Big or Small or Any at All

Both in my position as erstwhile professor and in my true vocation as a writer, I have come to realize that understanding the publishing world is essential to becoming a published writer. Those of us write because we “can do no other,” but if we want to be read we have to play the game.

There are hundreds of publishers out there. The internet has led to a proliferation of presses, mostly small and of limited distribution. They can easily get your book on Amazon, but with millions of books already there, getting it noticed is difficult.

Once upon a time there were a couple dozen major publishers. They have been bought out by one another until now there are only the “Big Five,” until recently the “Big Six”: Random House (which recently acquired Penguin, one of the six), Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Simon and Schuster. You cannot get published by any of the big five without an agent.

Smaller, independent publishing houses (Indies) will often look at material without an agent’s intervention, but they are swamped with submissions and often, at least in my experience, they will neither acknowledge receipt of your materials nor will they bother to send you a letter rejecting it.

It used to be that “simultaneous submission” was a mark of bad taste: you should send your book to one company only and politely wait for their rejection, then start all over again. Now, however, such a process is a sure way to lead to disaster. You can submit to multiple places simultaneously. Just be sure to inform the others once your book has been accepted somewhere.

And, of course, self-publishing represents an option. Famous writers, like Mark Twain, sometimes had to pay to be published. Self-publishing today is easy, but success at it is hard. You need to be prepared to promote your book because nobody else will do it for you.

Amazon has easy self-publishing templates. The down-side of this is that many, many people now publish books that should never have seen the light of the web. There is nothing to stop you from publishing good or dreadful work.

Most of us find getting published at all a challenge. Great success stories have come from those who’ve persisted, however. If you’ve got something to say, and a bit of talent, you might even eventually reach one of the big five. Until then, keep on writing.

Comments

Patterns

There’s a pattern I’m noticing. For fiction publishers. Even if you aim low you’ll find it a struggle. Part of the reason is the pattern. Lots of websites list publishers. The smaller, hungrier presses either eventually close or get to a place where they require an agent to get in. That’s the kiss of death. Although my stories have won prizes, and been nominated for prizes, I can’t get an agent interested. I’ve queried well over a hundred, so the agent route is one of diminishing returns. This too is a pattern. Back to the smaller presses. I check many lists. What I write, you see, is highly idiosyncratic. It’s literary but it’s weird. Publishers don’t know what to do with it. If a smaller press published stuff like this, I’d find it. The pattern includes writers who never get discovered. Ironically, a number of editors of fiction literary magazines (mostly online) tell me they enjoy my wor...

Creative Righting

Rejection of my writing is a rejection of my imaginative world. That’s why I was cheered by the acceptance of one of my stories this week. That makes number 31. I’ve been working on a lot of fiction lately, even as nonfiction book number 6 is going to press. The ideas are still there, and bizarre as ever, but publishing venues just aren’t welcoming. The other day I had lunch with a professor whose wife is also a professor. She just had her first novel published, and so he pointed me to her indie publisher. I went to their website to learn that they’re closed to submissions. I have to admit that my latest accepted story, “Creative Writing Club,” was probably given the green light because I know the editor. That seems like a pretty dicey way to get any notice, doesn’t it? You have to know the right people even in the low circulation world. My fiction is difficult to classify. It’s got speculative elements to it. ...

Maybe Okay

A couple pieces of encouraging news, perhaps, dear struggling writers. I had a couple short stories accepted for publication in recent weeks. As a fellow writer recently said, “You've got to keep trying. Somebody will like what you wrote.” That’s a bit of sunshine. And it’s likely true. But the stories: “The Crossing,” about two men in a boat trying to cross the Atlantic, was accepted by JayHenge Publishing. JayHenge is a small, but paying publisher. I was flattered when they wanted it for their Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe anthology. Being associated with Poe in any way feels good. The second story, “St. Spiders’ Day,” had been brewing in my mind for years—yes, this is a long game! A friend pointed me to The Creepy podcast. Since the story hadn’t been written, I followed their guidelines of what they wanted. It worked. I recently heard a successful wri...

K. Marvin Bruce

Search This Blog