Adapting To The Changing World (Of Publication)

I didn't get a cell phone until 2009.

I don't have a Kindle or a Nook or an iPad.

I don't even have a computer. (Okay, this last one's not true, but it helps me make my point.)

For the most part, I've approached technology with the mindset that if it isn't broken, don't fix it. As a writer starting out ten years ago, I wanted to write a good book, send it to a literary agent, have the agent find me a publisher, and then have the publisher get the book to my favorite book store. This model worked for other people, and I figured it would work for me.

As I learned more about the current publishing climate, though, I understood that I needed to be more willing to promote myself. So, I started a blog. That was fun! I met people I liked exchanging ideas with. I liked the support system.

But, then I was learning that there was more to blogging than just blogging.

You could, for example, respond to other people's comments. You could have blog tours. You could have blog awards. Slowly, I forced myself to learn about each of these things. Then, Facebook came along.

And Twitter.

There were people promoting their books all over the place. I set up a Facebook account. I found "friends." I set up a Twitter account. I talked about things like peanut butter and book shelves. But, you know what? Book trailers came along. eBooks came along. Goodreads came along.

It was very overwhelming for me to educate myself about these many different avenues through which writers could sell themselves. I was frustrated because I couldn't figure out which route was the best one to take. For me, this led to paralysis. For three years I couldn't decide if I wanted to self-publish or publish through a publishing house. I couldn't decide if I wanted an agent or if I should try to find an editor on my own or if I should publish on my own. I couldn't even decide on what I wanted to write after being told no one buys short story collections or novellas or epics or books written in third person omniscient. While I continued to write through this frustrating time, I stopped making any effort to make my work available to the people who mattered to me most: readers. I was doing everything and nothing. All possibilities tempted me, but I couldn't commit to any one because I was always afraid that another path was better.

Finally, though, I've come to understand something. The thing I'd been searching for, the "right" choice, didn't exist. I had fooled myself. Instead, what I was facing was a series of viable paths, some of them diverging for a while, some of them converging again. And, what was key for me to realize was that there was no end point to any of these paths. In other words, I had been trying to reach a destination that didn't exist.

It's not, "Choose the right way to publish and everything will work out." Rather, it's more like, "What worked for someone today may or may not work for someone else tomorrow." And, the equally important, "What didn't work for someone today may or may not work for someone else tomorrow." And, the equally equally important, "What may or may not work for someone today may or may not work for that same person tomorrow."

The path to success is a path, not a destination. Making yourself happy, sharing your art, or whatever your goals are, requires constant adjustment along this changing path. We will all be making decisions in our writing careers. I challenge you not to see those decisions as right or wrong, but as just another span in an ever-flowing path that is your writing career. It will ebb and flow but it will never freeze unless you let it.

A Long Slope Called Burn-Out

I feel like I haven't been here forever! The truth is, I've been sliding down a long slope called "burn-out" and I really can't think of much to talk about that hasn't already been said a hundred times before on this blog. So, whether or not it will bore you to tears today, I'm going to talk briefly about a few things - my writing at the center of it all.

I'm published.

Does that make me a good writer?

The funny thing is that I'm SELF-published at the moment, but will be traditionally published as of September 15th of this year. Does it truly make any difference? Does it freaking matter? My conclusion is absolutely not. I wrote a book. That's what matters. In fact, I'm working on my 6th book. It's pretty awesome that I've written that many. Only one I've shelved for good.

After six books, I've finally figured out a system. Or so I think. It takes me on average 7 months to 2 years to write a book, depending on the length and complexity. For the rough draft, it takes me 3 - 5 months.

Do I outline?

You bet I outline. However, it's not what most people would really call an outline. It's more like a really long synopsis, and it's very loose. In fact, my story often cuts away from that synopsis. It always comes back, though, like a wave washing on the shore - finally ending up at that last scene I planned from the beginning.

Do I need feedback?

You bet I do. I have never been able to write a book without letting someone read parts of it as I go along. It seems to be a need, but it also seems to be waning as of late. More and more I only need 1 or 2 people to look things over. I also don't rely on them to give me feedback on prose like I used to - but more on big huge gaping holes I left lying around and somehow couldn't see. I'm kind of blind to those.

Why am I burned out?

Because marketing a book SUCKS THE LIFE OUT OF ME. I'm not kidding. Marketing my novel Monarch has left me feeling like I've been run over by a freaking truck, and despite everything I've done, I don't feel like much of it has been very productive. That's the worst part.

I feel like it's time to take one big huge break. We just got NetFlix and watching a lot of movies sounds nice. Also, I have a huge stack of books I want to read. I have a feeling my future posts are going to be about reading more than writing. After all, that's where my love of writing started.

What's Good About Being Unpublished

I'm hard at work drafting a new novel. I have a plot outline in Excel that would amaze and confound you were I to share it. Why Excel? Mostly because this novel is very plot-driven, being a detective story. I wanted to not only keep track of each scene in the narrative, but also have a detailed timeline of all the events that take place off-screen, which events the detective (and reader) discover over the course of the investigation. So I needed to write down, for example, that in Act 1 somewhere the murderer tells a joke that the detective overhears, and then in Act 3 the murderer tells the joke again within earshot of the detective, but the detective has in Act 2 learned something that gives new and significant meaning to the joke when she hears it again in Act 3. Not that there's actually this joke-telling in my book. But still, there's a lot of stuff like that going on in the story and I needed to keep it all straight. My first thought was to use index cards, and I even wrote out a few this weekend, but I decided that I wanted to be able to see the whole timeline at once, and be able to insert things and keep track of characters and days and places and of course when I am faced with such a task, I turn to Excel with its nice sorting and filtering features. Yes, just like Shakespeare did.

The point of all this is not that I'm using a hated Microsoft product to plot out a novel. The point of all this is that I'm writing a detective story right now. I admit that I'm actually surprised to find myself writing it. It's not what I do, you know?

I have two literary novels with my fabulous and charming agent at this point, but because I don't have a publisher yet breathing down my neck to meet any sort of expectations, I'm pretty free to do what I like as long as it amuses me. My agreeable agent tells me that she'll read anything I write and by gosh, she's a fan of anything as long as it's well-written so that's all cool. BGut mostly, as an unpublished novelist, nobody has heard of me so there are no barriers to my writing a murder mystery and so that's what I'm doing. Possibly I'll have a career like Iain Pears, who wrote a string of mysteries (the "Jonathan Argyle" art mystery books) and also wrote some dandy literature (The Dream of Scipio and An Instance of the Fingerpost).

Never having written a detective story before, I'm having a lot of fun building the plot mechanism. There is certainly an art to crafting a convincing and intriguing mystery and this is my very first attempt, so this book might be awful and I'm prepared for that. As I say, I have the freedom right now to experiment and have fun. A few knowing fans of detective fiction have already told me that I'm playing too fast and loose with the genre conventions and that, too, is perfectly okay by me because, as I say, I'm mostly amusing myself by writing this book. I have no deadlines, nobody is asking for my next manuscript, and so far I'm having a lot of fun. Plus, Excel! I love spreadsheets.

Anyway, how about you? Are you writing a style/genre/whatever that you wouldn't believe you were writing if you weren't doing it?

Fear

I'd like to introduce you to J.S. Chancellor. If you  haven't already met her, you've been missing out! J.S. Chancellor is a good friend of mine. I met her through a review she did of my novella, Cinders, after which I discovered Rhemalda Publishing - now my current publisher.

J.S. is the author of the Guardians of Legend series. The first book of the series, Son of Ereubus, is currently availalble. The second book of the series, Blood of Adoria, will be released this fall. Also, don't miss out! In a few days J.S. will be giving away Son of Ereubus for free for the entire month of March! No strings attached. Keep your eye out. I've included J.S.'s blog information down below.

Special thanks to J.S. for guest posting here today on the Lab!

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"In the cold, shivering twilight, preceding the daybreak of civilization, the dominating emotion of man was fear." ~Paul Harris

Ah, fear. Perhaps this would have been a better post for October, but alas...here we are...halfway through February.

If you've never seen the M. Night movie, "The Sixth Sense," then I'd suggest you skip this next paragraph because I'm about to ruin it for you (if you haven’t, where have you been all these years? I lurve that movie).

Bruce Willis is dead. Dead, dead. Not glittery vampire dead. Really dead. And the whole way through the movie, he's none the wiser. I happened to see this work of genius on opening night, and was blessed to gasp along with the other 400 people in the theatre with me, when the truth was revealed. As always, I relate such an experience to being an author (and a few other professions, but we'll let those folks blog about that).

I've learned valuable lessons lately; some concern the politics of the publishing industry---others involve fear---and through this, I can only come to one conclusion: I've been fearing the wrong thing.

I'm like Bruce Willis, trapsing through the story of my life, believing one thing (or another) while some larger, scarier, truth exists beyond my comprehension. It's ironic really. I read about a man in Chicago who spent his whole life avoiding planes because he feared a catastrophic crash and wound up dying in an ordinary traffic accident while on vacation with his family. Had they flown that day, instead of making the 300-some-odd mile trip, he'd still be alive (the rest of the family lived, just fyi).

As writers, we fear even admitting that we have fears. Once those fears are tapped, we fear not being able to contain them. We wrestle with how our characters explore such emotions all the time, but when it comes to our own lives...well, that's another matter. All paths are different, so I won't even try to address this topic on a specific basis...but overall, writing and fear are no more strangers than love and writing. In fact, writing is kind of a hussy 'cause she gets around quite a bit. Occasional flings with jealousy and a closet bondage kind of relationship with rage. It's a wonder she can keep track of everyone's whereabouts.

All kidding aside...I really have been fearing all the wrong things. I thought I'd feel one way about reader reviews, and I've found that my feelings differ drastically from my expectations. I thought I'd flourish under deadlines, and I don't...I flounder. At least I had the first four letters right. I also spent an inordinate amount of time wrapped up in non-writerly writing things that at the end of the day just stress me out. Why do I do this? Again...fear. Out of sight, out of mind. In a small way, it makes me want to travel back in time to the days when the internet didn't exist and writers could suffer...ahem...work in silence. The net is wonderful and necessary for networking and building relationships (so long as you are aware of all of your actions and their consequences), but it's tiring.

Tiring to the point where my muse starts to go on the hunt for mistresses. And I can't be having that...

So...the real question here is: What do you fear?

Now that you’ve answered that, let me ask: What do you really fear?
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You can find J.S. Chancellor on her blog, Welcome to the Asylum. You can also follow her on Facebook.

Friday! Filler! A Stolen Meme!

It's Friday and I got nothing for a post and I have deadlines at the office (because yesterday was a national holiday for us Yankees and I wasn't exactly diligent on Wednesday either, truth to tell) so I'm very busy. But! But, I say, but! On Michelle's personal blog, she talks about how she originally had a mental image of the writing life and the publishing world that were, let's just say, a bit on the fantasy side. Though it was a pretty fantastic fantasy.

Anyway, today I'd like to hear your answers to this question:

What's the most surprising thing you've discovered about being a writer or about the publishing industry?

I'll start: The most surprising thing I've learned about publishing is how little money there is in it for writers. I thought that you wrote a good book, a publisher paid you enough for it to live on for a couple of years while you wrote your next book, and that was the way the rest of your life went. Hah. Also, things in the publishing business move Very Slowly.

How Long Do Readers Remember?

I've been working on a couple of stories, a novella and a longer, novel-ish type thing, and in both I introduce some small story threads in the beginning that come up throughout the story. But, I'm wondering if the reminders of the threads are too infrequent, if they end up feeling disconnected because of how far apart they are. As an example, in one story I mention a rumor about a monster that's running around in the streets, a wolfman. I mention it twice in the first ten pages, but then it doesn't come up again until page 50, when we figure out how the rumor got started. Both times it's not a big announcement, and the story works just fine without it. But, I like it, and I'd love for readers to understand it.

Do you think 50 pages is too long for a reader to remember a small detail?

And, how do you feel about stories that you end up having to reread to fully understand?

Oh, also, I have a short story coming out in a new anthology and will be doing a reading at Skylight Books here in LA if anyone is interested. If you are interested, don't tell me though, I'm nervous enough about it as it is. It's hosted by Janet Fitch!

Goals and Time Tables

I am very much a deadline-driven sort of person. Whenever I set out to write something, I always have a definite date by which I must be finished with it. I don't know why that is, except that open-ended projects--for me--always seem permitted to go unfinished forever. Which is very likely a more healthy way of looking at artistic pursuits, but my Virgo nature won't let me be healthy like that. Damn you, Virgo nature.

A year and a half ago I finished draft five (or maybe it was draft six) of a novel and set about finding an agent. I didn't have a timeline for that search but I assumed it would take a couple of months at least. Luckily for me it was a very short search and at that point, I figured I'd have the novel sold by the end of the year. That's last year--2009--I'm talking about. During those happy initial days of my relationship with my agent, I assumed that I'd be a published novelist before I was 50, and that somehow became my goal. I'm just shy of 48 as I type this.

What became clear in 2009 during the two rounds of rewrites to the novel that I did at my agent's request was that I had a good premise and good characters and a good fictional voice for the novel, but I had also written the book wrong. There is a structural problem with the last third of the book that I couldn't fix by revising what I had written, and in January of this year I told my agent that I couldn't rewrite the book anymore. I was done with it. It was a failed novel. I declared my intention of writing a different book and if, after that, I had any bright ideas about the book my agent and I had been working on, I'd see about fixing it. My agent said he'd be happy to read the new book when I was ready to show it to him, but gosh he wished I knew how to fix the first book. Yeah, I said, that would be cool, but whatevs.

This dramatic scene blew my hopes of being a published author by the age of 50. I don't have a MS in my agent's hands now, the different book I wrote has a lot of potential but needs some rewriting, and it looks pretty grim for me meeting my self-imposed deadline. Yes, I did in fact have a bright idea about how to fix the first book and I had that idea half an hour after telling my agent that the book was impossible to write and yes, I am now rewriting that book entirely from scratch and I'm a bit over halfway through a new draft of it and it So Totally Rocks, but it will be October at the earliest before I have a rough draft and then there'll be a couple revisions and it will likely be next year before my agent sees the damned thing. Which leaves 20 months, if my agent reads the MS in January and thinks he can submit it to publishers as-is, to go from unknown unsigned debut author to publication. That's a very short timetable. So I am coming to grips with the idea that I will not, alas, be a published novelist by the time I'm 50.

Yet still I write. I think about the WIP and give over most of my lunch breaks and evening commutes to the new draft, and I work on it in the evenings and I think about it when I go running and I make copious conflicting notes about it and I plow forward because that's what we do. I have a first draft of the next novel already written, and I know what the two books after that will be (plus, maybe, a cosy detective mystery novella this winter if I'm not still working on the current MS) and there is plenty of good writing ahead of me. My goal is to write those five books I've just mentioned, and hopefully I'll have ideas for other books to write after I've done those, and I'll keep writing novels and the occasional short story until the day I die. I want to be in the middle of a groundbreaking and amazing literary novel of baffling and mysterious beauty when I drop over dead. That's my goal, anyway.

When I was a kid (by which the old man means "when I was in my 20s") I was in rock bands. It's cool to be in a rock band, and I think everyone should do it. Too much of my time was wasted as I sat reading SPIN or Rolling Stone and imagining the interviews I'd give when my band became famous. I was not writing then, at least not fiction. Anyway, one day I realized that not only was I not a very good songwriter, I was also not really passionate about being a rock musician or playing electric guitar (though it's still supercool to play electric guitar and scream into a microphone, kids). What I am passionate about, as you likely know by now, is writing.

My point, if I have one, is that even though I began pretty late in life (first novel begun when I was about 30, second novel written when I was 45, third and fourth started when I am 47), being a published novelist is still an attainable goal. I love writing. I adore fiction. I read books about the theory and history of novels, and interviews with authors, and I am a total book geek. I write because I am fascinated to read what I've written, and I am a big fan of my own writing and I also have certain evolving but strong opinions about what should go on in a piece of literary fiction. So to be a novelist is a worthy and workable goal.

My timetables, on the other hand, are absurd and not under my control. I think I'm giving up on the idea of deadlines (until an editor at Knopf gives me one, that is) and learning to sit back and see how things go. The pressure of my 50th birthday, which looms threateningly out there on the horizon, is still something I feel constantly while I work on this MS, but I am trying mightily to ignore it.

What I'd like to know today is this: How many of you have come to writing as a serious business later in life? Do you have goals, and are they related more to the writing or to the calender?

The Right Boots

Writing is a funny thing, isn't it?

Actually, CREATING is a funny thing. I've managed to create some amazing things in my brief 30 years of life, but none of them come close to my family. Keeping my daughter and my husband happy is an accomplishment requiring endless effort from all three of us. But when I think of that effort in any great detail, writing is the same way. Any creative effort or career is the same way.

As I climb the trail to the top of a mountain, I look into the eyes of the hikers who pass me on their way back down. They always look exhausted, but fulfilled. When I get to the top, I look down at all the steps I had to take to get to the summit, and it always amazes me. The view is always worth it. I don't need validation from someone on the top telling me I wore the right boots to get there.

Some of us take large steps. Some of us take short steps. I've even seen some people hike barefoot or with a cane or a child strapped on their back. We all do things differently, and I'm certain there will always be people out there criticizing how we do them, and there will also be people out there telling us we need validation to feel satisfied, or we need a lot of sales, or an agent, or a huge book deal, or a spot on the New York Times Bestseller list.

I started seriously writing when I was 16 years old. I looked like this on top of the mountain near where I live:

I look a bit heavier now, and older, and I lost the bangs, but other than that I look the same. I'm still writing about the same things, too, essentially. I still have that same drive and ambition. I wrote books because I loved to write and there weren't any books in the small-town library that I liked. I'd read all the ones worth reading, so I decided it was time to bring more books into the world. I'm still doing that.

My decision to self-publish one of my books has been a difficult one. Self-publishing seems to be a hot topic right now, and I've seen a thousand different opinions about it (many very negative), but in the end, I'm happy with my decision. Davin and I were talking yesterday about how we'll both feel satisfied when people we don't know send us emails about how much they enjoy our work. Amazing that it doesn't matter how you publish if your goal is something along those lines. I think there comes a point in our lives where we have to ask ourselves why we chase after the creative process, and it's essential that we answer honestly. For me, the answer was this: in the long run, some things simply don't matter, like how I share my work. It simply matters that I share it with as many as I can by the means I currently have available. Bigger plans will come later, and they may or may not include what others consider success. Success is what you make it, not what others dictate.
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It looks like there's an interesting contest going on over at The Clarity of Night. You should hop on board! All you have to do is write a 250-word flash fiction piece prompted by this image:

The prizes are very generous! $100 for the first place winner alone! And even more dough for other winners. Yay! I'm definitely entering. I always end up writing some good fiction because of a contest or prompt.

Me and my writing

Hi everyone,

First off, I'm sorry to have disappeared unexpectedly. I was at a (science) conference in Rhode Island last week, and though one would expect that wireless internet would be provided for the 70-something university professors that were there, it was not. Bygones.

After the conference, I had the chance to spend the weekend in New York to attend a wedding--the bride in a beautiful traditional wedding gown and the groom in a tuxedo and monkey cap. I also went to a Broadway play called "Red" about artist Mark Rothko, whom I've mentioned before.

Since I don't feel like I have a proper post today, I thought I'd briefly describe what I've been working on writing- and publishing-wise. In writing, I've been focusing mostly on my cannibal novella. Given that I was traveling last week, I ended up handwriting a dozen -or-so pages, and I'm quite pleased with them. I'd say I'm about 80% of the way through my first draft. I like it so far. I think I'm writing this one with the right amount of restraint and the right amount of showing. And, even though the situation is a bit extreme, I'm finding more opportunities to write about myself in this story than I have in the past, which is interesting and scary.

In publishing, I recently sent a partial of my novel Rooster to an agent who requested it several months ago. I hadn't been in the mood to deal with publishing for awhile, so I initially ignored the request. But, after a few months of "rest" I sent it out. After having been sick of this book for awhile, I finally did reread it, and I'm happy to say that I liked it more than I thought I would. Getting the manuscript ready for this latest mailing also forced me to do the last polishes on the book. Even if this agent doesn't want to represent it, I feel like it's finally ready to be published, so I'll be getting it out soon.

a ding in the universe

The other day I watched a video that turned around my thinking and explained things to me that made sense. In fact, it made sense of several questions I've been asking myself lately:

(1) Why on earth do I devote most of my free time to writing novels?

(2) Why have I decided to self-publish my novella?

(3) Why cannot I seem to motivate myself for a huge project I'm supposed to be working on for a friend who who is paying me a significant amount of money?

The answers were in this video, and things suddenly became clear.

Victoria Mixon shared the video, which she found on another blogger's site where the video was related to blogging. Victoria related the video to writing, and I agree with her 100%. I don't participate on this blog or write my novels for money.



The video is 10 minutes long, so I don't blame you for not watching it. But, seriously, TEN minutes isn't that long, and you might learn something. I'm glad I took the time to watch it. This has changed my view on a lot of things.

The gist of the video? How money motivates us, and more importantly, how it doesn't. If you've ever once considered publishing for either money or fame, think again. I can imagine this is why many authors' work slacks off once they've published one or two great works.

I can imagine this is why I freak out about traditional publishing and look at it as a full-time job, which I'm not interested in pulling off at this point in my life. I know self-publishing can be just as much work, if not more, but not when you keep it on a small scale and not when you're not in it for the money or fame or to get your book to thousands of people/a huge audience.

I can imagine this is why I keep procrastinating the project I'm supposed to be doing, which consequently, requires insane amounts of creativity from me, and I'm simply not coming up with anything good. Or anything at all.

I can imagine that this is why I must know the motivations behind what I create. That, right there, shapes the future of my projects. Do you know the real motivations behind what you create?

The Readership of One

Some of you who have been following Lit Lab for awhile will know that I often weigh the pros and cons of self-publishing versus publication house publishing. Well, as we are approaching the holiday season, I've found myself dipping more than my toe into the self-publication pool. See, I've been working for the past few weeks on a 20K-word novella that I plan to self-publish. This novella will have a readership of about one.

My nephew Dylan is six going on seven, and for his Christmas gift, I am attempting to write him a personalized book starring him and his family. It's currently called Dylan and the Monster, mostly because I haven't taken the time to come up with a better title yet.

On the one hand, this is just a little, insignificant project. It was actually inspired by my wonderful blogging friend Robyn and her son. I actually started writing a fairy tale for her son before I realized he was probably much too old to care about fairy tales. Instead, I decided to try again with my nephew.

But, more than just having a fun side project to work on, I realize that the concept of making this specialized type of book is transforming my views on the publication process. Let's face it, when we think about publication, it's mostly a numbers game. Most of the writers who try to publish through a publishing house do so because they want to reach as many people as they can. They want to be popular. And, often, to be popular, they have to compromise their own personal preferences. The downsides of self-publishing--because there are plenty of upsides--is that readers will rarely be able to find out that the book exists in the first place.

With Dylan and the Monster, my self-published book is going exactly to my intended audience (okay, and Michelle, who kindly volunteered to read it as well). That means, not only do I have complete control over my art form through self-publishing. But, I also reach everyone in my target audience. It's 100% successful. And, even though only a handful of people are ever going to read this thing, I'm finding it deeply satisfying.

I'm not yet sure what this means for me in the future. It may convince me to self-publish every novel I write, or it might not. But, for now, it's really making me think.

Any thoughts on this folks? As you can see, my own thoughts aren't exactly focused yet. Can someone explain why I'm liking this experience so much? And, do you think this is an inherently different thing from writing a "typical" novel?

Update: I'm currently writing the section where the character based on me is going to die! Good times! :P

Where do you submit your work?

In our "Just Ask" section, Sharon Mayhew asked us where she could submit individual "deep" poems.

Sharon, there are actually dozens and dozens of fine literary magazines that publish poetry. Some of the more popular ones would include The New Yorker and The Paris Review, among others. Not only would places like this give you great exposure, but they are also going to pay you some money to publish your work.

But, not everyone gets into publications such as this. It takes talent, luck, and probably some strong connections would help as well. If you think your work is good, I'd say give it a shot, but don't get your hopes up too high.

If you go to a website called Duotrope's Digest, you can also use their poetry search engine to find other publications you can submit to. Go to the site, click the tab that says "poetry," fill in the search criteria, and then click "search." You'll get the names of the publications, the genres they publish, length requirements, pay scales, and whether they are a print or electronic publication. It's a great resource, and you can use it for free, although they appreciate donations.

Getting into a literary magazine is a bit of an art. (This applies to everyone, not just poets.) Different publications have different preferences. So, you can submit often to many different publications in the hopes that you'll accidentally stumble on a good fit. Or, you can take the time to research the pubs and only submit to the ones that seem to like your type of work. Seriously, either way works. I tend to take the latter approach, but I know a poet who takes the former and has quite a bit of success. You can decide if you want to spend your time research or submitting--both are kind of tedious, at least to me.

When you find a publication you are interested in, go to their submission guidelines. They will tell you how to submit your work to them. Often with poetry you can submit multiple pieces at the same time if you have them.

There are a few other things you should know about submitting, including the value of online versus print publications, multiple submissions versus simultaneous submissions, and the cover letter. Check out a few of our other posts, to get more information (1, 2, 3)

For me, the key to submitting is to expect failure. That may be a bit depressing, but getting an editor or agent to like your work depends on so many factors that are out of your control. If someone turns you down, don't necessarily blame yourself. Yes, sometimes, your work might not hold up. But, sometimes, the editor could have just gotten a parking ticket and simply isn't in the mood to make anyone happy that day.

I made this myself

Today, a simple question:

What would it take for you to buy and read a self-published book?

Would you like them in a house? Would you like them with a mouse?

The lead editor of SmokeLong Quarterly (the online magazine I work for) is leaving to be the director of an MFA program. I'm happy for him, but now I'm sending out many more rejection letters myself--hundreds of them--and, I feel bad. I took on this job because I love writers, and I feel like I'm telling writers that I hate them.

The problem: Too many writers are trying to reach too few readers. So, somewhere along the publishing pipeline, there must be an elimination round.

Right now, agents and editors are responsible for much of that elimination, which gets people upset. If we self-publish, the elimination process transfers to self-promoters. The people who can get their own name out there will do better than those who can't. This can also be discouraging. I suppose we writers could start to discourage each other. Lines like, "Scott G. F. Bailey, really? Eels?" might do the job of eliminating some writers. But, again, we don't want to upset each other. (And, Scott has a ferocious temper.)

So, I'm curious to know: As fellow writers, where are you most willing to have the elimination round to take place? And, who do you want to do that job?

-or-

Is there an alternative? Would we be happier, for example, if more writers reached fewer readers?

Short Stories And Self-Promotion

One of the other bonuses that comes with publishing a short story is that it gets you a bit of publicity. These days, whether you're dealing with a print magazine or an online publication, titles and authors are usually posted on the internet, making you visible as a writer if someone were to search for you. In the case of online publications, your entire story is also made available, giving people a view of your writing without having to wait for a book.

The editors of literary magazines--places where short stories are usually published--tend not to make big profits, if any at all. That's actually an advantage for us writers. First off, people who run lit mags aren't just trying to make a buck. Most of the time they are in it because they want to help promote writers and writing. That means terms like "marketability" are not calculated into their acceptance decisions. Also, the people who run these publications tend to be other writers, rather than agents and editors. Again, for us, I think that means the art side of the writing will be emphasized over the profit potential.

Whether you are self-publishing or publishing through other means, having accessible short stories helps to build your platform. Readers, agents, and publishers who are unsure of whether or not your stories have an audience can at least see that other people already love your work enough to make space for it in their journal. And, your ability to get published sort of snowballs as a result. Whether this system is fair or not, the more publications you get, I think the more publications you are capable of getting. The people who make it their job to judge writing, often rely on other judges before deciding if your writing is worthwhile.

For a discussion of whether or not you should send your stories to online publications or print publications, check out this old post.

I Am The Work In Progress

This is a personal one. Thanks to everyone, especially F. P. Adriani, Tess Hilmo, and Scott G. F. Bailey, for helping me clarify the role of writing in my life.

I've been writing for nine years, but somewhere, I made a wrong turn. Because, I've been learning two different things. First, I've been learning how to become a better writer. Second, I've been learning some ways to publish a book through a major publishing house.

The wrong turn that I made was that I muddled these things together. I told myself that I'm not a good writer until I'm published through a major house. I told myself that following publishing advice would automatically make me a better writer. This has been bad for me. And, to make matters worse, I've been blaming the wrong people.

It's not the literary agents' fault.

Some literary agents have been very public about telling us what we should be doing to be successful. But, I think a lot of us have misinterpreted their message or have not read their message thoroughly.

1. The agents with an online presence are not EVERY agent.

Blogging agents often tell us that their preferences are no more than their own personal preferences. They can't represent all agents because they aren't all agents. In fact, I've been finding plenty of blogless agents to admire. People like Eric Simonoff, Ann Rittenberg, Laurie Liss, and Sandra Dijkstra approach literature in a way that better matches my views. As an example, here are some of their mission statements:

"To find and sell well books that make a difference. To be our clients' best advocates in a mutually supportive and rewarding environment. To make things happen."

-Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

"We represent authors first, and books second. We're interested in building careers, in nurturing growth--artistic and commercial--with each book our clients write."

-Ann Rittenbery Literary Agency.

Reading that just makes me want to cry with relief. I've sent my compliments to these two agents, and they've even written back with similar nice words. What great women!

2. Writers don't necessarily get the complete picture.

When we take time out of our jobs, our love lives, our parenting, our writing, our critiquing, we sometimes research publishing. But, chances are, we haven't been thorough enough. And, I think we are putting some undue stress on ourselves by trying to interpret the inadequate bits of information we get. We can't know everything there is to know about the publishing world. Agents and editors can't either! So, maybe we shouldn't worry about doing something the wrong way, when, quite possibly, the way we're doing it is just fine.

3. A business person's definition of success is not my definition of success.

Agents and publishers need to eat. To eat they must sell books and take a share of the profit. Because of that, they are approaching writing, at least in part, based on business. There's nothing wrong with that. But, I think each of us has to realize for ourselves what will make us personally happy, and it may not be money.

I've published several short stories in print and online. Some of those stories have been personal. Others have been exercises. I've learned that publishing is not what makes me happy. The satisfaction I get comes from me publishing something personal. Even if I self-publish a personal book and only end up selling 200 copies, I honestly think that would be more satisfying than selling 2000 copies of a book that I have no attachment to. (Yes, these numbers are small. I'm a literary writer, after all.)

Don't get me wrong. I think it's true that writers can do both. I think some writers, given marketing restrictions, can still produce something that was fun for them to make, at least partially. But, for me, the attempt to be business savvy inhibits my own creativity. I don't yet have enough skill to make this type of compromise.

So, here's what I believe will make me happy: 1. I want to write books that I am deeply and personally connected to. 2. I want to share those books with as many readers as I can.

That's it.

That means that I may or may not need an agent. I may or may not need to publish through a major publishing house. I may or may not need a hook or a platform. I may or may not need to network. All of these things are possible tools that I can use to reach my goal, but they are not the only tools. And, lately, my attempts to acquire them have been hurting my art and my happiness.

So, I guess this is my declaration of independence. This is my renewed vow to write with myself and my readers in mind, not the mainstream market. I am going to try to make my writing as emotional and moving as I can, with the hopes that the revelation of the human spirit will be as powerful a marketing tool as my torrid affair with Miley Cyrus.

The Finish Line

I'm happy that most of our posts have to do with writing rather than with publishing. Publishing is important to me, but in the end the writing is the first obstacle and the subject that we writers are most qualified to discuss intelligently.

Occasionally, we do talk about publishing. We talk about agents and genres and query letters and platforms and hooks and literary magazines and contests. Most of this has been centered on acquiring a literary agent. Step 1: write the good book. Step 2: get the literary agent.

But, what happens after that? We're getting a glimpse of Step 3 thanks to Scott and other bloggers. But, what's the last step? And, I don't mean in our lives (that, for me, involves being trapped in an elevator with a bullet wound in my chest so that I have exactly three minutes to tell one person one thing that will change their world view forever), but I mean for each particular project. When will we know that we have reached the finish line?

Book?

Agent?

Snazzy cover?

Publishing?

Awards?

Wide readership?

Movie deals?

Oprah?

Most of the time, I'm working to GET AS MANY READERS AND AS MUCH FAME AND FORTUNE AS POSSIBLE. The problem is, that's a completely unrecognizable goal--I'll never ever know if I've reached it.

Now, I try to be more specific, and this is what I've come up with: I'd love to get a $10,000 advance. I'd love to know that a few thousand people have read my book. I'd love to be on Charlie Rose. I'd love to get a good review by Harold Bloom. For my first book, I think I will be quite happy if I attain all or even one of these goals, which currently seem unreachable and a little embarrassing to admit. But, as impossible as they seem, I feel like they're at least recognizable. I'll know if I've been on Charlie Rose--I'll remember the color of his tie. I'll know if I get $10,000 because I'll own that new fire-resistant lab coat I've always wanted. (Okay, more likely I'll use 70% of it for self-promotion and put the rest in my Roth IRA.)

Perhaps, if I do attain these goals, I'll realize that they don't actually reflect what I wanted in the first place. But, at least I'll know if they've happened. I don't want to chase something that is impossible to catch in publishing terms. (I'm all for chasing the dream of writing that perfect novel.)

You? How specific are your goals, and will you know when you've reached them? What do you need to accomplish before you've made it to the finish line?

MFA Bias?

Jennifer asked for my views on whether literary journals give preference to writers who have an MFA degree. My short answer is that some probably do.

A survey of the journals whose stories have been consistently selected for The Best American Short Stories and the O. Henry Prize Stories includes The New Yorker, Glimmer Train, Harper's Magazine, Ecotone, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, Granta, The Kenyon Review, and The Iowa Review, among others. Several of these publications are run by universities, and the editorial staffs of these journals include academic writing teachers and students. I think whether these editors do it consciously or not, they must have some tendency to lean toward writers coming out of academia, simply because that's what they've learned is representative of quality writing. As an academic scientist, I can attest to picking up biases when evaluating the work of other scientists for publication. Simply put, I'm trained one way, so I'm going to rely on those lessons when judging the work of others. The other part of this discussion involves the cover letter that accompanies a short story submission. If covers letters matter to an editor, then degrees, just like publications, will probably impress them.

Luckily, exceptions to this rule are plentiful. Jennifer mentioned Alice Munro, a regular in The New Yorker, who never got her MFA. From the editorial side of things, some prestigious journals still look at submissions blind, meaning the cover letters and the writer's identity is removed before a story is judged.

The second part of this question was whether or not there is an "MFA-type" story. I'll start by saying that, while I have taken a few university writing and literature classes, I do not have an MFA, so I can't completely discuss this topic from my own experience. But, I do believe that academia promotes a more uniform style than would be around if every writer had to develop on their own. Again, techniques and philosophies are shared since that's the nature of education, so I think it's normal that writers coming from the same place risk sounding the same.

Is this a good thing for literature? Probably not. But, I think education is good, and if a writer is attempting to learn writing from others, uniformity may be impossible to avoid. Just as with the rules and preferences we discuss in our blogs, the writer is faced with the task of learning the rules and then daring to break them for the better. That second step is crucial, in my opinion. Without it, I don't believe any writer can be great.

My Writing Progress

This has been a good week for writing. After feeling stuck and unfocused for about three weeks as I settled into my new home, I am finally making progress on my novel again. I'm trying to flesh out four scenes that a reader in Paris suggested could be emotionally deeper, and this week I've made progress on two of them. One of those is my incredibly troublesome first chapter. This time around, it was youtube that helped me out. I set part of the chapter in a cockfighting arena (my novel's called Rooster), and there was some very illuminating (and very sad) footage on youtube about this subject. I set some videos to play and just wrote while I watched them as if I were simply documenting what I saw. The 500 words or so will probably reduce down to a few sentences, maybe less, but the most important thing is that it helped me move forward again, and I think I have some authentic details.

I also had an exciting lunch on Wednesday. Mary Yukari Waters, the writer I've raved about on multiple occasions here, met with me in a great little restaurant called Hurry Curry. I'm going to interview her for this blog and for, The Los Angeles Review, Upstairs at Duroc SmokeLong Quarterly, and this first conversation was very illuminating. Plus, she offered to give me a blurb on my book if I never need it!

The Los Angeles Review officially accepted "Red Man, Blue Man" and a small literary magazine in Paris called Upstairs at Duroc accepted a piece of flash fiction I wrote called "Enchantment." They actually asked me to do a public reading at the publication party, but alas, I'm here and they're there.

My Writing Progress

This week I've been taking a lesson from Scott G. F. Bailey's hand-written notebook. A dear friend of mine got me a fountain pen, and I've been working on my book without the use of my computer. It was a little rocky at first. I wrote things like "test, test, test" and my own name. Then, because I still wasn't ready to write, I decided to draw pictures of the shanty where my characters live and the soccer field where they play ball. I drew a little sketch of my protagonist's gambling father watching a cock-fighting match. The feathers. The spray of blood. His squinting eyes hungry for money--Did I mention I studied studio art in college?

Slowly, my brain constructed more details of this opening scene that I have had so much trouble writing. Some things that I thought I would write no longer seemed all that logical. New, exciting, emotionally-juicy details spat out. I realized my protagonist was being too passive in the scene and suddenly he was active. Suddenly, he was guilty of making the situation worse...maybe even starting this entire mess that is the rest of his life!

The pen came from Little Tokyo here in Los Angeles. I'm not sure how much it cost, but it's no Sheaffer Agio Signature Pen. Still, it did its job very* nicely.

I also got some more nice publishing news. Last week I told you I was a finalist in Opium8's publishing contest. A couple of days ago, editor Todd Zuniga e-mailed me and told me I was a "finalist-finalist." I'm in the top 9 and Opium Magazine is publishing my story in their print magazine. I also got a story acceptance from Noo Journal (which I had mentioned liking before) for a story I wrote a couple of years ago based on my trip to the iron mines in Brazil. It's called "God In Frogs" and will be coming out at the end of the year.

*That's for you, Scott.