The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-09-08
MONEY IN STORY WRITING.
Authors Benefited by Newspaper:
Publishing Their Tales.

Publishing Their Tales.
While those who deal in dry goods, those
who furnish builders supplies, and mer-
chants who sell the necessaries of life, are
looking for an extraordinarily prosperous
trade this fall says Holland, in a letter from
New Y ork to the Philadelphia Press, in one
department of trade is to be found some
thing AKIN to despair.
have been talking with a number of
our publishers this week, as well as those
whose business it is to deal in literary work,
and find the opinion common among them
all, that 80 far as imaginative literature is
concerned, the publishing houses look for
little business and no profits. Some interest
ing facts were CLEANED respecting the re-
markable change which has been developed
within the past three or four years in the
business of book writing and book publish
ing
Until five years ago, one of our leading
publishers tells me. 80 per cent. of all the
books published were first issued in book
form. He was speaking of romantic litera-
cure, such as novels, tales, stories of adven-
ture, and the like. A few short years have
reversed this order of things. Now nearly
everything is first published serially, ex-
| cepting tho trash novels of the silly, senti-
mental school, and the audacious stories
whose theme is salacious one This has
rapidity. the number of writers of Ameri-
can stories, SO that everywhere in the
country are springing up writer's of tales,
many of whom do excellent work and gain
local regulations, while Others promise even
better things in their future performance.
AMERICAN STORIES WANTED.
Instead Of there being a decline in the
passion for reading works of Imagination,
it has increased enormously. but the pub
| fishers do not get the benefit of it. Most of
| the stories are printed serialy in news
| papers of local or of national reputation. 1t
| Is fact that with a swiftness of develop
nent unprecedented, the press has not ouly
| to a great extent taken away from the book
| publishers what was once an important de-
| partment of their trade, but has also vastly
increased the number of those who delight
| in story telling.
This publisher who thus expressed him
self believed that out of this condition
would come an entire change speedily in the
| book publishing business. Some OF the
| stories which cantain merit sufficient to
| justify the putting In of them in permanent
| form, will be reprinted, and there are few
authors Of established repute who may con-
tinue first to issue their works in book form;
but the greater part of these sarially pub
lished stories, he thought, would prove to
be Of the brief and current interest only
! which journalistic publication compels 1t
| seemed to him that out of this might come
ultimately the the new and greatly longed-
| Tor American novel or series of American
novels, for, in his opinion, no one writer
| in this county will ever produce the Ameri-
can novel. He thought so, because the de-
mand is mighty for stories which portray
| American life as it now exists or has existed
in the past.
| DO WRITER'S GAIN OR LoosEl
| At first thought it might seem that those
| who write would be losers by this develop
ment, but they appear on the contrary, to
] have vastly gained, at least so far as Pc
cuniary rewards are concerned. A novelist
| who has written three or four stories of
American life, which have been meritorious
and brought him some repute, told me a
| few days ago that one of his stories pub
hshed by Harpers, and which they said had
| sold far above the average, brought him in
$40 royalty. Another story of his pub
lished by the Appletons, which sold WELL
yielded him in royalties scarcely enough to
| pay for the pen, ink, and paper which be
used in writing it, and less than he had
sometimes gained in two days work of a
special nature for a newspaper.
Now on the other hand, a retired army
officer, whose first book was published by
Harpers. and which yielded him but little
has, within year or so, sold his stories to q
syndicate of newspapers. Last year he re-
4
| expects to do better this year.
| CAPT. KINGS POP ULARITY.
| Iasked a gentleman who is familiar with
the business of syndicating stories, how
| Capt Kings works stood, and he said the
demand for them was very great. and if he
| proved equal to it, he would, in a few years
| accumulate a fortune. Now, Capt. King
might have published his stories in book
form for many years and he would proba-
| bly, have received less in royalties, all told.
| than he has earned in one year by permit
| ting his ales to be published serially and
| simultaneously in different parts of the
| country.
This gentleman, whose business it is to
know what the reading public wants in this
direction. said that the newspapers have
cultivated passion for story reading which
| is simply enormous; it exists everywhere.
| 1t requires both long continued serial aad
novelties, as well as stories complete in one
issue, TO satisfy it. He said that he had no.
| ticed, too, that the American public was 10
| longer satisfied with the reprints from
| English magazines or English books. They
are ready to read series published simulta-
| neously here and in England, but want no
more reprints of Miss Braddon or any Of
the English story writer's. The dema I'd for
American stories is so great that a contra It
has just been entered into with Bret Harte's
| Boston publishers, by which all of Harte's
earlier tales, originally published in book
| form, are to be reprinted serialIy by differ
ent newspapers in the country.
HIGH PRICES FOR NEW STORIES.
There was time when Mrs. Burnett
would have thoughtit undignifed to permit
! her stories to appear serlally anywhere than
| in magazines, She no longer labors under
| that delusion. l saw some months ago a
contract which the publishers Of weekly
| PAL er made with her, by which she bound
herself to give them her next long story
| and for which she was to receive $4,000
and did receive a good proportion of that in
advance These same publishers, after some
| negotiation, persuaded Robert Louis Steven
son with the golden bait of $4,000 to sell
them his next story to be published serially.
| Edgar Fawcett received more money for
| one of his stories which was published
serially than for any one OF the others
| printed originally in book form.
illustrations could be multiplied which
| go to show that this new development is of
/ the utmost advantage to writers, and
makes it now possible for the novelist who
has a story worth reading to feel some as
surauce that he will receive for it a sum
| sufficient to justify the writing of it. Nor
| is thare any danger that this form of nuh-