The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1883-08-17
THE PROFITS OF AUTHORS

Almost g Disgrace Not to Have Writ
ten One SuccessfulS Story.
Corresnondence of the Philadelphia Press.
A last thing may be mentioned wheh
| reference is made to authorship. so
many successful novels have lately peeh
issued in Boston that the day seems 10
be at hand when it will be q sort oil as
grace not to have produced at least one
successful book. The business is toa
| striking degree, falling into the hands
| of the ladies. There lives no woman
| who can write at all but who can write at
least a charming letter. The moment
| one of these discovers that to write sue
| rcsefully is to write precisely as she
would do in a letter to q friend. ana
| that it is moi "a composition" that Is re-
| ouired, that moment she may so write
SO as to make a success. What Is a sue,
| cess? The Boston novel. MIR. lsaacs
has reached o sale OF l4,OOO copies,
which is about 81 600 or Sl,20O IN the
pocket of its author.
A safe Of 2 1000 may be arrived at. But
a book fades as does roses; the most
charming of books as does the most yer.
million of roses. Alas, when the author
publishes his second novel it is general
w found that all the cream in the ml!s
| has gone into the first book. Very, very
rarely is it that there is any more cream
IN that vessel of milk! One baysmal
mystery lies in the question. "Who pays
! the publisher for such books as do not
succeed?"
A large proportion of books of all
! kinds, drop stone-dead from the press;
who has to suffer it? There is among
successful authors a gloomy suspicion
that in some occult fashion thew have to
pay the publisher for the unsuccessful
| books. Does a commission house OF
any kind put everything into its account?
would be a boon u~nspeakable if some
publisher, standing up for his brethren
everywhere, would say, eve have no
concealments: Things are precisely as
we state them!" Perhaps they are. But
if any aspirant for literary emolumeEt
| should read these lines let him know
that if the nearly unanimous voice OF
authors could be articulated il one word
1t would be, if you seek reputation ex-
clusively, go ahead. i it is gold you
crave, go not into tha seductive paths OF
Parnassus. Dig potatoes, build fences,
sell calicoes, argue cases at the bar, doc
tor, if you: conscience allows you to do
so, you, ailing fellow-creatures, preach
the gospel, do anything that is honora-
bic, but seek not wealth in literature.
The lifetime earnings of even a Wash
ington Irving were less than S20O, 600.
| Very rarely, indeed, as James Parton
says, can a literary man clear $1,000 a
year; our most successful authors rarely
pass 5000 a year. Absurdly irrelevant
as it is, let one thing happening while
this is being written be here recorded.
just outside the window a long line of
horses stand ready harnessed to take
the street cars around an upgrade cor
ner, The horses are so placed in line as
to be taken each in its due turn. Just
now the writer observed that the instant
the driver detailed for the purpose was
out of sight around the corner, a horse
whose turn would come next deliberate.
ly walked down the line and placed him
self as the last in the line; the last thus
to be used. Watching closely he noticed
that it was but one horse that did this,
did it SC invariably and not until the
driver was out of sight around the cor
ner, as to make it impossible but that it
was done to escape work. Could a
horse be that intelligent anywhere out
side of New England? AS 10 the NOR.
atty OF the act, alas! alas!