Pulps & Prices

From the Manhattan office of American Fiction Guild, which is the apartment of its President Arthur J. Burks, went two exciting market tips to woodpulp magazine writers last week. One was that the editors of Dell Publishing Co.'s three "pulps" need new material. The other: that Clayton Magazines are again paying on acceptance of stories (instead of on publication), which meant that their literary inventory is near bottom.

Pulp writers everywhere seized upon these tips with new hope. Perhaps other big publishers who have been printing copy "out of the safe" for the past year will soon reach the bottom of their reserves, be compelled to buy again. At least the news helped compensate for what happened two months ago when Fiction House suspended publication of its entire list of twelve magazines.

The Depression has dealt roughly with pulp publishers and authors alike. Magazines which had been selling for 25-c- and 20-c- were forced down to 10-c- even then lost circulation among readers who had to balance entertainment against food. Of late Dell's new 5-c- pulps (All Western, All Detective) have complicated the situation.

Rates to authors have tumbled while the market dwindled. Many an author who, in 1930, could sell all he could write --perhaps 100,000 words a month--at 3-c- a word, is now lucky to sell one story a month at 1-c-. Among headliners, incomes of $10,000 to $20,000 a year were not uncommon three years ago. Few today can earn $5,000. For the rank & file of writers the figure is less than half that.

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