Feeling quiet inside

[pegkerr]

I will probably go to bed soon. As I said, I've been a bit distracted lately, and have had a bit of a problem of coming up with entries that I hope would be interesting (hope I haven't been boring those of you who are still reading). (Well, aside from entries about doing things like splitting my scalp open, I mean--and I want to stress that I don't do those sort of things to myself because I want to entertain my LiveJournal audience.)

Oh, I know; I could talk about this. I got an e-mail recently from corinnethewise, who is interested in writing and so sent me some questions:

How do you go about getting a novel published? Is it economically feasible to write for a living without trying to support a family? Do you ever write short stories? Is it more difficult to write novels or short stories? Is it easier to sell novels or short stories?

Think I'll answer some of these here, as others might be interested in the answers, too. I started out writing short stories. I had about a dozen short stories published before I started trying to write a novel, and it took me two years of floundering around before I figured out how to write a novel (it's quite a different technique). I did it this way because I sort of assumed that I had to do it this way, that serious writers "worked their way up" to novels. But I want to stress that in this matter, as in all other pronouncements I may make about the Process of Writing, I also add the caveat Your Mileage May Vary. I know many working writers who never did short stories at all, and in fact haven't the least clue how to write a 2000 word short story, because their natural length is the novel. That's the way they think of stories, in big chunks. You can start a career with short stories. You can start a career with novels. I will say that it is probably much harder to support yourself full time as a writer if you ONLY write short stories, but again, with this rule as with any other, there are exceptions. The reason for this is that there so many of the markets for short fiction which were present in the 40s and 50s (which supported many working sf writers) have since dried up and gone out of business.

Will stop there for now; as Pepys (pepysdiary) says, "and so to bed." Other published writers reading this, please feel free to chime in with any comments you may have on this topic for corinnethewise.

Cheers,
Peg

Comments

[pameladean]

Whether it's more difficult to write novels or short stories depends, as has been said in various ways, on the writer. I have a terrible time with short stories. I did write them and they were always rejected, because they were terrible. The ones I finally got published, after writing a couple of novels, are mostly quite long, and in fact the first five pieces of short fiction I had published really are a novel. That leaves two much longer ones and a very short one that the editor who bought it immediately pointed out could be made into a novel. Which I did.

I will take correction on this from people who actually know, but I do wonder if in today's publishing climate it might be easier, if you write good ones, to sell short stories. I know the market isn't what it was earlier, but the thing about short stories is, you don't ever need an agent. You can send your stuff to the person who will buy it, and that's that. No queries, no outlines, no proposals, no looking up the publisher you think would be really right and finding out they don't take unagented submissions, period. Certainly many short-story markets are closed -- a lot of original anthologies, for example. But the basic magazines don't care if you have an agent or not.

I've been really appalled at the closing-down of avenues for first-time novelists with no agent in recent years. It used to be that aspiring writers in sf and fantasy who took standard writing workshops would come away thinking they had to have an agent, and those of us in this field could explain happily that it wasn't true for sf, only mainstream and romance or whatever. Now it's almost true. Argh.

I have to go take care of a cat now. The very short answer to going about getting a novel published is to research your markets and look at the guidelines of the publishers you think might buy your book. Then you do what they want. This will often involve a query letter or a synopsis and sample chapters; rarely, it will involve the whole manuscript. Often it involves getting an agent first.

As for the financial aspect of things: the average income for a writer in this country is about five thousand dollars a year. This means, of course, that a substantial number of people make more. But a lot don't make a lot more. You really can't start out supporting yourself with writing except in extraordinary circumstances. But you can work up to it. If you are diligent and lucky both.

Pamela