I stayed in a motel in San Simeon—home of the opulent Hearst Castle—over Christmas. In the motel lobby are two full bookcases. My kind of place. (By the way, the room was $36 a night for a large, ocean-view room. I went to sleep listening to the relaxing sounds of the surf. E-mail me and I’ll tell you the secret of getting the same.)
One book in the lobby, the 1947 novel Mountain Time by Bernard DeVoto, had been rubber stamped on the inside cover. It read:
This Book is the Property of
THE MAY COMPANY
No Membership Fee
Time Limit on All Books
THIRTY DAYS
Non-fiction [sic] 3¢ a day 8¢ Minimum
Fiction 2¢ a day 5¢ Minimum
Books will be reserved on the payment of
five cents for Fiction and eight cents for
Non-Fiction. This payment covers a
notice to you that the book is being held
for four days from the sending date of notice.
I wonder why fiction was cheaper than nonfiction. Is it today? Are you willing to pay a higher price for a how-to or self-help title than a novel? How about a memoir? Or a political expose?
One Response to “Fiction Cheaper than Nonfiction?”
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No way. Fiction is a lot harder to find, everyone and his dog are writing non fiction. Check out Elance.com for proof. I considered being a writer on there but there is no demand for fiction writers and the non fiction market is saturated, the pay is not worth bothering with,