“No more absurd idea ever existed than that of the efficacy of
‘influence’ in literature. An editor will buy what he thinks his
readers will appreciate. He will not buy anything which he feels
will fall dead on his audience. He may purchase one—possibly two,
manuscripts,—to oblige a friend, but it will end there; and one or two
manuscripts, so purchased, can never make name or fame for their author.
“It would be just as reasonable to talk about ‘influence with a
dry-goods merchant,’ and to expect to make him purchase undesired goods
from a manufacturer for friendship’s sake, as to think an editor can be
influenced by a friend at court.
“Editors are employed by the owners of periodicals to select and
publish material which will render the periodical a paying concern. The
editor who does not do this may lose his position and his salary.
“He is on the watch for attractive matter—and desires to find new
material. He is delighted when he discovers a new poet or author. Being
mortal, and having but one mind, he can judge of the poems and stories
sent to him only from an individual standpoint.
“He not infrequently lets genius slip through his hands, and accepts
paste imitations. But he does it ignorantly, or carelessly, not
wilfully; or he may have in his collection of accepted manuscripts
something similar, which would prevent his use of a poem or sketch at
that particular juncture.
“The reasons why an editor declines a good manuscript are innumerable.
It is impossible for him to explain them to each applicant for his
favor. Nothing indicates the crudity of an author more than a request
to criticize a manuscript and point out its defects; for frequently
the very first verse or the very first page of a poem or romance
decides its fate, and the editor returns it without reading further.
Sometimes its length prevents any possibility of its being used in that
particular periodical, while it might be just what another magazine
would desire.”