Page 4 Advertisements Column 3

Hokitika Guardian, 18 April 1925, Page 4

WHY NOVELS ARE REJECTED? —— By A PUBLISIIIfK’S BKADEU. Lot there he no mistake about it: evcrv manuscript sent to a publisher is read, and road carefully. Also it may surprise the amateur norelist to learn that each manuscript sumitted involves an expenditure of anything up to CIO. And speaking generally the better the book the more it costs in reader’s fees. The obvious failure will be returned after the first reading. A manuscript, concerning which the first reader reports well, on the other hand, may he sent for a second and third reader’s opinion, sometimes even to a fourth. The average salary paid to a render is L'oOO a year, and it takes from a day to two days to read and report upon each book. But though the general standard of the manuscripts submitted for consider ation is surprisingly high, the approximate number accepted is only about - per cent, of those sent in. Tt is in the construction of building up of their theme that so many writers fail. They apppear to imagine that a hook has only to he “well written” in order to find a market ; a delusion equivalent to believing that a house has only to he built of sound material in order to be habitable, dhe aichitecture of a novel is of equal import-, ante with the architecture of a house — a truism, which applies equally to the skill with which the whole is cemented together. One of the last things the aspiring ) novelist realises is that his story must, ] run smoothly and at an even pace from | beginning to end. So often the main: events of the plot are crowded towards