For of course, there are companies with definitely
fixed policies, besides concerns that announce from time to time that
they are unable to use stories of this or that sort.
The most important aids to a thorough knowledge of the photoplay
market are the different moving-picture trade-journals and the
magazines published exclusively for writers.[61] By studying them you
will equip yourself with a first-hand knowledge of what the different
studio editors need, and so be on the right road. Don't take a
gambler's chance by sending out your scripts without knowing precisely
what is a good prospect.
[Footnote 61: See Chapter XIV.]
In almost every one of the foregoing chapters we have raised points
that bear upon the selling of your story as well as affect the
particular part of the script then being discussed. To repeat one
instance, you were advised not only to satisfy yourself that a company
is in the market for society stories, but to look into the nature of
the stock-company producing their plays. If the company you select is
one that features a woman in most of its picture-stories, and yours is
a photoplay with a strong male lead, you would be unwise to submit it
there. True, it might be accepted and one of the studio writers
commissioned to rewrite it in order to give the "fat" part to the
leading woman, but your check would be proportionately smaller to
compensate for the rewriting--you would, in fact, be paid little more
than if you had sold the bare idea.
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