Contexts: Graph

Representative Authors' Payments for Serial Rights

The table below includes entries for both British & American magazines, ranging from the early 1880s to the beginning of WWII. New entries will be added as info. becomes available. Sources are included at the bottom of this page, and all entries regarding pulp magazines are highlighted in yellow.

1880s
1884
The Cornhill Magazine
Arthur Conan Doyle
J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement
£30
1887
Beeton's Christmas Annual
Arthur Conan Doyle
A Study in Scarlet
£25
1890
Lippincott's Magazine
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Sign of Four
£100
1890
Lippincott's Magazine
Rudyard Kipling
The Light That Failed
$800
1890s
1891
The Strand Magazine
Arthur Conan Doyle
A Scandal in Bohemia (8.7k)
£36
1891
The Strand Magazine
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Red-Headed League (9.3k)
£36
1894
McClure's Magazine
R.L. Stevenson
The Ebb-Tide
£400
1894-5
The Pall Mall Magazine
Rider Haggard
Joan Haste
£1,500
1895
The New Review
H.G. Wells
The Time Machine
£100
1896
McClure's Magazine
Rudyard Kipling
Captains Courageous
£3,000
1896
Pearson's Magazine
Rudyard Kipling
Captains Courageous
£2,500
1896
The Strand Magazine
Arthur Conan Doyle
Rodney Stone
$7,300
1896
The Savoy
Joseph Conrad
The Idiots (10k)
£38
1897
McClure's Magazine
R.L. Stevenson
St. Ives
$8,000
1897
Pearson's Magazine
H.G. Wells
The War of the Worlds
£200
1897
The Cornhill Magazine
Joseph Conrad
The Lagoon (5.3k)
£10
1897
Cosmopolis
Joseph Conrad
An Outpost of Progress (9.5k)
£40
1897
Blackwood's Magazine
Joseph Conrad
Karain (16k)
£40
1898 Blackwood's Magazine Joseph Conrad Youth (13k) £35
1899
Blackwood's Magazine
Joseph Conrad
(The) Heart of Darkness
£100
1899-00
Blackwood's Magazine
Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim
£300
1899-00
McClure's Magazine
Ian Maclaren
The Life of the Master
$10,000
1900-1
McClure's Magazine
Rudyard Kipling
Kim
$25,000
1900s
1901
The Illus. London News
Joseph Conrad
Amy Foster
$195
1901-2
The Strand Magazine
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hound of the Baskervilles
£6,000
1902
The Pall Mall Magazine
Joseph Conrad
Typhoon
£75
1902
Ainslee's Magazine
O. Henry
Six Short Stories*
$75
1903
The Sat. Evening Post
Jack London
The Call of the Wild
$750
1903-5
Collier's Weekly
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Return of Sherlock Holmes*
$45,000
1905
Blackwood's Magazine
Joseph Conrad
In Captivity
$64
1905-6
The Popular Magazine
Rider Haggard
Ayesha
£200
1906
The All-Story Magazine
Mary Roberts Rinehart
The Man in Lower Ten
$400
1906
Blackwood's Magazine
Joseph Conrad
Initiation
$105
1906
The Popular Magazine
A.M. Chisolm
In Sheep's Clothing
$25
1907
The Popular Magazine
A.M. Chisolm
A Forlorn Hope
$25
1908-9
The English Review
H.G. Wells
Tono-Bungay*
***
1908-9
The Popular Magazine
H.G. Wells
Tono-Bungay
£100
1908-9
The English Review
Joseph Conrad
Some Reminiscences
$780
1909
The Popular Magazine
Anna Katherine Green
The House of the Whispering Pines
$5,000
1909-10
The Cavalier
Rider Haggard
Morning Star
$800
1910
The Cavalier
Thomas E. Grant
The Wizard of the Peak
$175
1910
The Popular Magazine
Zane Grey
The Winning Ball
$125
1910
The Popular Magazine
Zane Grey
The Heritage of the Desert
$1,800
1910
The Popular Magazine
Zane Grey
The Rubber Hunter*
$360
1910s
1911
The Scrap-Book
Talbot Mundy
A Transaction in Diamonds
$60
1911
The Cavalier
Garrett P. Serviss
The Second Deluge* (75k)
$750
1911
The Popular Magazine
Anna Katherine Green
Initials Only
$5,000
1912
The All-Story Magazine
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Under the Moons of Mars
$400
1912
The All-Story Magazine
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan of the Apes
$700
1913
The Strand Magazine
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Scott's Journals
£2,000
1913
New Story Magazine
Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Return of Tarzan
$1,000
1914
The All-Story Weekly
Rex Stout
The Rose Orchid, etc.*
$200
1915
Blackwood's Magazine
John Buchan
The Thirty-Nine Steps (80pp)
£100
1915
The All-Story Weekly
John Buchan
The Thirty-Nine Steps*
+/-£200
1915
The All-Story Weekly
John Buchan
Andrew Garvald-Tidewater Trader
$1,200
1915
The Popular Magazine
Zane Grey
Mounty Price's Nightingale
$125
1915-6
The Sat. Evening Post
P.G. Wodehouse
Uneasy Money
$5,000
1917
The All-Story Weekly
Rex Stout
An Officer and a Lady
$45
1917
The All-Story Weekly
Charles Neville Buck
When Bearcat Went Dry (90k)
$1,400
1918
The Popular Magazine
H. de Vere Stacpoole
Fusileer Ballads
$60
1918
The Sat. Evening Post
P.G. Wodehouse
Picadilly Jim
$7,500
1918
The Blue Book
Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Land That Time Forgot
$3,000
1918
The Popular Magazine
A.M. Chisolm
The Country of Strong Men
$1,600
1919
The Popular Magazine
John Buchan
Mr. Standfast
$1,500
1919
The Popular Magazine
Roy Norton
The Secret City
$2,000
1920
The Popular Magazine
H. de Vere Stacpoole
Picaroons
$2,500
1920s
1921
Western Story Magazine
Max Brand
The Voice of La Paloma
$660
1921
Argosy All-Story Weekly
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan the Terrible
$3,000
1922
People's Magazine
Thomas Curry
Blessed Are the Meek
$25
1922
Western Story Magazine
Max Brand
Smiling Charlie
$4,000
1924
Argosy All-Story Weekly
John Buchan
The Three Hostages* (117k)
$1,500
1924
Weird Tales
Robert E. Howard "Spear and Fang" $18
1927
Western Story Magazine
Max Brand
Thunder Moon
$4,000
1928
Amazing Stories
Clark Ashton Smith
The Skylark of Space
$125
1928
Amazing Stories
Jack Williamson
The Metal Man
$25
1930s
1931
College Stories
Richard Sale
Washington and Lee University
$100
1932
Doc Savage Magazine
Lester Dent
Man of Bronze
$500
1933-6
G-8 and His Battle Aces
Robert J. Hogan
The G-8 Novels*
$700
1934
Black Mask
Dwight Babcock
At the Bottom of Every Mess
$100
1936
Dime Mystery
Bruno Fischer
The Cat Woman
$60
1937
Western Story Magazine
Max Brand
Eagles Over Crooked Creek
$112
1938
Western Story Magazine
Ney Geer
Trigger Law
$325
 
Notes

* Price paid per story.

* Offer made of $25,000 for 6 stories; $30,000 for 8; or $45,000 for all thirteen.

* 1/5th profit share on first 4 issues; Nil.

* Story ran in 1911.

* Purchased by the Munsey Co. for The Scrap-Book, but never published in that magazine.

* Payment for 5 stories: The Rose Orchid, Out of the Line, The Invevitable Third, The Lie, and Volatile Essence.

* Based on a cancelled check for $478.69; though likely a 50% payment.

* Eight payments of $187.50.

* Price per novel. Payments raised to $1000 at peak popularity.

Sources

A.P. Watt Records, 1888-1982; Series 1, Folders 171-12 & 172-12. Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill.

Donovan, Stephen. Joseph Conrad and Popular Culture. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Finkelstein, David. The House of Blackwood. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State UP, 2002.

Gillies, Mary Ann. The Professional Literary Agent in Britain, 1880-1920. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 2007.

Goulart, Ron. Cheap Thrills. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1972.

Hepburn, James. The Author's Empty Purse and the Rise of the Literary Agent. London: Oxford UP, 1968.

Johanningsmeier, Charles. Fiction and the American Literary Marketplace. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997.

McDonald, Peter. British Literary Culture and Publishing Practice, 1880-1914. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997.

Moskowitz, Sam, ed. Under the Moons of Mars. New York: Holt Rinehart Winston, 1970.

Popular Publications Inc. (Frank A. Munsey) Records, ca. 1910-1977; Index Card Files. Archives Division, NYPL.

Porges, Irwin. Annotated Index, E.R.B., "Prices Paid for Magazine Sales", erblist.com/erbmania/porgesall-1.html.

Reynolds, Quentin. The Fiction Factory. New York: Random House, 1955.

Street & Smith Publications Records, 1850-1960; Editorial Files. Special Collections, Syracuse University Library.

Waller, Philip. Writers, Readers, and Reputations. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006.

Zeuschner, Robert. E.R.B.: Exhaustive Scholar’s and Collector’s Bibliography. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1996.