. Today, when many companies rent
good machines at from $4.00 for three months to $3.00 a month, and
when you can buy a typewriter outright for from $15.00 to $100.00, the
writer who is able to use one and who does not do so is simply being
unfair to himself. Any good machine may now be had by paying down a
small sum and the same amount monthly for a term of months. Serious
writers should promptly decide to step out of the amateur class and
equip themselves properly for the work. If you wish to experiment with
your talents before deciding to rent or buy a typewriting machine,
there are plenty of responsible typists who will typewrite your script
for from 35 cents to 50 cents per thousand words, including one
carbon copy.

If you have a typewriter you will, of course, make at least one carbon
copy. Should the script you send out be lost or badly marred in any
way, you have the carbon from which you can make another, but never be
so unwise as to send out the carbon copy itself should the original be
lost. Make a new copy. In the first place, should the carbon copy also
be lost, you will have nothing left as a record of your story--unless
you happen to have kept your notes and rough draft. Besides, carbon
copies rarely look as well as an original script, and the editor who
receives a carbon might not look upon it with any great favor--though
this is the least valid reason.

Another important point is, if your photoplay is accepted, your copy
will serve you as a valuable basis for criticism of your own work,
inasmuch as you can compare the play as written with the play as
produced, observing what changes the editor and director may have
deemed necessary. This practice is followed pretty generally by
earnest writers of fiction, but is applicable also to photoplay
writing, and should help the writer, after seeing his play produced,
to do even better work next time.

For carbon copies, almost any weight and quality of paper will serve.
A plain yellow or a manilla paper, costing about 50 cents a box of 500
sheets, is very satisfactory.

Most authors who are users of typewriters know that a black "record"
ribbon is far superior to a "copying" ribbon. The latter is likely to
smudge or blur and spoil a clean manuscript. Again, it pays to get a
pretty good grade of carbon paper; the best, in fact, is none too good
for literary work of any kind. Cheap carbons smear the copy and stain
the writer's fingers; besides, they have a t