Читать книгу The Selected Works of Arnold Bennett: Essays, Personal Development Books & Articles - Arnold Bennett - Страница 63

The serial story is becoming more and more a recognised feature of weekly and daily journalism. Even the weekly edition of The Times has its serial. Almost all the first class London weeklies, almost all the second class and inferior weeklies, almost all halfpenny dailies, London and provincial, and practically all provincial weekly papers, run serials. The magazines also run serials; but, in the matter of serials, the aspirant may ignore the magazines, and the more famous London weeklies too, as being beyond his reach. The lower class weeklies, however, and the London and provincial halfpenny dailies, and the provincial weeklies, should come within the purview of the ambitious aspirant. Quite recently I had cognisance of a case in which a beginner disposed of his first attempt at a serial to a London daily.

The majority of all serials, save those appearing in magazines and a few famous weeklies, pass through the hands of the three syndicates whose names I have given in the previous chapter. A director of one of these syndicates, a merchant who probably buys and sells more fiction than any other man in England, once told me that he divided serials into three classes—sensational, detective, and domestic; the second class is of course really a branch of the first; and he said that his favourite lengths were, for sensational serials twelve weekly instalments, for detective serials ten instalments, and for domestic serials fifteen instalments. The average length of an instalment is five thousand words.