IT HAS been said—truthfully, we think—that if any editor knew exactly what everybody wants to read he could speedily attain for his magazine a tremendous circulation. But no editor knows. It's largely guesswork—this matter of publishing what people want.
Ourself, we get a staggering amount of manuscripts of every conceivable sort; and we frankly confess that half the time we're uncertain which ones to refuse and which to accept. At this moment we are confronted by such a dilemma in the shape of a story that has us (in a manner of speaking) all up in the air.
This story presents an interesting problem. We don't know what to do with it. We don't know whether it's a masterpiece of weird literature, or a new interpretation of the Einstein Theory, or a puzzle picture, or what it is. And so we're going to submit it to our readers. We're going to print the letter that accompanied the manuscript; and we ask you to read this letter, and then (remembering that the manuscript is written in the same matchless style) tell us whether or not you want us to print the story. Here's the letter:
"Mr. Edwin Baird, Editor, of the Wierd Tales.
Dear Sir Your Name hase been sent to me that you are in the market for short Stories. and I am going to send you one of my manuscripts. of one of my short stories. The Name of the Storie is—The Transparent Ghost, After you have looked and read my Manuscript. of this short storie and if you think you want it for your magazine, plese let me know at once and if you think you cant youse it you will find Postage. Stamps to return it back to me and if you have a plase in you magazine for it let me know soon as posaballe I have a few more short stories one Detective storie and if you like this one I would like to send to you my manuscript of the Detective StorieHoping to here from you soon and al so that you can youse thas Storie of the Transparent Ghost in your magazine,
and also that I my Have the pleasure of writing sevril more Stories for youResp. yours
Please Adress all my letters to the adress below.
Mrs, D. M. Manzer.
Amarillo. Texas,
Gen. Del.But as the Author to all my Stories is to be as my name is asined below
Author of the
Transparent Ghost, Mrs. Isa-belle Manzer."
So there you are! If you like the letter you'll surely like the story. We promise you that. And if you want the story you shall have it.
Another remarkable feature of this extraordinary yarn is that you may start reading it at any point and lose none of its charm. You can read it forward, or backward, or either way from the middle—and you'll never know you're off the track. A most unusual tale!
We discovered this, inadvertently, when we first opened the manuscript and began on the first sentence of the top page and read steadily through to the last sentence of the bottom page, and then, chancing to notice the number thereon, we found, to our amazement, that we'd read the thing backward! The pages had been transposed, so that the last page was first and the first page last, and we'd read the whole blooming thing upside down without ever knowing the difference. That's the sort of story it is.
What say? Would you care to see this treasure? If so, speak up, and we'll start it serially in our next issue.
THAT matter disposed of, we'll look through our correspondence and see what our readers are saying about us. We always enjoy letters like this from Homer O. Peterson of Delaware, Ohio—short and snappy and to the point:
"Now about the September number: Every story was good, most of them excellent, with the exception of one, 'The Autobiography of a Blue Ghost.' Evidently Mr. Lemon, whoever he is, tried to write a humorous story. Well, in my opinion he made a miserable failure. This story is the most ridiculous thing, the most ludicrous one, I ever read. It did not start out so badly, but the latter part! Do you think our ghosts, anyone's, could do as many silly things as was cited in this story? But we can easily excuse this little mistake this time, and maybe later Mr. Lemon will write a really sensible ghost story. If there was one poor story in your magazine there were a dozen good ones to make up for it. I can hardly wait for the conclusion of the 'People of the Comet' by Austin Hall. 'The Case of Dr. Johnstone' by Burton Peter Thom is one of the best scientific stories you have published. It is convincing, appealing, and has all the elements that go to make up a good short story. 'The Old Burying Ground' by Edgar Lloyd Hampton was another excellent story. The realism made the appearance of the night riders all the more striking and haunting. This story is in my opinion the best novelette you have published. I am anxiously awaiting the next number of WEIRD TALES."
Cecil John Eustace of the Bank of Montreal, St. Catharines, Ontario, has a happy way of summing up his likes and dislikes thus:
"Dear Editor: I have just finished reading the August copy of WEIRD TALES, and I want to tell you how much your effort in producing such a magazine as this is appreciated. It is just the thing that a large section of the reading public has always wanted, a good collection of unusual and weird stories. It is the first copy that I have seen in Canada, and I hope we get plenty more. I agree with W. T. F. about the covers, as I think that many more people would buy WEIRD TALES if they were not scared off it by the cover.
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