How to set a headline
- Read the Wire. The underlined words are the truth. One of them goes in the headline.
- Pick a frame and tap tiles into it. The number on a tile is its shock: how much it frightens a reader. Slots drawn dashed may stay empty. In Victim first the wire's word counts double.
- Pick a type size. Bigger type sells more copies but holds fewer letters a line, and the headline must fit the column. Red means it will not.
- Chains sell. Words in a row that start with the same letter (THE, OF, IN and the like do not count) multiply the sale: two x1.2, three x1.4, four x1.6.
- A crowned villain is libel. Shock 7, but unless you hedge with ALLEGED or a question mark (which sells three quarters), Scotland Yard seizes half the run.
- Send to press. Copies sold = shock x type x chain x day. Sold out means no headline from this hand could sell more.
Everyone gets the same three blotters on the same date, so compare circulations.