Paperback Writer

For many writers, getting a book in paperback is a measure of success. As writers we think of those books so common that you can find them in grocery stores and drug stores and airports. Books by Stephen King are everywhere.

We tend to think of hardcover books as overpriced and out of reach for hoi polloi. Besides, who has room to store a bunch of hardback books? They take up valuable shelf space. If a book doesn’t come out in paperback we think of it as a failure.

Publishers tend to look at it the other way around. Books are a luxury item. As much as I shudder to write this, you can live without them. Publishers know this and that’s why book prices often seem so high. I’m old enough to remember when a mass-market paperback could be purchased for just over a dollar.

Mass market is almost impossible to hit. As I sit here waiting for six publishers to get back to me on my Medusa novel, I know that it won’t be mass market. The trade paperback is the larger format, something like 6-by-9 inches. That’s perhaps a goal.

There are lots of different kinds of publishing. Scholars write academic books that almost always come out in hardcover only. They are priced for the library market—i.e., they are expensive. The readership fiction writers crave is the trade market.

This past week I’ve been reading the Library Journal. Lots and lots of new books are coming out, some from publishers I’ve never even heard of. My simple, smart, witty book just can’t seem to get any traction. I wonder what’s wrong with the world.

To make matters worse, I was reading a book on an unrelated topic, narrating how crackpots in the 1960’s and ’70’s were getting their books published easily. There was no internet then, and anyone who could write 50,000 words could find a publisher.

Now you can write millions of words (I’m sure I’ve come close—my second novel alone was 232,000 words. Needless to say, it was never published.) and never get noticed. Right now I’d even settle for hardcover only.

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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

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