Читать книгу The Selected Works of Arnold Bennett: Essays, Personal Development Books & Articles - Arnold Bennett - Страница 54

I must warn the aspirant that he is bound to fail at first. Article after article will be rejected, and the process of rejection may continue uninterrupted for months. This is, indeed, the experience of ninety-nine out of every hundred beginners. But the aspirant should not be discouraged. He should persevere, and above all he should keep up a regular flow of articles. And while waiting for success he may positively assure himself that success does not tarry, (a) because his articles are not carefully read, (b) because the market is overcrowded with good stuff, or (c) because editors are fools. I need say no more in this connection.

Just as the aspirant is bound to fail at first, so he is bound to succeed in the end if he perseveres and directs his efforts with sagacity. Success, trifling to begin with, will increase; the standard of work will rise; and the time will certainly come when the freelance will cease to be solely a freelance. Either he will get a post on the staff of some paper with which he has gradually connected himself, or he will develop, as dozens of journalists do, into a novelist or some other kind of author. It is no part of this manual to deal with the duties of a staff appointment I therefore pass to the subject of authorship proper, and in particular to the subject of fiction.