If You Don't Write Fiction

If You Don't Write Fiction is by Charles Phelps Cushing, and its dedication calls it a little book for a cousin who is ambitious to market magazine articles. The dedication adds that if the book can save her some tribulations along the road that leads to acceptances, the author will feel that his labors have been well enough repaid.

The text says many writers who are hopelessly clumsy with words draw fat pay checks because they have a faculty for smelling out interesting facts. The text says that in the slang of the newspaper shop a story means non-fiction, and may be an interview, an account of a fire, or a page of descriptive writing for the Sunday magazine section. A passage says the first requisite toward landing in the newspapers and magazines is to know a story when he sees one. The text advises a beginner to try a 'prentice hand on contributions to the smaller publications, calling it the surest way to learn while you earn in free lancing.