s chosen profession, but must
still make a living, and is brimful of experience and adventures,
decides to become an author. When he too meets with failure he blames
everybody and everything except himself, and rarely discovers that the
reason he cannot become a successful author at his time of life is
because he has not been trained to the business, and does not know how
to write.

Authorship, or book-writing, is a trade that must be learned the same as
any other, and I believe that any boy or girl of average intelligence
may be trained to successful authorship if only he or she is willing to
work hard enough and long enough at the trade. Even imagination can be
cultivated. Of course the literary apprentice must know how to apply the
rules of grammar, must practise clearness and conciseness of style, must
know how to use books of reference, must have what is known as a liberal
education, and, above all, must be possessed of a genuine liking for his
chosen calling. After leaving his school or college he should spend at
least two years--and four would be better--as a reporter, a private
secretary, an amanuensis to some skilled writer, or as assistant editor
of some first-class publication that insists upon the use of grammatical
English in its columns. During this apprenticeship he may try his hand
at sketches, essays, or short stories, and must learn to accept calmly a
dozen disappointments with each success.

When the author is ready to write a book his most difficult task is to
select a subject that shall be interesting, timely, and not already
overdone. It must be one that he can write about from his own
experience, or from the experience of others. The latter may be gained
from books or from the verbal accounts of those who have been through
with what he desires to describe; but a book compiled from other books
is apt to be dull and lifeless, while one dealing with a personal
experience is almost certain to be interesting. "Mark Twain's" best
books are those based upon his own life on the Mississippi, in Western
mining camps, or while travelling abroad. The great charm of Miss
Alcott's stories lay in the fact that she wrote of her every-day
surroundings. The absorbing interest of Captain King's _Cadet Days_ is
due to the author's absolute knowledge, from personal experience, of the
joys and sorrows, the trials and triumphs, of West Point life. Thus to
be a successful writer of books one must have something to say,