Following Success?

While I’m awaiting word whether the remainder of The Space between Atoms can be recovered, I’m pondering the correct strategy for publishing. Like most struggling writers, I follow success when I encounter it. Right now the biggest struggle for me is whether to focus on fiction or non.

You see, under my real name I have had four nonfiction books published. The problem is they’re academic books, expensive and obscure. Yes, they may rest in the Library of Congress after I’m gone, but I doubt I’ll be joining Poe on Bradbury’s Mars. Nevertheless, I know how to get such books published.

My true love has always been fiction. I’ve been writing fiction since at least 1974. I really only attempted publication in 2009. Although I’ve earned less than $40 from fiction, I’ve managed to have nearly 30 stories published. My novels have had no success at all.

If I were to follow “success” I would go after nonfiction. My nonfiction earnings amount to well under a thousand dollars. In fact, if I use Turbo Tax the form I have to buy to report royalty income costs more than the actual royalties themselves. This means I’m losing money by publishing nonfiction. Is this success?

Like those of you reading this post, I write because that’s who I am. I don’t do it for money, but I wouldn’t mind being paid a little for my efforts. At least enough to pay for the Turbo Tax schedule I have to file.

Looking at the bookstore shelves, or even seeing what’s on Amazon, I realize my fiction isn’t the worst that’s been committed to words. Why do agents avoid me and walk past, pretending not to have seen me? Ah, but agents follow success. Defined in dollars.

I’ll continue writing fiction, although it will have to share the time with non. Neither one pays the bills, but what can a struggling writer do but write?

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

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