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The Art of Story Writing : CHAPTER XXXVIII The Advance Publication, or, Republication, of Books, Stories, and Articles

CHAPTER XXXVIII The Advance Publication, or, Republication, of Books, Stories, and Articles

QUITE a number of books, stories, and articles appear, one chapter or section at a time, in the magazines or in the newspapers, before or after they are placed on the market in book or other form.

Although it would seem apparent to the uninitiated that the publication of a work in periodicals would effect the sale of it in book form, experience shows that the opposite is true.

Comparatively few book publishers will refuse to publish a manuscript which has appeared periodically in the magazines or newspapers, because of such publication; in fact, most of them will consider it a selling advantage.

Then, many manuscripts are published periodically after they have appeared in book form.

This, strange as it may seem, is likely to increase the sale of the book.

Of course, this syndicating must be done with the consent of the book publisher, and he may or may not share in the profits.

A manuscript may be submitted to the book publisher, with periodical or syndicate rights reserved to the author, or the book publisher may own the periodical or syndicate rights and share the money received with the writer.

The writer of a really meritorious work of fiction may obtain an extra income by allowing his manuscript to be published in one or more periodicals or newspapers before it appears in book form. Hundreds of successful books are placed upon the market after the story has been published in a magazine or other periodical, or in several newspapers.

A magazine, as a rule, will not publish matter which has appeared in any other form, but the publisher does not usually object to the appearance of it in a book after it has been published in the magazine. The magazine publisher will not accept a manuscript if it is to appear simultaneously in any other publication. The newspaper, however, does not object to simultaneous publication in several others, if they are not located in the same territory, of an acceptable manuscript, whether or not it is eventually to appear in book form.

In another chapter I have explained the process of syndicating.