The Golden Pen

Story Contest Program
as broadcast over KGBU
in Ketchikan, Alaska—1940

Today we are inaugurating a new program over KGBU, a program which may lead to fame and fortune for one or several Alaskans, a program which has already helped many others to the heights of their ambitions when it has been broadcast in the States. Anyone but professional writers may participate with us in this, the hour of The Golden Pen.

The Golden Pen has been made possible over this station by the presence in Alaska of a professional writer of high repute. He has agreed to start The Golden Pen Hour because of his interest in amateur writers and his friendship with KGBU.

L. Ron Hubbard has been writing stories for national magazines for ten years and has written and sold four and a half million words of fiction. He has written all types of stories for all types of magazines and keeps five names working besides his own. He has written for the motion picture studios of Hollywood, for the radio and for many publishers. He has lectured on short story writing at Harvard and other large universities. He was at one time president of the American Fiction Guild and is now a member of the Author’s League of America.

And now may we introduce L. Ron Hubbard.

It has been my experience that almost everyone, at one period or another of his life, has harbored a desire to write. Some have let that desire burn very dimly and have not even put the matter to test. A few have put words to paper and have laid the unfinished product away in some remote corner where it will remain forgotten forever. A very few have written several things and have actually desired to do something with them. Perhaps one percent of the total has gone so far as to send a manuscript to a publisher. The estimated figures are that ten million people are trying to write and sell stories, that ten thousand have submitted stories to magazines, that two thousand have sold a story at one time or another and that there are only five hundred full professional writers in a nation of a hundred and thirty million people.

Why?

The amateur stares at his unfinished script and thinks that in view of all those top-heavy figures against him he has not the slightest chance and so abandons the attempt. If he only knew how anxiously new writers are sought by editors.

The person who submits an occasional story is discouraged by the rejection slips he collects and so abandons the trial.

The person who occasionally sells a story and yet does not become a full-time professional writer is either up against the limitations of his imagination or his ability to concentrate.

Ten million people are trying to write and sell stories. Five hundred writing and selling consistently. What do the five hundred have which the ten million have not? Some say it is the ability to sweat. “Ten ounces of inspiration and ten tons of perspiration,” as a sage writer once put it. That, however, is not the entire truth.

The amateur writer, even when he has completed a manuscript, seldom knows what to do with it or how to go about getting it in print. That is information which one earns dearly. One can have the great American novel on his desk ready for publication and still never have it published. Margaret Mitchell, who wrote Gone with the Wind, was and is still in the classification of part-time author and will never, according to the best opinions on the subject, become a truly professional writer for she wrote all she knew in one book and made so much out of it as to stifle further financial yearnings. Gone with the Wind would never have been published at all if Margaret Mitchell had not encountered a streak of luck which is almost fabulous. She had the novel. She had had it in finished form for a long, long time. The ultimate publisher, thinking about new types of books to publish, had pondered on the fact that there are many, many such books lying in attic trunks throughout the land. He sent out scouts to discover them. One scout, in the south, was about to return to New York and report a fruitless journey when his host said that his wife sometimes turned out some stories for her own amusement. The scout politely yawned and said he would like to see something. The manuscript which was dragged out of the trunk was Gone with the Wind, which has made, to date, between four and five million dollars.

Now the amateur writer is not concerned with knocking off a Gone with the Wind, for that is a fluke. It serves, however, to illustrate that the amateur writer may as well leave his paper blank unless he pays good and close attention to the marketing of his material.

There are various shark-toothed chaps who sit behind shiny desks and “agent” stories. Some of these are good, some of them are even honest. Their ads are to be found in any writers’ magazine. The amateur, at least in my opinion, is better off never to contact such an agent for the reason that he deals in bulk and the amateur goes into competition with every other client in the agent’s files without attention paid to his own work beyond routine handling, regardless of the promises.

Perhaps as we go along I can give you a few helpful hints on the marketing of the stories. But right now, we have the biggest help on hand which can be given to the amateur author.

KGBU has decided to offer a prize for the best Christmas story submitted to this station and read over the air. The prize will be above the rates paid by newspaper syndicates and reputable publishers for the same amount of wordage. First prize will consist of one cent a word. Second prize will be ten dollars in merchandise. Third prize will be five dollars in merchandise.

The rules of the contest are simple. The subject of the story is to be “Christmas.” The length of the story is to be not more than 1,500 words. The story should be written in ink or on a typewriter in a clearly legible fashion, one side of the paper only. The contest closes on December 18th, 1940. The decision of the judges will be final. No professional writer is allowed to participate.

That’s a fairly basic setup. Now if you think you would like to dash off a short story, think up a plot associated with Christmas, draw up your paper and ink and begin. Not more than 1,500 words, remember. Then neatly fold your manuscript or put it in a flat manila envelope and mail it to KGBU, Ketchikan.

The sooner you get it in, the better, for first impressions on a judge are always better than those when his appetite is jaded by having read through reams.

The only ones barred from this contest are those who make their living, full or part, by writing stories or articles.

There’s nothing difficult about knocking off 1,500 words and the subject of Christmas, I’m sure, is pretty close to all our hearts just now.

When received, even before the closing date of the contest, the manuscripts will be read at this time over the air. The final selections, after the close of the contest, will be read over the air for the radio audience to judge and vote on the script they like best.

And here is the final and best news. The winning manuscripts will be submitted to the editor of a national magazine for possible purchase in a Christmas issue of 1941. This editor is always alert for new talent and so this contest may lead to higher and better things.

And so, until I have more news on The Golden Pen Hour, good night.

Thank you, Mr. Hubbard. Listeners, why not join in this contest and win for yourself an extra Christmas present?