Juri,
You wrote:
> you've done a lot of work for hire - Mike Shaynes,
Charlie Chans,
> Shadows, Nick Carters. One of your remarkable
achievements is
> that you've been able to deliver your social
opinions into these
> works. At least in your one Mike Shayne novel
there's a lot of
> warmth and social concern that is notably lacking in
Davis
> Dresser's original works (which is why I liked your
book more
> than the originals) and that strongly resembles the
issues you
> have in "Act of Fear" or other more serious novels.
The same with
> your Nick Carters: they were not only more
hardboiled than the
> usual entries in the series, but it was amazing that
one could
> recognize it being written by you. I forget the
details, but I
> was amazed how an author did get away with
this.
As I said to someone earlier, VOICE is the heart and soul of
writing. Apparently my voice is distinctive enough it comes
through even in work for hire. Besides, I'm stubborn.
>
> As for how I got away with it, usually work-for-hire
editors really didn't
give a damn what you wrote as long as it was reasonably like
the originals, moved fast, and hit the deadline. They didn't
much care if it was better than the original writer or worse.
As they say in Hollywood, "They don't want it good, they want
it Tuesday."
> Nick Carters were no problem, so many authors wrote
them there was no
uniform style anyway. In the case of The Shadow, no one else
was writing them for Belmont. What happened was that they had
hired the man himself, Walter Gibson, and had hated the book
he gave them. It was published anyway
(see what I mean?) but after that they came to me and told me
to update the stories, make the Shadow sort of a James Bond,
but keep the Shadow characters. So I kept as many of them as
I could, then added new ones when I needed them.
The only problem we ever had was the two Super Mack Bolans
Gayle and I did together. It is impossible to reproduce Don
Pendelton's style, and they really didn't like our style, so
we only did two.
> On a lighter note, I'd very interested to hear more
about your
> work for hire: how did you get the jobs, how was it
to write
> them, were they very quick jobs etc.
I got them through my agent, through contacts, from referals.
It's always tough to write books that are not your own, they
were usually on short deadline, and they were written as fast
as I could write them. (I always made my books the best they
could be, no matter what the deadline and whose name went on
them. It's a matter of pride, being as true to yourself as
you could be within the imposed limitations.) They usually
took three weeks to a month. Since the pay was small for most
such jobs, any longer would not have paid.
The only semi-work for hire I did on which I spent a lot of
time, The Three Investigators juveniles, paid far, far better
and so justified the effort.
(It wasn't so much the writing on these books that took so
long, it was getting the idea and outline to be approved. And
I said SEMI-work for hire because on these I was paid
royalties---I still get royalties on them.)
Dennis
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 16 May 2005 EDT