The sun., 1901-08-03
Relief for NOvellsts.

successful Indiana novelist OF the
younger school has been wrecking him
self upon composition until the doctors
have had to interfere. He has been
working from 8 A. NJ. to Q p. NJ. His
constitution. enfeebled perhaps by pre-
vious excesses Of copy making, has
sagged under the strain. He will have
to rest for little while and the publica-
ton OF his next novel will be postponed
bit The fall is the golden season, the
honey-making time of the novelists
and Of the publishers The latter now
exist mainly for the benefit OF the former,
once a despised or doubted class, now
conjurors-and yet some Of them are no
conjurors-with the art Of turning words
into gold, silver, bills and checks. Pre-
sumably this Hooser genius was eager
to have his novel ready for the fall trade.
Perhaps he was working on a rush
order"
Girls and women and strong men,
the same strong men that weep at sem
timental passages and snivel helplessly
when the hero and heroine part, not to
meet again until the chapter headed
AT Last" all will be crying for novels
in the fall In the summer they may
take little vacation, and talk proudly
OF the novels they have read. In the
fall they must begin to drag their chain
again. 1t is an admitted, il not always
a welcome, duty Of millions to read every
new novel that is shrewdly and copiously
advertised ard 80 makes itself talked
about. Have you read the Buc-
cancer OF The Bronx" the Love Story
Of Israel Putnam" The Cow Puncher
of Sleepy Eye" " The Belle of the Bad
Lands " with Bayonet and Bowie "
and The Sucker in kaskaskia'? There
are books which not TO read is to show
that you cant read to any good modern
purpose. And every day the army of
voracious readers. the grasshoppers,
the locusts of fiction, grows. Can the
novelist working ever so industriously
keep up with the demand?
Let us stop here a minute to con-
gratulatc the successful novelists, the
purple princes Of literature. Grub
street has been razed. The novelists
now live on Easy street. They are the
plutocrats OF the future. The days OF
toll. envy. want, the patron and the
Jail are over. Lois, houses, yachts,
the palace and the bank, is tho modern
reading. The lucky fellows. if only
they know when they're well of and
don't overwork
And why should they overwork?
There is no excuse for their doing so.
All they need to do is to apply the
principle Of combination and distribution
of labor TO their business. to provide
a suitable-plant and TO employ sufficient
help. A novelist gets an order for a
novel from a publisher. The amount
Of words, the price, the time of delivery
and the other conditions are agreed upon
by the General Superintendent and the
publishers representative and the con-
tract is signed. The Manager OF the
Plot Department has full line of plots
on hand all the time, The Chapter
Chopper provides for the division of the
work. The Department Of Dialogue, of
Local Color, Of Wit and Humor OF His
torical Investigation, Of Old Newspapers,
OF Scenery and Description OF War.
Battles and Duels and Murders, Of Dia-
lect, of Characters and Odd Characters.
and so on, all furnish their estimates.
The Board of Estimate and Apportion-
ment decides how much work each
department ought to provide TO satisfy
the contract. The estimates and plans
completed. a hundred typewriters be-
gin to click. The Revision Department
goes over the work when it is done.
The author may write the dedication,
il he chooses, but it will not be his policy
to take much actual personal share
in the manufacture OF the book. He
will trust to his subordnates. Most of
his writing will be done for the banks
He will get rich and he will not have to
overexcrt himself
One agreeable result OF the system
which We have sketched, perhaps too
vaguely, will be the improvement of
the style of works Of fiction. At present
most Of them have none. Under our
arrangement they will have six, twelve,
a hundred styles