The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1910-06-25
The EDITOR AND THE AUTHOR
~ ENPERT on THE BI SINESS
az RIIING RRlINS.

George nsraee I.srimer Tets Sf the
srarrh Ter GoosI stoFlrs Why sSme
! Writers Van lltile ValHe IN . BiE
Name IN Itsrlf New adays. He sals.
The general reading p,ihlic Is pretty
. familiar with the inscription -CeorgH
Horace lorimer. Efhthr.' NJ the top n
page. AMI the fact that the readers rom
prise men and women. young and old
banker. college lad and shop girl gives
standardization Z" tho reputation Mr
I.orimer bears ~ one ~ the lest Judges
u fiction. especially of new actiOn by
dnkh"wn authors. In this country
Mr. loTimer is not ton modest To- admit
that Ne y a pretty good editor. that s
sIccessful In choosing material Tor his
publication: and he attributes tho con
diiion IN his i.sing an ordinary man and
10 HE early business training
I like people he says. and like 20
m'ngie With PEOPLE. and the only way 10
ind out what people are doing and think.
ing and what they want Is TO minRie With
them, not shut yourself M In a re-
mote ONCE and he inaccessible
Before ! was an editor { was a news.
paper man. which teaches yon tn keen an
ear 10 the ground; and I was for many
years in the ofice Of P. d Armour in
Chicago. who sat every day AZ his desk
among his clerks and employees. using
his own eyes and ears to advantage
should saw the prime qualification Of an
editor Ia being an ordinary man
MT Lorimer IL not afraid apparently
10 divulge his methods ~ at any rate his
methods 81 pursuing the author. and he
talks incidentally ~ the relations between
editor and author
Many years ago he says. IAN in
geniOus and sangulns author put for.
ward the theory tina, for every short story
written there was somewhere a waiting
editor. The authors only problem vas
to find that editor
TODAY, 80 completely have conditions
changed. an editor can only hops that
sOmewhere a short story il being writ
ten for him, Ilis problem is to find the
author
NO man who has ever written a good
short story can wander into an editorial
Ofhce in these times without being held
zap and searched for manuscript Right
here ] can see twenty-five or thirty
thousand writers whose manlscrip.s We
returned last year noting an exception.
SO at the risk Of explaining two and two
let me take q moment 20 60 over frat
principles
Publishing IL the business Of buying
and selling brains, 81 having IDEAS and II
making other men carry them out. In
all its essentials a magazine is literally
mateTialized out n the air and 10 always
tending N resolve into ts original ele-
ment. leaving behind only a memory.
some worthless presses and some battered
type
In No other business Do labor and
material add m little - the value ~ the
product. The most faultlcss tvpography,
the mos, sumptuous paper fall dead from
the press unless they mirror life. The
product NJ every machine except the
printing pr'ss II itself concrete thing
u valu' Wh ich the manufacturer sells
and ths buyer consumes.
The printing press fixes an idea for a
moment until tho buyer has transferred
il from the mind u tho writer :, his own
Then for him the magazine IL simply an
empty package - b. thrown away or %
be passed on . another
A publisher then. hes nothing con-
crete q sell q mis- subscribers. only the
thoughts " ether men. Where another
business may live lifetime on one idea
and wax fat and prosperous selling Il
over and tver again in neat little pack
ages the magazine must have new IDEAS
Tor every month and each month = produrt
must he diferpnt. vet the same a. that Of
IN" preceding month
When a number ~ magazine il on
press the publishers warehouse IL emptv.
his patterns are worthless. There is no
comfortable 8; 1ck. manufactured 70 meet
a known standard Of public taste. 10 give
him a sense ~ security when he walks
through hrs plant His whole stock IN
trade is again undor his hat and in the
heads Of a dozen men around him and a
hundred more scattered through the
country: and unless they can again
and again make a new thing that will