Category: Secrets

Inside look: How Street & Smith handled manuscripts in the early 1920s

AFTER the author has hopefully dropped his manuscript in the mail-box, what happens when it reaches the offices of the Street & Smith Corporation, the largest publishers of fiction periodicals in the world? We will assume that your story has been addressed to one of the nine magazines—Popular, Ainslee’s, People’s, Top Notch, Love Stories, Detective… Continue reading Inside look: How Street & Smith handled manuscripts in the early 1920s

George Allan England article on running his personal fiction factory

[Article originally appeared in The Independent magazine, Mar 27, 1913 issue. By this time, England was a popular author who appeared regularly in slicks and pulps. He is remembered today for his contributions to the beginnings of modern American science-fiction.] The Fiction Factory How a Man Writes and Sells Over Half a Million Words a… Continue reading George Allan England article on running his personal fiction factory

Article on editing by Ray Long – magazine editor

Here’s an article on editing by Ray Long, one of the top American magazine editors of the early 20th Century. The article originally appeared in the January 1927 issue of The Bookman. At the time that this article was written, Long was at the peak of his career, editing Cosmopolitan magazine, a very different magazine… Continue reading Article on editing by Ray Long – magazine editor

Harold Lamb on selling his first story of Khlit the Cossack

This article was originally published in the February 25, 1918 issue of THE EDITOR magazine. Harold A. Lamb talks about the influence of editors on his first story of Khlit the Cossack and how he came to write it. The editor he refers to in the story is likely Arthur S. Hoffman.  Original heading for… Continue reading Harold Lamb on selling his first story of Khlit the Cossack

Origin stories: Hashknife Hartley by W.C. Tuttle

  [This is a slightly modified excerpt from an article in the The Pittsburgh Press of Jul 23, 1950.]   W.C. Tuttle, author of the “Hashknife Hartley” stories, admits that the idea for the “Hashknife Hartley” Western adventures was born of a blister but the character is the composite of two men Tuttle knew some… Continue reading Origin stories: Hashknife Hartley by W.C. Tuttle

Magazine recirculation – life after the newsstand

From the New York Times, Mar 22, 1936:   OLD MAGAZINES TRAVEL WIDELY   FOR many an old magazine the wastebasket is not, by any means, the end of the trail. Janitors and waste-paper dealers conspire to salvage an amazing proportion of all printed matter not given directly to welfare organizations. Once reclaimed, periodicals are classified… Continue reading Magazine recirculation – life after the newsstand

Charles Beadle on writing fiction and selling his first novel

Article from Charles Beadle about writing, his first book sale and other thoughts. Charles Beadle wrote stories set in Africa, some of which appeared in Adventure magazine. Some of his work has been collected in The City of Baal, and The Land of Ophir, both published by Off-Trail Press. You can find a very detailed review of… Continue reading Charles Beadle on writing fiction and selling his first novel

Editor’s Choice – Harry E. Maule of Short Stories on his criteria for selecting stories

Source: The stories editors buy and why, Ed. Jean Wick, Publisher: Small, Maynard and Company, 1921 THE best, indeed the only reply to the question as to the needs of a magazine that I can think of is — read it. That is the answer for Short Stories. When a writer asks me what we… Continue reading Editor’s Choice – Harry E. Maule of Short Stories on his criteria for selecting stories

Johnston McCulley (Creator of Zorro) article about writing

[Originally appeared in The Editor, v. 52, Jan-Jun 1920]   Twelve years ago we sold our first story; three years ago we felt that we had “arrived”; at present we cannot begin to supply direct requests from magazine editors for fiction along certain lines. Perhaps that is success in a measure. How was it attained?… Continue reading Johnston McCulley (Creator of Zorro) article about writing