The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-10-04
DIME NOVELS FOR BOYS
HOW THE AVERAGE PENNY DREAD
Full IS WRITTEN.


Follow - Has Its Rigid Morality.
To the romantic Imagination Of the
small boy the writer of dime novels Is
Of the same heroic and fre-eating type
as the heroes he portrays, writes Wal
ter L. Hawley In the Washington
Star. The actual fact Is so different
that If It we're known, the resultant
loss Of glamor would undoubtedly be
accompanied by a corresponding de-
crease Of sales. The men who write
dime novels do not wear their hair
long. They carry no six-shooters nor
bowie knives and many of them never
saw a live Indian or cowboy. The
writing Of such literature is a business
rather than a profession, and the only
special qualification requisite to sue
cess are an imagination of great re-
source and fertility and an unlimited
capacity for hard and rapid work.
Each publishing house engaged in the
business employs a staff of regular
writer's, paying those who do nothing
else a salary, and to those who do
other work fixed sum for the manu-
script and copyright on each story
Thus is carried on the business Of
embodying and re-embodying the good
old heroes. Alkali Ike, Gentleman Joe,
Big Foot Sandy One Eye Pete, Dead
wood Dan, Dare Devil Dick, The Man
With the Iron Hand, The Boy Detec-
tive and all the other popular favor
ties. who are still on duty, trailing In
dams, hanging horse thieves, rescuing
kidnapped maidens, finding lost heirs,
recovering lost fortunes and in other
ways helping good people out OF bad
scrapes and leaving bad people "cling-
ing, weak and despairing, to a yield
ing twig, that holds them for one
thrilling moment suspended between
the edge of the cliff and the yawning,
rock-bound abyss a thousand feet
below"
In addition to the men who are en-
gagged to produce a certain amount Of
copy within a given time in order to
supply the regular issues of the
libraries" each publisher has list
of men who can write a story to order
at short notice. They are classed as
extras" or specials" and are called
upon when a regular writer is i'll, on
vacation or falls behind in the pro-
ductiOn of copy. These extra writer's
are usually newspaper men employed
on some paper in the city or men en-
gagged in some other class of literary
work that does not fully occupy their
time. Nine-tenths of all the so-called
observation-disclosures" stories produced
author does not even select the title
Of his story, and in many cases he is
compelled to follow plot suggested
by the publisher or to use some Incl
dent in real life as basis.
The publishers keep a close watch
upon the daily papers for stories Of
sensational crimes and adventure
that may serve as incidents in the fic-
ton prepared for the small boy, and
when great event or an incident Of
exciting race between publishers to be
the FIRST to put upon the market a
dime novel relating in some way to
the affair that is in the public mind.
Within a week Of Dewey's victory in
| Manila a score of thrilling stories in
which that battle was the chief Incl.
dent were on the newsstands. When
the sailors of the United States
cruiser Baltimore were attacked in the
streets of a South American city a
few years ago, and there was much
wild talk of war, publishing house
in New York put on sale 48 hours after
the news of the affair reached this
country, a dime novel with the muir
dered bOatswain's mate of the cruiser
as the hero. The author Of the story
wrote for 36 hours without rest OF
sleep, producing 100000 words Of copy
which went to the printers sheet by
sheet as he wrote it. This is prob
ably the record for rapid literary pro
duction. 1t often happens that {
writer of such literature is called upoI
to produce a story of 100000 to $4,000
words in three days.
Writers Of dime novels do not, as {
rule, attempt polished style of Eng
fish, and rarely re-read or revise
page of their copy The publisher
want action, plot, incident, Dialogue
and thrilling situations. A successful
writer of dime novels must possess a
least superficial knowledge Of a gPea
variety Of subjects. He must be abb
to write a story of life in the slums o
a great city, one of adventure on tn
western plains, of war in Cuba or tn