Front matter
Reading edition
LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius 1366
How to Write Little Blue Books
Lloyd E. Smith
(Assistant Editor, Haldeman-Julius Publications)
HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS GIRARD, KANSAS
Copyright, 1929, Haldeman-Julius Company
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
HOW TO WRITE LITTLE BLUE BOOKS
A WORD OF EXPLANATION
Telling would-be contributors to the five-cent pocket series How to Write Little Blue Books, is, by rights, the editor’s—E. Haldeman-Julius’s—job. For he is the man who ultimately accepts the manuscript, if it is acceptable, and he signs the check which each author awaits with eager anticipation. But he says that going into the details of how manuscripts should be written for this ever growing series does not appeal to him. So far he has preferred to find and buy the product of those writers who are able, without more than a preliminary word or two, to turn out exactly what he wants. So he has delegated me to do the job for him, and he has charged me to be explicit, exhaustive, and extremely understandable.
For editorial problems of the Little Blue Books are peculiar. There is no other series to be compared with The Little Blue Books. Certainly not in the English language, and similar series in foreign languages are not quite the same, and are, of course, not of interest to writers in English. E. Haldeman-Julius has told the complete story of ten years of publishing the Little Blue Books, from editing some two thousand manuscripts to the complete list of more than fourteen hundred titles in print as I write, in his book, The First Hundred Million.[1] The 100,000,000 refers to the total number of Little Blue Books printed and sold at the time the book was written. I urge every would-be Little Blue Book writer to get a copy of this book, if possible, and read it from cover to cover. Entirely aside from its technical interest, the book is thoroughly readable as a unique contribution to the psychology of the American reading public.
As for my own qualifications to tell how Little Blue Books must be written, to be acceptable for publication in this world famous series, they are two. For more than three years I have been the Assistant Editor of the Haldeman-Julius Publications, and I have encountered at first hand the editorial and publishing problems peculiar to them. I have corresponded with many Little Blue Book writers; I have whipped many a manuscript into shape for the typesetters; I have scheduled thousands of Little Blue Books, in hundreds of large editions, for publication. My second qualification is that I am a Little Blue Book writer myself, and have been for some six years. Up to the moment of writing, more Little Blue Books bear my name (laying aside my cloak of modesty for the moment) than any other single contributor’s name, not excepting Joseph McCabe, who is a far more redoubtable writer than I, having to his credit the colossal enterprise of The Key to Culture,[2] in forty 30,000-word volumes, in addition to his fifty-five or so Little Blue Books. Ergo, I ought to know something about the subject.
Justification for the present Little Blue Book will appear, if at all, in the sales record of this particular number a year or two from now. Judging from the inquiries that pour into Girard on every mail, it should not be hard to dispose of an edition of 10,000 copies every year. Not that all the buyers of the book will become Little Blue Book contributors—for many will want to read this book out of a natural curiosity; others will find that the work of writing for the series is not suited to their capabilities; others will simply be unable to meet the high standard required—but the interest in the subject is, I am sure, large enough to make the book worth writing.
Certainly it is a clear sign of the unique character of the Little Blue Book series that it becomes advisable to include within the series, as a unit of the whole, a book telling how more books should be written! What other publisher has ever added to his list a book telling, in substance, How to Write Books For Me?
But there is another reason for writing this book. As the Little Blue Books have progressed, undergoing many changes in editorial policy, widening their scope with the growth of their audience, problems have arisen which merit different treatment from problems which have confronted other editors and other publishers. As a series, the Little Blue Books have reached the point where definite rules must be laid down and strictly adhered to in the preparation of further titles for publication. Particular avenues of expansion are opening up, for which special writers must be found, or for which present writers may perhaps qualify if they are informed of the need. Hundreds of people would like to write at least one Little Blue Book, dealing perhaps with a subject very familiar to them; but it is impossible to tell each writer individually how to go about it. Many such contributors may not be professional writers, but because of their familiarity with a subject they may be able, if properly instructed, to deliver a satisfactory manuscript.
Even those writers who have already one or more published Little Blue Books to their credit may learn something from what the Assistant Editor has to say. The less editing we have to do in Girard, the better. It would be ideal if Little Blue Book writers could grasp the mechanical requirements of a Little Blue Book, and see it, to some extent, from an editorial viewpoint. They should understand something of the typography. They should familiarize themselves with the established style (spelling, punctuation, and the like) and follow it in their manuscript. Points such as these I will mention in due course.