Editing Stratemeyer Syndicate (section)

==Writing guidelines==
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"They don't have hippies in them," [Adams] said&nbsp;... "And none of the characters have love affairs or get pregnant or take dope."<ref>Klemesrud (1968).</ref>
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All Stratemeyer Syndicate books were written under certain guidelines, based on practices Stratemeyer began with his first series, the ''Rover Boys''.<ref name="Billman"/>

* All books would be part of a series.
* To establish more quickly if a series was likely to be successful, the first several volumes would be published at once. These first volumes are often called "breeders".<ref name="ReferenceA">Billman, Carol. ''The Secret of the Stratemeyer Syndicate.''</ref>
* The books would be written under a pseudonym. This would provide apparent continuity of authorship, even when an author died, and would disguise the fact that series were written by multiple ghostwriters and plot-outliners.
* The books would look as much like contemporary adult books as possible, with similar bindings and typefaces.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
* The books would be of a predictable length.
* Chapters and pages should end mid-situation, to increase the reader's desire to keep reading.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
* Each book would begin with a quick recap of all previous books in that series, in order to promote those books.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
* Books might also end with a preview of the next volume in the series: "Nancy ... could not help but wonder when she might encounter as strange a mystery as the recent one. Such a case was to confront her soon, ''The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes''".<ref>Keene, Carolyn. ''The Moonstone Castle Mystery''. Page 178.</ref>
* The books would be priced at 50 cents, rather than the more common 75 cents, $1.00, or $1.25.<ref>Plunkett-Powell, Karen. ''The Nancy Drew Scrapbook''. Page 16.</ref>
* Characters should not age or marry. Protagonists of early series such as the ''Rover Boys'', ''Tom Swift'', and ''[[Ruth Fielding]]'' grew up and married, and sales dropped afterward, prompting this rule.<ref>Kismaric and Heiferman (2007), 20.</ref>