bettter" to "better" ("anything of a bettter quality").
Page 162, changed "lettter" to "letter" ("letter saying they could pay").
Page 169, added some commas to 1910 table for consistency.
Page 170, changed "sometmes" to "sometimes" ("sometimes stories, about the Harper"). Changed double to single quotes around "The Masquerader."
Page 171, added missing colon after "How "Bob" Davis hands you a Lemon:"
Page 173, added missing close quote after "reasonable share of the royalties."
Page 175, corrected chapter number from XXII to XXVI and corrected double comma after "Sept. 20, 1889."
Pages 176-180, normalized some punctuation within the table of publications (but still retained some inconsistencies). Deleted partial totals and "brought forward" entries at page boundaries. Did not attempt to correct some apparent mathematical errors. Changed "Philadeljhia" to "Philadelphia" and corrected "senario" to "scenario" in entry for Lubin Mfg. Co.
Advertisements, changed "AUHORSHIP" to "AUTHORSHIP" in "ESSAYS ON AUTHORSHIP."