(c) The playlet varies in returns amazingly.  While one small-time producer pays no advance royalty and a flat weekly royalty of from ten dollars to fifteen dollars a week—­making his stand on the fact that he gives a longer playing season than his average competitor—­many a big-time producer pays a good round advance and as high as $100 a week royalty.

Edgar Allan Woolf has said:  “The desire for the one-act comedy is so great that even an unknown writer can secure an advance royalty as great as is paid to the author of a three-act play, if he has written a playlet which seems to possess novelty of story and cleverness of dialogue.”

George V. Hobart is reported to have had a variously-quoted number of playlets playing at the same time, each one of which returned him a weekly royalty of $100 a week.  And half a dozen other one-act playwrights might be named who have had nearly equal success.

On the other hand, Porter Emerson Brown is quoted as saying:  “The work of writing a playlet is nearly as great as writing a three-act play, and the returns cannot be compared.”

One of the collaborators on a famous big-time success received forty dollars a week for three seasons as his share.  Another playlet writer was paid one hundred dollars a week for one act, and only twenty dollars a week for another.  And a third was content with a ten-dollars-a-week royalty on one act, at the same time that another act of his was bringing him in fifty dollars a week.

These examples I have cited to demonstrate that the return from the playlet is a most variable quantity.  The small-time pays less than the big-time, and each individual act on both small- and big-time pays a different royalty.

When a playlet—­either comedy or straight dramatic—­is accepted for production, it is customary, although not an invariable rule, that an advance royalty be paid “down.”  When the act proves successful, one or more of three propositions may be offered the writer:  outright sale at a price previously agreed upon; outright sale to be paid in weekly royalties until an agreed upon figure is reached, when ownership passes from the author to the producer; the more customary weekly royalty.  As I have said before, what price you receive for your act finally depends upon your keenness in driving a bargain.

In nearly every case, outright sale has its advantage in the fact that the author need not then worry about collecting his royalty.  Of course, when a recognized producer puts out the act there need be no concern about the royalty, so in such instances a royalty is preferable.  But in some cases, as when the performer is making long jumps and has a hard time making railroad connections, a weekly royalty has its disadvantages in causing worry to the author.