Getting The Most Buck For His Bang
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Loading ...In the early days of his career, author Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of the famous Perry Mason mysteries, churned out stories for pulp magazines at the rate of 200,000 words a month. As he was paid by the word, the length of the story was more important than its quality, and he tended to draw the maximum potential from every incident.
His villains, for example, were always killed by the last bullet in the gun. Gardner’s editor once asked him why his heroes were always so careless with their first five shots. “At three cents a word,” replied Garnder, “every time I say ‘bang’ in the story I get three cents. If you think I’m going to finish the gun battle while my hero has got fifteen cents’ worth of unexploded ammunition in his gun, you’re nuts.”
