Pulpflakes Blog: The Secrets Of The Pulps

For over five decades, the pulp magazines entertained people all over the world. Discover the people behind them; the authors, editors, illustrators and their stories. Look behind the scenes and learn the secrets of storytelling.

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  • Simple, Fast search of the FictionMags Index

    Simple, fast search of the FictionMags Index. It’s finally here. https://pulpflakes.com/fmisearch/ The FictionMags Index (FMI) is the biggest online index of English language fiction published in periodicals. Search the FMI by author or artist name, magazine title or look for a specific issue by date or issue number. Tips and tricks While search tolerates partial……

  • Do you know why The Popular Magazine had no illustrations?

    For a long time, I was puzzled by why the Popular Magazine carried no illustrations. Here’s an explanation from the editor, Charles Agnew MacLean in the July 1904 issue. A Chat With You (editorial from the Popular Magazine, July 1904 issue) DID it ever occur to you what a bully good thing success is? There……

  • Action Packed Western Stories: A writer’s creed

    MUCH as the swift-moving Western story offends the ultra-cultured tastes of the intelligentsia, it has made for itself a very definite place in American literature. It may not be “art,” as the literati consider art. It may lack the polish of urban tales or the heart-throbs of bucolic stories. But it has something of which……

  • The ponies were howling and singing: Secrets of good copy

    I usually post about the often overlooked good points of the pulps, but there’s no excusing some of their worst excesses, pointed out by a copy editor who spent time cleaning up their messes. GRINDING TO A PULP By KENNETH A. FOWLER Mr. Fowler was formerly a copy editor with street & Smith Publications. Consequently,……

  • 3 Pulp Tales: Words are money, Speed thrills and more

    Three pulp tales from the newspapers. Words are Money Since basic pulp pay is a cent per word, and since the creation of any sort of fiction is to most authors slow and difficult labor, the majority of practitioners in pulp are poorly paid. But there are others who through long practice, have mastered the……