Ageless Wisdom (Part 1)

At a recent retreat, several writer friends were waxing nostalgic, longing for the “good old days” of publishing. Back then it was easier to get published. Back then it was common to have editorial attention and hand-holding. If only we could go back, they lamented. Well, recently I had a rare chance to time travel back to the “good old days” and see what a writer’s life was like 52 years ago . . .

Writing Circa 1950’s
While sorting donated books and magazines for a library book sale, I came across a real treasure: a 1956 Writer’s Digest. Priced at 35 cents, it was a far cry from the large glossy print magazine or colorful web site of today. I wondered if any writers in 1956 had envisioned the e-zines and e-publishing of today, the huge publishing conglomerates, writing with computers, or the differences in pay scales. (I found references to one-tenth-cent, quarter-cent, and half-cent-per-word rates!) The rates might sound puny, but a quick glance through the market listings showed that most magazines still paid on acceptance.

Ahhh, I thought, another world. I was eager to read the articles next, to see what “wisdom of the ages” was dispensed for such a different writing world.

The more things change...
As I thumbed through the yellowed magazine pages, however, I was surprised by a number of things. First were the numerous ads for co-operative publishing and subsidy publishing (or vanity presses). For some reason, I had assumed they were a plague of the ‘90’s and early 21st Century writing world, an answer for the age we lived in where it was so difficult to sell a manuscript to a “big name” publisher or even a small press.

My second surprise was a full-page ad on the back of the magazine for a bookdoctor, something else I had believed to be the result of present market realities.The ad read: “Sure, you’re going to be an author. But right now you are having ahard time making folks believe it! Friends and neighbors regard your literary ambitions with a quiet smile, but members of the family are less subtle. Not only are you getting no help from them—you aren’t even being encouraged. One day you’ll show ‘em. But what can you show until you have a published book? And how can a book become publishable in today’s selective market without professional counsel?” Sound familiar? Every word of this book doctor’s ad is just as true in 2008 as it was in 1956!

A Writer’s Life in the Good Old Days
My biggest surprises came in an article called “Roses and Thorns” by Jim Kjelgaard (a juvenile writer). He reflected on his 25 years of writing, which had begun in the early depression years. It would be hard to find a writer whose experiences were further removed from mine than someone who began writing after the crash on Wall Street. Or would it?

I was shocked to find out how much we had in common. For example, Jim’s thoughts on writing only when inspiration strikes sounded identical to the advice I gave a new writer last month. He wrote of “the grueling discipline, the long hours spent over their typewriters” that was required. He called writing “an exacting job that often requires many more hours of hard work than most jobs. . . All the successful writers I know are successful mainly because they work hard,” not because they only wrote when inspired. Not any different today.

At least a writer could publish in a variety of genres back then: fiction, nonfiction, essays, slice-of-life stories, western short stories, mystery short stories. There were so many more publishers of fiction, both for books and for magazines. And yet, doesn’t this 1956 advice sound very familiar? “There are few writers who can play the field all their lives,” Kjelgaard writes. “For most of us, it’s just a way of learning what we can do best and, more to the point, like best. I sold at least 500 stories and articles to all types of publications-from ¼ cent-a-word pulps to 50 cent-a-word slicks before I decided that juveniles were for me.” So specialize and write what you like best? Advice that is right on target today.

(I'll add some more on Friday about how hard it was to get published in the "good old days." You'll be surprised.)