find piled upon his desk for reading to-morrow morning
will prove to be wholly unfitted for the uses of his magazine. The man
outside the sanctum fails utterly to understand the editor's dilemma.

This is the situation which has produced the "staff writer," and has
brought down upon the editor the protests of his more discriminating
readers against "standardized fiction" and against sundry uninspired
articles produced to measure by faithful hacks. The editor defends his
course in printing this sort of material upon the ground that a magazine
made up wholly of unsolicited material would be a horrid melange, far
more distressing to the consumer than the present type of popular
periodical which is so largely made to order. All editors read
unsolicited material hopefully and eagerly. Many an editor gives this
duty half of his working day and part of his evenings and Sundays. All
of the reward of a discoverer is his if he can herald a new worth-while
writer. Moreover, the interest of economy bids him be faithful in the
task, for the novice does not demand the high rates of the renowned
professional.

Yet even on the largest of our magazines, where the stream of
contributions is enormous, the most diligent search is not fruitful of
much material that is worth while. The big magazines have to order most
of their material in advance, like so much sausage or silk; and much of
the contents is planned for many months ahead. Scarcely any dependence
can be placed upon the luck of what drifts into the office in the mails.

Inevitably, the magazines must have large recourse to "big names," not
because of inbred snobbishness on the part of the editors but because
the "big name," besides carrying advertising value, is more likely than
a little one to stand for material with a "big" theme, handled by a
writer of experience. A surer touch in selecting and handling topics of
nation-wide appeal is what counts most heavily in favor of the writer
with an established reputation. Often enough it is not his vastly
superior craftsmanship. I know of several famous magazine writers who
never in their lives have got their material into print in the form in
which it originally was submitted. They are what the trade calls
"go-getters." They deliver the "story" as best they can, and a more
skillful stylist completes the job.

Success in marketing non-fiction to popular magazines appears to hinge
largely upon the quality of the thinking the writer d