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The Manuscript Market
While our figures are not complete because of unreported sales, those that we do have would indicate a decline of between 20 and 25 per cent in the purchase of story material by motion picture studios during the past year.
It is encouraging to report, however, that more than half of the properties bought, according to our figures, were original stories and screenplays — 94 originals as against 85 novels, plays and published short stories. Seventy of these originals
were bought from SWG members who also sold a total of 18 published properties.
Less than 200 purchases were made, it is believed. The causes are several : studio retrenchments and reorganizations, indecision about, what constitutes entertainment, the divorcement suit and low morale on the part of producing executives who are waiting for "name novelists" to produce a best seller. From 70 purchases in the first four months of the year beginning July 1, 1947,
the decline went to 53 in the next four months, and rose to 56 in the last period.
Despite adverse box office reactions in the past to books and plays unsuited for the screen and the additional high cost of preparing stories for such material which frequently lacked screen drama, the studios generally adhered to the policy of buying "presold" properties by acquiring .41 published novels and 19 plays.
Here is a breakdown of our figures:
to November 1, 1947 July 1, 1947 Originals :
Stories 19
Screenplays 13
32 Published Material:
Novels 13
Books 3
Articles 0
Plays 16
Radio 0
Short Stories 5
Poems 1
38
Total Purchases: .. 70
Sold by SWG Members:
Originals ....25
Published 7
November 1, 1947
March 1,
1948
Total
to March 1, 1948
to July 1
1948
for Year
26
26
71
8
2
23
34
9 0 1
3 1 5 0
19 53
22 6
28
19 0 2 0 0 7 0
28 56
23 5
94
41 3 3
19 1
17 1
85 179
70 18
S.W.G. offers the following list of literary material acquired by motion picture studios for the four months ending July 1st:
COLUMBIA PICTURES
JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD, Kazan, Published
Story DEVERY FREEMAN (with Everett Freeman),
The Facts of Love, Unpublished Story EVERETT FREEMAN (with Devery Freeman)
The Facts of Love, Unpublished Story
SAMUEL FULLER, The Lovers, Original Screenplay
JAMES EDWARD GRANT, The Big Jump, Unpublished story
JOHN MePARTLAND, Portrait of An American Communist, Published Article
(Continued on Page 32)
The Screen Writer, August, 194