Arizona republican., 1906-04-29

oDnSed 10 consider a manuscript more with regard to it's authors name than to its intrinsic merit.
 The publishing of a novel or short story. or any other kind of literary production, is cold, financial business. The publisher, whether he issues a per iodical or books, is in the business for profit. From a business point of view he can have no sympathy with the au- thor. He buys a manuscript just as the butter man buys his tub Of butter to sell it at q profit. The enormous supply allows him to purchase really good matter at a price very much less than what the cost would be if there were less competition.
 The average short story by an un- known author, or by an author not generally known, seldom brings more than two cents word, and perhaps not over cent a word. Comparatively few magazines pay over ten cents q word, even to well-kOnwn authors; and the average rate does not exceed five cents a word. A few hieh-class maga- zines may pay as much as thirty cents word. Occasionally a prominent au- thor, or one who is temporarily con spicuous in the public eye, will receive for his work, whether it be a story or series of articles, a sum all out of proportion to the current prices. For l instances, have reason to believe that a certain great English story writer was paid, by one American publisher alone, as much as sixty cents a word for 9 series of stories. I have also been informed that this same author received a dollar a word for his stories. l am inclined to believe that this is possibly true, if not probably true. The periodical, however, did not have to pay the entire expense, because, after it had printed the stories, they were syndicated to the daily newspapers. which materially reduced the original cost.
 Magazine or periodical short stories or articles seldom contain less than one thousand words. and run up to three thousand or four thousand words. thirty-five hundred to four thousanI words being considered a fair average. 1 Serial stories usually contain more | than twenty-five thousand words, and quite often run above one hundred | thousand words, and occasionally num- | Der one hundred and fifty thousand. 1 Books of fiction are seldom less than | fifty thousand words in length, and the | average Is not far from one hundred | thousand, although some novels run to | more than one hundred and fifty thous- and words.
 The writers of book fiction are not paid by the word, nor do they receive an outright cash payment. Almost | universally they are given a royalty. | usually ten per cent of the retail price | of the book, that is the publisher pays | the author if the publisher takes the | financial risk, ten per cent. and some l times more. of the retail price of the | book, irrespective of what the whole | sale price may be- the wholesale price ! being from twenty-five to fifty per cent | less than the retail price. When the author takes the risk, and the publish
 CT acts as the authors agent. the au- thor pays all expenses. and in addi-
 tion gives the publisher a commission | of fifteen per cent or more for his ser | vices. More than ninety per cent of all books are published on a royalty basis, the publisher assuming all costs and financial risks.
 Comparatively few books enjoy q sale of exceeding five thousand copies; in fact, the average sale of any book.
 barring the few his" does not exceed three thousand copies. Publishers can afford to handle a well-written work if they feel assured of a net sale of two
 thousand copies. This gives them a fair profit, and they take reasonable
 business chances of the books selling beyond expectation. The average re- | tail price of a book is 9 dollar and al half. The royalty to the author, if he receives ten per cent is fifteen cents a copy. One thousand copies. then, will | bring him one hundred and fifty dol
 lars; two thousand copies three hun
 dred dollars; three thousand copies
 four hundred and fifty dollars. Unless
 the author is well-known writer fs- g I.,rr ,I11I Et-
 cannot expect his book to bring him
 more than a few hundred dollars. but l he may hope for the unexpected
 which some times occurs.
 Popular novels occasionally have
 sales exceeding several hundred
 thousand. and there are a few books
 which have become sufficiently popular
 to rCn close to tho million mark. \ novel of fair popularity, however, no.
 infrequently sells beyond twenty-five thousand copies. Some authors succeed
 better financially by confining their
 writings to periodicals. while others do much better through their books. still
 others write both for periodicals and
 for book publishers, and occasionally q novel first appears in some magazine
 and later ir book form.
 Right here I want to sound a note of
 warning. Never deal with other than
 a reputable publisher. If you are un-
 familiar with the publishing business
 consult any school teacher or local ed
 itor. He will give you the names and addresses of a dozen or more first-class and honorable publishing houses. The
 eagerness, I might say insanity, tl
 write. has made possible the establish
 ment of irresponsible publishing houses
 who prey upon the authors. By adver-
 tising, and in other ways, they become known to unknown authors, who are persuaded to present their manu-
 scripts to them. Invariably the author
 receives a hattering letter, which, ii most cases, he believes is genuine ell
 couragement. The publisher makes the
 author what appears on it's face to be
 a very liberal proposition. He suggests
 that he, the publisher and the author 1 become partners, so to speak, the aU- thor to pay the mechanical cost oi publication, the publisher to undertake
 all other expenses. As a matter of fact
 there are no other expenses, and the
 bill sent the author for mechanical c 1s