You may be sure that he will pay you just as much as your
story is worth, being governed only by the price-limit fixed by the
manufacturer. Today, almost every manufacturer realizes that the day
of getting "something for nothing" is past. In other words, he
realizes that the script--the story--is the very keystone of the
photoplay arch, and if the story is purchased from a free-lance
writer, he must be prepared to pay a fair price for it.
It is impossible, in a work of this kind, to say what certain
companies are in the habit of paying, but it may roughly be said that
the minimum price _per reel_ today is $50. Most of the larger
producing companies are glad to pay a minimum of $100 per reel for
satisfactory material, and $1,000 for a five-reel script--or even for
a five-reel story in synopsis form, if that is the company's
policy--is regularly paid by those who are entitled to be called "the
leading producers." Most companies have a fixed, uniform price-scale;
and it would be silly for any one to say that you will be paid a
certain amount for your story "if it suits them." We have in mind a
certain large company that is in the habit of paying $1,000 for all
the five-reel synopses it purchases. If your story is not what this
company wants, of course it will not be purchased at all.
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