"There is one point to which I would call your attention. On page 5, Chapter II opens in this way: 'A young man to see Dr. Reynolds; no card.' Joe Blake, otherwise 'Dr. Reynolds,' told the boy to show the visitor in. The place was Chicago. Scene in room in prominent hotel the second day after Joe Blake had had an interview with Abner Larkin, 9 o'clock in the evening.
This is too trite and not easily expressed. Such references to time, place, etc., impress the reader with the fact that he is reading a romance and not a real story of Joe Blake's experiences. This particular point should be kept in mind. We want these stories to appear as natural as possible.
In the opening of the installment, where Mr. Larkin presents himself to Joe, you have duplicated the common-place method of most writers. There should be more originality in the way Joe Blake's attention is called to various cases and not a continual repetition of calls at his office, which, though natural enough, become tiresome to the reader. In this same opening there is not enough detective flavor, and here, as well as in other places, Joe does not appear to be the man of authority, which he is usually found to be. These are little things, but I believe if you will take care of them they will help the story greatly."
This will illustrate the care with which Harte & Perkins looked over the manuscripts submitted to them, to the end that they might be made to reflect their ideas of what good manuscripts should be. If a writer could not do their work the way they wanted it done he was not long in getting his _conge_. In the case of the story mentioned above, it was returned, rewritten, and made to conform to Mr. Perkins' ideas.
On Jan. 9 Harte & Perkins had written Edwards:
"It is more than apparent that the library business is not very flourishing, and hereafter we shall only be able to pay $40 for these stories. I think this will be satisfactory to you, for I know you can do this class of work very rapidly."
This meant a loss of $10 a week, and Edwards endeavored to make up for it by increasing his output. Particularly he wanted a chance to write another "Stella Edwards" story, just to show the firm that he could do the work. Mr. Harte gave him an order for the serial, stating that the new story was to follow "The Bicycle Belle," then running in _The Weekly Guest_. The story was to be in twelve installments of 5,250 words each, totalling some 63,000 words. For this Edwards was to receive $200. This hint was given him: