Books:

Discovered! 505
Odd Enterprises

Hidden Dollars

How to Make
Money at Home

Small Business
of Your Own

You Can Own
a Business

It really seemed a shame that only a few people who attended a dinner party would have a chance to enjoy the cute little fellows that were mounted on round milk bottle cap bases. Acting on this theory, I wrapped them up, included detailed instructions for making them, and sent them off to Country Gentleman, the woman's department of which magazine occasionally used material on making favors. Well, the editor evidently thought they were clever, too, for in about two weeks a check for $25 came in the mail.

Talk about the thrill that comes once in a lifetime! This was certainly it. If editors' checks were so easy as that to capture, no reason why more of them shouldn't wend their way to my door. I had plenty of ideas and I was constantly designing and making things. Might as well get paid for my ideas.

So, one after another, a succession of favors, clothing accessories and similar items were constructed and sent off—everything from peach pit necklaces to bunnies and chicks made of Easter egg candies. Each new item was wrapped carefully and dispatched hopefully and each one came back with discouraging regularity. That first accepted item seemed to have been beginner's luck, but for some reason, all would-be writers feel that the next submission will be the charm, so the procession continued.

That was about ten years ago, and the law of averages, if nothing else, decreed that an occasional article was to be accepted. There were just enough of them that rang the bell to ward off utter discouragement, and so each time a new idea put in an appearance, I promptly worked it up and sent it off with high hopes. These were all "how-to" articles, giving instructions for making some project or doing some job, since that is the writing field which interests me most. In ten years of writing, it was inevitable that I should learn some of the requirements and likes and dislikes of editors, but it was rather an uphill road and many of the disappointments could have been avoided if I had just known some of the fundamental principles of preparing this sort of material.

IF YOU have designed some item and made it up in your workshop, or if you have worked out a labor saving gimmick around the house, you have the makings of a how-to article and might as well cash in on it.

If you aspire to write how-to's, you need, first of all, an idea, and then you must be able to present it in a clear, logical manner.

Where do you get the idea? Many of them may be derived from things that are entirely original, but on the other hand, often something you see in a store or read about in a magazine will give you the germ of an idea. You cannot, of course, use this "as is," but you may be able to give it a new twist or add a new kink which will make the material acceptable.

For instance, I ran across an item in a magazine telling about a couple who had constructed a Lazy Susan type of dining room table. This was a two deck affair. The lower deck of the circular table was regular table height and was used for eating. In the center, a revolving upper deck was used for passing the food. All of the serving dishes were placed on this upper deck and whenever a diner wanted a second helping, he simply turned the revolving deck until the desired food came within reach. This looked like a good idea but not as a dining room table. Instead, I applied the principle to an outdoor picnic table. For the revolving deck, I used an old wagon wheel and a part of the axle. A disk of plywood of the waterproof type, was fitted on the wheel. The lower deck was of ¾-inch pine boards. The table was set on a rustic framework of sections of tree limbs with the bark left on. On the revolving deck was painted an amusing ranch design, a bucking bronc that had just shucked his rider and a bawling calf with the coil of rope still wrapped around his leg. Around the edge of the lower deck a series of ranch brands featuring the initials of the family, were painted. Rustic benches to match, finished the set which accommodates twelve diners. This is just one sample of how an idea may be revamped to make an entirely new project. This idea sold to one of the craft departments of a national science magazine.

AFTER I have the idea, I like to write a query to the editor of the magazine which I think is the most likely market. I give a brief description of the proposed project article and I always mention any unusual features that might be of special interest and make the project unique and out of the ordinary. A query of this sort gives the editor an idea of what you are planning and from your description he will know whether or not the material fits into his schedule. There are many reasons why an article idea might not be acceptable. He may recently have used one on the subject or may have similar material in the files, or your idea may not fit in with the editorial policies of the magazine at all. If he thinks the article may be a possibility, he will ask you to work it up and send it in. However, don't assume that because the editor has asked to see the material, that you will get a check for it. It is always "on speculation" and there is no reason for you to feel that an editor is obligated to take the material just because he has expressed an interest in the idea. There may still be plenty of reasons why the finished piece doesn't measure up to what the editor expected. Don't dash out and make a down payment on that snappy new car just because some editor has answered your query with "We would be very interested in seeing the material you outlined in your letter."

Of course, you can work up your idea and submit the manuscript without query first. One writer of my acquaintance says she never writes a query because she feels she knows what material will sell to which markets. However, I believe queries save time and postage, especially if photographs are to be included with the article, for these need careful packing.

ASSUMING THAT you have a go-ahead signal on your idea, proceed to work up your material. Write in a clear, concise manner. There is no room for padding in the how-to article. The purpose of such a piece is to tell someone else how to make an article or how to do a job better. Present your material in a logical step-by-step manner from beginning to conclusion, so that your reader finds it easy to follow your instructions.

If you are writing up plans for making a workshop item, dimensional drawings or pattern designs as needed should be included. In making your drawings, use a straight edge or celluloid triangle so that your straight lines will be straight and parallel to the edge of the paper. Such drawings may be made on white typing paper. They need not be inked. Be sure that all measurements are accurate, for if the measurements given for the parts don't total up to the same as that given for the overall length, believe me, you'll hear about it. Judging from the letters to the editors, I sometimes think that all some people read the magazines for is to see if they can't spot a mistake so they can write to the editor and bawl out both him and the writer of the piece. On large pieces make your drawings to scale but give full measurements.

Sometimes text alone is sufficient. Sometimes drawings are needed to clarify the text but a good photograph will often help to make a sale. A good editor friend once told me that "a good photograph will often sell a poor project, while a poor one will ruin the sale of an excellent idea." When it comes to how-to material, no truer words were ever spoken.

When I began taking photos to illustrate how-to material, I used the family folding Kodak. My technique ran thus. I would drape an old shawl over a couch out in the sunshine on the front porch, set up my project and snap it. Very often the sun was contrary and I spent considerable time dashing in and out of the house, trying to get my picture while the sun was out. Because some of the objects were quite small, I could not get close enough with my fixed focus camera to have them sufficient size in the field. An attachment known as the "portra lens" was purchased to allow me to take really close-up views. This threw the whole view finder out of kilter and as often as not the project was half cut off by the margin.

I SHUDDER to think back at some of the awful examples of butchered photography that went out with some of those first articles, and marvel at the kind patience of the editors. Sometimes they would ask to have the object itself sent to them so that they could photograph it in their own studios; sometimes they merely had their staff artists make up drawings and used no photos; other times, the material simply came back. Little by little, through studying published photographs, through kindly advice of the editors and through tracking down elusive articles on the subject, I learned just what is required.

A how-to photograph should be sharp. None of this soft focus business that leaves the project fuzzy. It should be well lit to show the parts and it should be taken from the angle that best shows up the parts you want to call attention to. A lot of lights are not necessary. I commonly use two photo-floods with occasionally a spotlight added to bring out a specific part. Many of my photographs are of relatively small articles so I lay a 24-by-30-inch sheet of red poster paper on a card table and arrange my subjects on it. The primary thing is to have a neutral colored background that entirely fills the field of the negative. As to camera, one with a ground glass focusing back is ideal for this sort of work. I use a 3¼-by-4¼ press camera. This gives me a negative that will easily stand the blowup to an 8-by-10 print without losing any of its sharpness. Occasionally you can get by with submitting a 5-by-7 print, but the standard size that most editors prefer and many of them demand, is 8 by 10. If you are doing your own darkroom work, you will probably reach the point, as I have, where you run all of your prints to 8 by 10 as a matter of course. Of course, it is seldom that such large prints are used in the final publication, but any necessary retouching can more easily be done on this large size print by the magazine art department.

Sometimes a set of step-by-step photographs will serve to illustrate an article and clarify the text. This series shows just how the work is carried out from start to finish. Captions explain the photos. Some magazines prefer a series of how-to photos with captions, to a lengthy text and there are many types of projects that can be adequately shown in this manner. Usually the rate of pay for photos is higher than for the text. For other projects, both text and photos are necessary, often supplemented by drawings. For some types of project articles, only a photo of the finished piece will be necessary. When this is the case, the finished article should be posed as attractively as possible, employing a model to show it in use. For toy projects, children are the naturally logical models. The one caution here is to be careful that your model does not draw attention from the article itself but rather emphasizes it.

WHAT ABOUT mailing? I prefer a photo mailer in a 10-by-13 size. This is a heavy manila envelope with two sheets of corrugated cardboard that fit into it. The material, text, drawings and photos plus the letter to the editor are packed between the cardboard and sealed in the envelope. This material must go first class and the post office department is very fussy about it. Using this sort of a packing ups the cost of the postage but it does protect the photos from becoming crushed or bent, which is very important, for photos that have cracks will not print up.

As to markets, almost every magazine except those that fall into the "general interest" class (American, Saturday Evening Post, etc.), use how-to material. How to do a job better, how to make some workshop project, kinks, recipes—all these and many other types of material fall into the how-to class and if you will leaf through any of the home, science, farm or craft publications, you will see just how much of this material is used. Some of it, of course, is staff prepared, but a good deal comes from free lance writers, and one of them might just as well be you. An example how-to article is shown below.

How to Make a Tin Can Footstool

WHAT DO you do with your empty tin cans? Throw them out, of course. What else is there to be done with them? Why, lots of things. Now don't get the idea that I would suggest you carefully keep all of those cans, for you would soon be crowded out of the house, but now and then you might like to make something useful from the empty cans. For instance, do you need another footstool or small stool just right for a little boy or girl to sit on? Three of the gallon or No. 10 size cans may be quickly turned into a sturdy stool that is a nice size and height to sit on or to rest your feet on.

Set the three cans together on a piece of wrapping paper, and holding them together with one hand, draw around the bottoms of the three to make a three leaf clover pattern on the paper. This will be the pattern for the wood bottom of the stool and the Masonite top. Trace this paper pattern onto ¾-inch thick wood and also onto a piece of Masonite or plywood. Saw out the two pieces. On the bottom of the wood piece, attach three furniture glides, one near the outer edge of each of the three "leaves." Set the cans onto the wood and fasten each can in place with two or three wood screws run through holes punched into the bottom of the can and screwed into the wood. Near the tops of the cans, where they touch each other, punch little holes and thread the cans tightly together with fine wire. This will hold them securely and keep them from spreading at the top or rattling with usage.

Next comes the padding for the seat and the upholstery. Use your paper pattern again and cut two pieces of heavy cloth or ticking, depending on the padding you use. The pieces of cloth should be ½ inch larger all around than the paper pattern. Stitch the two pieces together except for about three inches left open for stuffing. Clip the seams nearly to the stitching line at the bottom curves and turn to the right side. Stuff this casing either with kapok or feathers.

FOR THE upholstery cover you may use any kind of upholstery material, artificial leather, monk's cloth or even cretonne. Cut a piece as you did the cloth for the casing. It also should be about ½ inch larger all around than the paper pattern. Cut a straight piece of the material 1 inch wider than the can and wood assembly measures from top to bottom and long enough to be sewed to the top to reach around the cans. To determine this length, use a tape measure and measure around the outer edge of the piece of upholstery that is to be the top of the stool. This will give you the length needed for the straight strip. Stitch this strip to the top piece and join the two edges where they meet. Clip the curves of the seam as you did when making the cushion casing, then turn right side out.

Set the Masonite or plywood top over the open ends of the cans; then set the cushion on the top. Slip the upholstery cover over this assembly. It will fit snugly and go on much like a furniture slip cover.

Turn the entire assembly upside down and draw the bottom edge of the upholstery down around the bottom of the wood base. Clip the material at the curves so that you may pull it taut. Fasten the material to the bottom of the wood piece with carpet tacks, spacing them about 1½ inches apart. Take tucks in the material as needed while tacking to the base.

Finish by tacking a folded strip of the material with upholstery tacks around the bottom edge of the wood. This is not absolutely necessary but it gives a neat professional finish.