Sunday, 14 April 2024

Star Weekly Novel Part VIII

The Star Weekly's fiction editor was responsible for the Star Weekly Novel published every Saturday for 35 years. For a significant part of that range the editor was Gwen Cowley. In addition to the novel the Star Weekly published short stories and serials. A 1946 rejection letter to an author describes what she looked for in choosing a work for publishing.

"We like our stories to be full of action and colour, and also to have good strong plots. Our most urgent need at the moment is for good romances, sports, humor and adventure type of story. Our best length for short stories is around 3,500 words. We also use a novel a week, which must condense to around 46,000 words in length and also serials which run from 18,000 to 30,000 words."

Here are three of the novels.

August 1, 1953 - That Girl in Nice by Maysie Greig (Wm. Collins, 1954)

November 8, 1952 - Brave Interval by Elizabeth Yates (Coward, McCann, 1952)

February 23, 1946 - Java Orchid by Helen Eva Yates (first and only publication, not published in book form)

Star Weekly Novel - February 23, 1946

Star Weekly Novel - November 3, 1952

Star Weekly Novel - August 1, 1953

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