The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-21
HANDMADE FICTION
AUTHORSHIP CHEAPENED UNTIL TT
is CONDUCTED LIKE A TRADE.
Fortunes Made Ont of Underpaid As
pirnnts for Fame--$20,00O a Year
Out of "Old SIeuth.v


called that. admitted representative of
one of New York's great publishing houses
to a Post reporter. with us fiction is lit
orally manufactured bought and sold as
commodity whose value fiuctuates with the
degree of demand and supply. Story writ
ing as an art is a thing unknown to us,
and to the writer's whose productions we
place before our readers; the trade of au-
thorship takes its place. The business of
furnishing stories to the American mass
es grows apace. Some few writer's who
have acquired regulations as popular au-
thors have made and still make fortunes
at the kind of literature we print, but to
the publishers belong the real spoils.''
Americans are the greatest readers in the
world. This is shown by the power of the
press, by the host of magazines and other
periodicals in existence. and by the fact
that the publishing. business is one of the
most lucrative that may be engaged in
when the popular chord is struck, despite
the fierce competition that every year is
marked by the downfall of scores of lit
erary enterprises. And the thirst for fic-
ton, of high and low grades is so avid
that it has been made the subject of Sc
rious comment by students of American
sociology. But it is TO the lower-midde and
lower classes that the ephemeral fiction of
the day makes it's appeal. in the shape of
the great family weeklies and cheap I'll
braries." with their impossible romances.
startling adventures. and fascinating pic
lures of life as it never was and never
will be. The statement was made by the
New York publisher above quoted that
high-grade fiction papers do not pay. The
people, including the youth of the land
whose nickels and dimes so weekly into
the pockets of the publishers of the fam
ilV story nd from i'm
of the kind they are accustomed to de-
your There is no happy, medium between
high-grade and low-grade literature for
him, for If he cater. to one class of readers
he must lose the other.
periodicals. the immense host of them is
made up of those who have made this
kind of literature a profession. of authors
Of high standing who find that legitimate
literature needs an adjunct in ''pot-boil-
ing and of those who. seized by the ego
productions in print. offer their wares s
gratis. tApropos of the last, it is a. trade
secret that ;,, Weli-known l Boston publisher
a cent for contributed matter except la in
and popularity. Notable instances might be
cited of men and women who have been
talents by this kind of work, because Cir
cumstances necessitateG an income that
could not be gained otherwise until after
slowly appreciative public. Some Of these
authors have acquired fortune, But 1t Is
too late now for them to attempt to win
genuine fame.
GLUT IN THE MARKET
There is so much good fiction dumped
upon the desk of the editor of the average
weekly that it almost gluts the market.
Consequently there is little money in the
business for any one except him who has
a reputation as writer of popular ro-
mances, recognized among publishers at
least
For here let it be said that not more
than two-thirds of the names which an
pear above the brilliant serials, of to-
day belong to individual persons. Every
house publishing cheap fiction has in it's
office at its call force of men and
women ripe of imagination and ready with
pen, who from the merest idea furnished
them, can dash off many thousand word
serial without plotting or other prepara-
forth IN wee OF d ufese pna
writer may conduct the entire series, often
er a number are engaged upon the separate
magic name of the supposed author whose
popularity insures their ready SALE There
is one author whose name is dear to the
factory girls and schoolmisses, and whose
thrilling stories of dukes and duchesses,
maids of lowly birth and handsome lovers,
are put forth periodically and read with
an eagerness born of morbid love for the
romantic the original of whom does not
exist in any one person, but is the pseudo
used to cover the output of various work
ers in the fiction factory which issues the
novels.
1t is an easy task for many of these
men and women to initiate to a wonder
or to inject strong local color into any
story they undertake to write. Romances
of this character are considered of
higher order than others which are print
ed in 10-cent editions. and find their way
to class Of readers who would not read
the story paper in which they originally
anrparpd hut whose interest is caught
under the guise of the tempting 50-cent
novel sold on the trains, from the hotel
news stands and at the summer resorts.
An instance OF this may be mentioned.
Shortly after Archibald Gunter achieved
New York and similar stories, there APP
peared in leading fiction sheet serial ro-
mances which were remarkable limitations
uations that marked the other novelist's
productions, and in which the Iocalization
was exceedingly clever. These stories have
since been put out between yellow covers.
like Gunters books in 50-cent edition;
they are very similar, even to the titles.
Some time ago there was announced in
a family story paper a sensational tale of
Russian nihilism, founded on fact The au-
thor's long residence in Russia, it was
stated, had enabled him to deal realistical-
ly with the subject. and the romance had
been secured at a high price for the bene-
fit exclusively of the readers of that
periodical. The story not written at
the time of announcement, but before 1t
appeared the writer in whose brain the
of the paper, surrounded himself with
score of his stories and other books treat
ing of the country of the Gar, and satu-
rated himself with their contents, so to
speak. Soon thereaftfr a piece of fiction
spun itself out FROM under his pen that
was marvel of ingenuity and true to life
narrative.
Stories are written with the meagerest
basis for their construction. In some houses
a number of women employed, whose
duty it IS to scan hundreds of exchanges
which come into the Office for news items
ard other paragraphs that suggest ideas
for possible plots
MULTIPLE AUTHORSHIP
Sometimes one Individual writer will have
two or more stories running in serial form
in the same paper, produced apparently. by
two separate writer's; half dozen mons
de plume are not uncommon with these
authors. To make hundred dollars and
more a week at this sort of work is as
easy with some of them as IS the oft
mentioned process of rolling off log A
knack at Keeling off sentence after sentence
almost without pause, and lively magma
ton for all sorts of impossibilities and situ-
ations is what is required. 1t is said of a
certain writer of half-dime novels who
has made thousands of dollars out of his
work. and whose home is not far from
washington. that he one day expressed 10
his publisher the wish that there wastsoine
faster instrument than the typewriter as