10 Story Book, August 1938 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Writing, Publishing—Debunked! Anybody (bar no oodford Can SEX NO EAR no kind of writing easier to accom- and gentle !—reader, there is a plish—or to place, than the sex- novel. Whether you are ready for it or not, vou can start a sex-novel right now, and if you follow the simple directions I give you, I guarantee that you will get a novel done; its chances of getting sold will be ever so much greater than your chance of getting short-stories sold; because in both the ordi- nary and sex-novel field the competition is tar less keen. For some reason or other the amateur, who ought to view short stories with fear and trembling, is afraid of the novel form instead. Few amateurs ever write novels at all. There is a bale of short stories turned out every time the clock ticks, I’m sure; and Eastern editors By JACK Successful Author lished Sex Stories will have them on their desks shortly. Most of this stuff is written by those who have taken all manner of silly courses in short-story writing and become all slewed up in millions of cubie feet of farcical technique; without the technique, many of these short-stories might be salable if enough magazines could be found to buy them. But in most cases courses in writ- ing are an absolute guarantee against the neophyte’s writing salable fiction, unless he is indomitable and had unusual knack before beginning the course. Nevertheless, these graduates of simp seminaries glut, jam and pack the short- story markets the year around to the point where editors every year read less of that material sent to them by new body) Says Jack Write and Place a WOODFORD of over 2,000 pub- and 40 Sex Novels writers. 3ut not so of the sex-novel. Many of the most successful free lance short-story racketeers won't write novels. They feel that there is not sufficient in the venture to justify the time used. I am being dan- gerously frank now, and you may be dis- couraged; if you are, thank me for having discovered to you that you are not fit for this racket. I will have delayed you less than most writers of books for potential writers, in finding that occupation where vou will be best adjusted. For even a bad short-story, a Big Name slick paper writer can get somewhere be- tween five hundred and fifteen hundred dollars—often more. It depends a good deal on his agent. A few years ago it was VEL frequently more; but now a good high price would be about fifteen hundred dol- lars. I can write a five or seven thousand word short-story, from scratch, and have it in the mail two or three hours after making up my mind to do it. I have writ- ten as many as three or four of them in a day, and sold all of them. Better slick- paper racketeers would take somewhere between five days and five weeks to write a five to seven thousand word short-story, For which they would get fifteen hundred dollars—perhaps ! Such a racketeer would need as many times five days to five weeks to write a novel, as the number of words in the novel are times the number of words in (Continued to page 17) Oo conniclooolkks.conn