e Lancer." Its
practical hints may save him--or should I say _her_?--many a needless
disappointment.

C. P. C.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

PREFACE v

I. ABOUT NOSES AND JAWS 1

II. HOW TO PREPARE A MANUSCRIPT 10

III. HOW TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS 16

IV. FINDING A MARKET 25

V. A BEGINNER'S FIRST ADVENTURES 32

VI. IN NEW YORK'S "FLEET STREET" 43

VII. SOMETHING TO SELL 54

VIII. WHAT THE EDITOR WANTS 61

IX. AND IF YOU DO-- 72

X. FOREVER AT THE CROSSROADS 79

IF YOU DON'T WRITE FICTION

CHAPTER I

ABOUT NOSES AND JAWS

A foxhound scents the trail of his game and tracks it straight to a
killing. A lapdog lacks this capability. In the same way, there are
breeds of would-be writers who never can acquire a "nose for news," and
others who, from the first day that they set foot in editorial rooms,
are hot on the trail that leads to billboard headlines on the front page
of a newspaper or acceptances from the big magazines.

Many writers who are hopelessly clumsy with words draw fat pay checks
because they have a faculty for smelling out interesting facts. In the
larger cities there are reporters with keen noses for news who never
write a line from one year's end to another, but do all of their work by
word of mouth over the telephone.

To the beginner such facts as these seem to indicate that any one can
win in journalism who has the proper kind of nose. This conclusion is
only a half-truth, but it is good for the novice to learn--and as soon
as possible--that the first requisite toward "landing" in the newspapers
and magazines is to know a "story" when he sees one.

In the slang of the newspaper shop a "story" means non-fiction. It may
be an interview. It may be an account of a fire. It may be a page of
descriptive writing for the Sunday magazine section. It may be merely a
piece of "human interest."

As my own experience in journalism covers barely fifteen years, the
writer would not be bold enough to attempt to define a "story" further
than to state that it is something in which an editor hopes his public
will be interested at the time the paper or magazine appears upon