The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-25
THE UNKNOWN WRITER'S.
PubIishers' Readers Go Through
manuscripts Hoping for a "Find.-
Worlds Work for April.

Worlds Work for April.
All volunteer manuscripts have their
chance-are considered. But it does not
follow that eacn and every one is read from
cover TO cover. Some can be pronounced
unavailable after a reading OF a few pages
or chapters; a large number hold out il
lGsive hopes of better ahead through the
first chapter; a few do not prove hopeless
till the middle of the story: still fewer are
read to the very end before decision Is
reached.
However, long experience develops a Ger
tain instinct, a certain flair. If the author
has a good story TO tell, there will be an
unm~iStakable sense of mastery of words In
his very Introduction; a convincing feeling
of power of presentation in the very first
page. The unpublished will never know.
can never understand. the infinite relief. the
sensation of actual exhilaration, that in
vades the reader of many manuscripts when
he realizes that here at last is something
good-not merely popular necessarily, but
q book earnestly done and with a knowledge
of the tools Nor could the authors dear
est friend labor more diligently to get the
book accepted than does the reader in such
case.
More people are writing to-day than ever
before; constantly the new man. is COM
ing TO the front with his thousands and
tens of thousands of copies sold. While
these lines are being written there is very
little doubt that somewhere between the
oceans an unknown and unpublished au-
thor Is at work upon a story that will soon
be 1.-THE literary sensation of the year 1t
stands TO all good reason that ii behooves
the publisher to discover him. Obviously
this is so. Was not the Red Badge of
Courage thus written, and the Gentle
man from Indiana" and plain Tales,
and others. and still others. and still 9TH
ers? The history of publishing teens with
just such finds"
So, remembering all these things and
possibly remembering finds" of his own,
the reader attacks his pile of manuscript
In much the same spirit as the miner his
work of prospecting. disappointed from
hour to hour. yet hoping always that the
next wrapper removed, the next stone
turned, may uncover the chef d'oeuvre or
the mine; or. If not the next, why, then,
the next, or the next after that, or the
next after that. and so on to the end
always cheerfully expectant and almost al
ways disappointed.
For so many-so very, very many-of the
manuscripts are so very-So very, very
bad. The great difficulty seems 10 be that
the writers confuse literature and life and
hold to the foolish mistake that the first
is of more Importance than the last. They
have believed that the way to equip them
selves for their profession is to read and
study other novels; that they muslin a
word-b literary. Error, hopeless and
complete, and resulting in stories that at
the very best and by the most elastic
stretch Of charity can be only mediocrities.
The great bulk of declined manuscripts
falls under this head. and the author, see
ing that his work is like that of others
which are published and successful. fails
to understand the reason for the refusal to
publish.