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

Dusty

My, this thing is dusty. My fans—hi, Mom!—perhaps believe me to have perished in the pandemic. No, it was nonfiction’s fault. Since the pandemic began I’ve had two nonfiction books published and have written a third. With a nine-to-five job something’s got to give. Unfortunately it’s been fiction. Well, the groundhog didn’t see his shadow yesterday, so it must be safe to come out. I shuffled away the rejection notes and began submitting again. I’ve got a backlog of weird stories and maybe some new publishers have emerged? The thing is, don’t you just hate it when you’re in the mood to submit and some lit journal has its window for submissions firmly shut? My last story, “ The Hput, ” was published about three years ago. Oh, I’ve submitted since then, but with no traction. Well, it is winter. I’ve got a lot of stories lined up. I’ve been sending them out again, dreaming of making a dime at what I love doing best...

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. ...

Creativity

Maybe you’ve noticed this too. When you step away from fiction writing for a while, your creativity becomes flaccid. I’ve had to step away from this blog for a while because I was writing my sixth nonfiction book. God, I’ve missed fiction! Now that I’ve entered that phase of waiting for publishers to respond, I’ve turned my limited writing time back to fiction. I submitted a couple of stories this week and am waiting to hear about those as well. When you’re a writer, waiting is a way of life. Opening my software where I store my fiction stories, I was amazed by how many I found. Some of them are bad—so bad that they’ll never (rightfully) be published. Some are surprisingly good and have been sitting around while I finished up my nonfic. The vast majority, however, are unfinished. Some years back I realized that when I’m writing in the heat of inspiration but don’t have time to finish a story that I need to write down where I...

K. Marvin Bruce

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