Arizona republican., 1906-04-29


 public sees the successes, and either does not see, or forgets. the failures. The prominence given to the one in many thousands attracts multitudes oe men and women who more or less hon. estly believe that the undeveloped germ of authorship is within them; and, in their ignorance they expect the maxi mum of fame and fortune for the min imum of effort and ability.
 No one jumps into authorship. If he has not the natural talent, he fails at the start, or fails somewhere along the line of struggle. If he has ths right capacity. even then success is i'm possible, without long, g-continued study and the hardest kind of training With out this study and this training ability is worthless. Even the greatest Ma tured- d-endOwed author be may have to begin at the bottom. or, at any rate not far from the bottom, and work for years before he can hope to see even in the far distance, the open doOr of success. Occasionally we hear of authors who have apparently leaped into fame I do not deny that this has occurred, although l have never ac- tually known of such a case. An au- thor may become famous in a night but his prominence comes only after years of preparation in something oth- CT than book writing. Even "immedi- ate" authors were successful writers Of some kind of matter. But assuming that this may have happened. it comes too infrequently to be worthy of any consideration.
 The desire to write often develops into a conceited belief in ones own lit erary capacity. A story is begun, an1 finished It is read to the authors friends, who honestly or dishonestly praise it. It is then sent to a maga- zine or other periodical. or to a book publisher. The editOr-in- chief. or any other editor seldom sees it. Together with dozen, or perhaps a thousand unsolicited contributions, it is handed to what is known as the first reader, and this reader, or critic. has not the time and quite probably, not the in clination to read it thoroughly, ana may or may not be competent to de- termine its value. Generally, the first few pages are sufh to show that the manuscript is not worth further at tention. The professional first reader may go beyond the opening pages. If they strike him favorably he proceeds; if not, he may read no further. The failure of the manuscript. so far as this publisher is concerned, may be entire 1 ly in the hands of the first reader. who may or may not be competent who 1 may or may not be lazy. who may or may not be biased or prejudiced, who ' may or may not have indigestion. He may do justice to one manuscript and injustice to a dozen. Thus the un- ! known writer may long be a victim of chance-his fate depending upon the 1 caprice of the first reader.
 This system of first reading. whether or not it is a just method. cannot be done away with under present condi- tions. The superabundance of manu- . scripts necessitates its continuance. Nc publisher. whether he issues books Ur . periodicals, can afford to pay q hiS salary Or fee to the first reader; cOnse- quently, he cannot expect to obtain tha degree of discretion and proficiency . necessary to insure a continuously fair and broad criticism. These first readers are invariably literary men and women many of them past middle life; and naturally some of them judge only by their own feelings, inclinations, and self-made standards of quality. They may represent their own peculiar likes and dislikes more often than they rep resent the public taste Naturally, un- der these conditions, they may often condemn a manuscript worthy of pub lication and recommend the publica- tion of a story or article which is de- void of any real worth.
 After a manuscript has passed the first reader, it goes to the editor or the periodical or to the deciding editor Q. the publishing house, This final tri- bunal determines whether or not the story shall be printed. Here the au- thor usually receives just treatment The chances are that his manuscript will not be printed unless it has in II real worth or what that particular per iodical or book publisher considers tC be real worth.
 On an average, about two per cent 0i manuscripts received are passed to the editors.
 I am not condemning this system o reading. It appears to be the only pos sible way at the present time. and while it often does injustice to the au- thor, it is not without it's advantages | IL materially assists in drowning the self-imag agined genius to the benefit ot the misguided individual and of the world at large. But genius. real genius can seldom be either dwaTfed or kill ed. It will develop under any condi- tion and will be improved by hard ships.
 Financially speaking. story writing or for that matter, almost every kinC of authorship seldom brings more tha, a moderate profit.
 1 Our greatest authors cannot produce more than a limited amount of work ( year, and even at the highest price. paid, their annual incomes are not like. ly to exceed a few thousand dollars except where a great and often aCci. dental hit is made; and even then com. paratively few writers can hope to re ceive from any one book profit ex. ceeding ten thousand of fifteen thOus and dollars. A very fortunate few may obtain double that amount, and per haps more, but literary hits are scarce always have been, and probably al ways will be. The majority of aUthOr do not depend entirely upon their lit erary work for maintenance, many O them occupy salaried positions. The. are for the most part professional mel and women. teachers or editors or arr in charge of departments of periodicals and the recipients of considerable sal aries: and they consider writing, finan cially speaking. a side issue.