magazine editors to prepare articles on given subjects.

In addition to material obtained in these ways, articles may be secured
from specialists who write as an avocation. An editor generally decides
on the subject that he thinks will interest his readers at a given time
and then selects the authority best fitted to treat it in a popular way.
To induce well-known men to prepare such articles, an editor generally
offers them more than he normally pays.

A periodical may encourage its readers to send in short articles giving
their own experiences and explaining how to do something in which they
have become skilled. These personal experience articles have a reality
and "human interest" that make them eminently readable. To obtain them
magazines sometimes offer prizes for the best, reserving the privilege
of publishing acceptable articles that do not win an award. Aspiring
writers should take advantage of these prize contests as a possible
means of getting both publication and money for their work.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR UNKNOWN WRITERS. The belief is common among novices
that because they are unknown their work is likely to receive little or
no consideration from editors. As a matter of fact, in the majority of
newspaper and magazine offices all unsolicited manuscripts are
considered strictly on their merits. The unknown writer has as good a
chance as anybody of having his manuscript accepted, provided that his
work has merit comparable with that of more experienced writers.

With the exception of certain newspapers that depend entirely on
syndicates for their special features, and of a few popular magazines
that have the staff system or that desire only the work of well-known
writers, every publication welcomes special articles and short stories
by novices. Moreover, editors take pride in the fact that from time to
time they "discover" writers whose work later proves popular. They not
infrequently tell how they accepted a short story, an article, or some
verse by an author of whom they had never before heard, because they
were impressed with the quality of it, and how the verdict of their
readers confirmed their own judgment.

The relatively small number of amateurs who undertake special articles,
compared with the hundreds of thousands who try their hand at short
stories, makes the opportunities for special feature writers all the
greater. Then, too, the number of professional writers of special
articles is comparativel