The countdown of readers’ favorite posts
of 2020 continues, with numbers seven and eight:
Last look at WORDfest – the on
to virtual future!
Writers—need a break from that “locked
in” feeling? From old familiar faces? From long term commitments? I don’t have
a cure for the pandemic, only for a change of writing pace, from long form to short
form, with hints from master short story writer William
Ledbetter.
A Nebula Award-winning author of dozens
of speculative fiction short stories and articles, Ledbetter discussed his
guidelines for “Writing and Marketing Short Fiction” at this year’s virtual
version of North Texas And if it sounds as if she’s talking
only to authors planning to self-publish, she’s not. It’s even possible to
relaunch a previously published book. And if by “platform” you think she means
being on every possible social media outlet, she’s not. “Find two you love,
including your blog. . . The way you (build platform) is by being authentic,
(posting) about things that make me fall in love with you. You don’t have to
sell your book.”
Writers do, however, “need to have goals
so you can achieve them,” Raquel insisted, because you’ll be launching on that
“complex beast” Amazon. “Your book launch depends on making this animal work for you,
not against you.”
Make it work by researching categories, prices,
and endorsers.
Think of Amazon categories as genres,
Raquel told her audience. Pick the most relevant ones, but rather than choosing
“science fiction and fantasy,” which is too broad, get more specific with
categories such as “technothriller.” Then research the competition. “It will be
hard to outsell authors in categories they dominate,” and launching writers
will strive to find categories in which their books have a chance to become
bestsellers.
And about pricing—“it’s an art, not a
science.” Check the most common prices for ebooks in the chosen category,
remembering that prices can always be changed. Raquel’s suggestions are to
launch at 99 cents the first week. “You want it to be a no-brainer for someone
to buy that book.” Later pricing can go up to $2.99 to $3.99 for ebooks and as
much as $12.99-$19.99 for paperbacks, depending on genre. (Note: for KDP,
authors must change their royalty setting to be able to sell at 99 cents.)
To find endorsers, Raquel recommends
cultivating book bloggers, as well as checking out book promotion sites, whose
prices can vary from free to “very expensive.” Both tasks should be done prior
to launch. Although she suggested several, writers may want to check out book
bloggers and promotional sites as well as contests with possible prizes at the
all-purpose Reedsy site.
***
Ready for more reader favs? Here’s #7:
Recycling floods of words
into multiple venues
Is anyone else feeling jealous at the sight of
all the creative stuff our friends are making from unlikely sources during the
pandemic? You know who I’m talking about. The ones who craft amazing whatzits
from leftover yarn or cook from-scratch restaurant-worthy entrees out of stuff
found in the back of their pantries, even post pictures of themselves
impersonating famous paintings.
Well, writers, here’s our
turn at creative recycling. With crafts like mining our yet-to-be-published
novels for short stories – 1,000 words are easier and quicker to sell than
100,000. Or writing fanfic from our own fiction by giving a minor character an
expanded role, reimagining a scene from a different point of view, or taking
that sea of back story we can’t quite find room for in the big book and giving
it a story of its own.
This isn’t a new idea for me,
but it got new life recently while I was, as I posted last month, refurbishing
some of my previously published short stories for Wattpad. When I dropped some
of them in my critique group’s Dropbox, one sharp-eyed critique partner noticed
that one employed an episode from a novel the group had recently critiqued.
Why, she asked, would I
turn a novel into a short story?
The short
answer was so that I could make a separate sale of the short story, which
didn’t exactly replicate the novel chapter it was based on. And has, in fact,
been sold twice, while the novel still languishes. I didn’t mention that a
second short story (which has also sold twice) was the backstory of another
character who ended up in that same novel
Or that
still another unsold novel has generated other multi-published short stories.
Still, I
had said enough to whet her interest. Where, she, a veteran of long form
writing, asked, do you sell short stories?
The
answer to that proved too lengthy for a Facebook post, so I’m expanding it
here. I’ll also delve into the inspirational benefits to be gleaned from
writing short stories that make us want to try our hands at longer works with
those characters or settings.
First,
let me whet the appetites of you, dear readers, with suggestions for where to
sell those story whatzits I see churning in your brains.
When I
was writing a lot more short stories than I currently am, my bible for
publication venues was Duotrope’s Digest, with its listing of thousands of active
markets for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. (It’s since added visual arts
venues and literary agents to its mix.) In addition to listing markets and
their contact information, Duotrope adds interviews with
editors, word counts, numbers of acceptances, approximate response time, and your
own personal spreadsheet of submissions.
Is there
a downside to all this bounty? Yes, of sorts. Since my initial writing
days, Duotrope has added a subscription fee. Still, at $5 per
month or $50 for 12 months (each with a beginning free trial) it’s still a good
deal. In fact, although I dropped my subscription when I began writing more
long form, I’m tempted to return.
However,
for those who want to dabble in the publication waters, there are free options.
One is The Submission Grinder. I’ve tried it and found it does almost
everything Duotrope does, although as yet only for fiction and
poetry, without charge.
I’ve also
used another not-for-pay source of primarily genre publishing markets, Ralan.com.
Other
free sources for short stories as well as longer works include the blog Publishing . . . And Other Forms of Insanity, which also has agent listings; New Pages; and Reedsy.
Still,
the possibility of getting money from some of those words we’ve devoted so much
time to isn’t the only reason for the mix-and-match use of short stories and
novels. There’s also the possibility of faster gratification – publication in
weeks instead of years. Plus, short story publications don’t require literary
agents as gatekeepers. And most of them don’t require any more in the way of a
query letter than the bare facts of the stories title, genre, and word count,
and the writer’s own contact information.
And short
stories on their own are ways to generate ideas for longer fiction. I’ve
hatched the germ of at least a couple of novels, as well as valuable backstory for
characters, from short stories written for the market or for writing
conferences. Shorter forms are great for trying out ideas. An alt-history short
(again, multi-published) turned into a more conventional historical. A fantasy
story that flopped at a workshop got new life in a different genre.
And for
anyone unsure of which point of view to use, short stories are exercises in
possibility. After all, it’s only a few thousand words. . .
Before
proceeding, please note that crafting short stories from already-written or
in-progress novels isn’t a simple matter of putting a chapter on a chopping
block and cutting a few thousand words. Long form and short form writing are
separate works of art. We will find ourselves writing new beginnings or
endings, eliding middles, even reimagining our characters.
Think of
this as you contemplate your friends’ other crafts on Instagram or Facebook.
Maybe they ran out of their favorite yarn and had to improvise. Maybe they had
only canned spinach for that quiche instead of fresh or frozen and dared not
post the first results to Instagram. Practice, revise, rewrite. Don’t be afraid
of any un-Instagram worthy writing results but prepare to turn floods of words
into marvelous stories!.
He only had to tell his audience to skip
the synopsis— “it’s a short story!”—to catch the attention of this writer
struggling with that most dreaded to-do for book length works.
Then there was ability to engage with a
completely new set of characters for each short story. And of course, the time
element. Not that Ledbetter dashes out stories offhand—he sometimes spends as
much as two weeks on one—but I mentally compared this to the months, sometimes
years, lavished on novel writing. It didn’t hurt either to hear we can skip dealing
with agents and submit our short stories directly to publishers.
(Most agents, in fact, will not
represent short story writers, although Ledbetter didn’t rebuff the agent who
offered representation after reading his Nebula-winning short story, “The Long
Fall Up.” It was an offer that later resulted in Ledbetter’s first novel
publication, Level Five.)
Still, some of Ledbetter’s “musts” for
short story publication carry over into long form fiction. “First, read the
guidelines,” he warned.
“If the story doesn’t follow the
guidelines or the writer hasn’t checked the spelling the slush reader and
editor will say, ‘this isn’t for us.’ You want your story to be so good that
they’ll read all the way to the end. . . Good enough isn’t good enough. Make
sure it’s the best story you can possibly write.”
For writing that best story, first pages
are critically important. With a short story, within the first two or three
pages, you have to supply context. (By context, he means, why should the story
begin where it does and why should the reader care.) And, have a great ending!
“It’s a good idea to have something at the beginning that ties into the ending.
It’s satisfying when a story comes full circle.”
On the other hand, “one of the things
(editors) always say is, ‘read our magazine.’ The problem is writers may simply
write clones of previously published stories with the serial numbers filed
off.”
Write the story you want to write,
Ledbetter said, then look for a publication that’s a match for it.
To find those publications, he suggests
two major resources, Duotrope’s
Digest and The
Submission Grinder.
“These allow you to track your
submissions and also provide information about other markets.” (Duotrope
requires a subscription fee of $5/month or $50/year and also has a larger data
base than The Submission Grinder, which is free.)
“You can also search by genre, like if
you’re writing a Western or a romance story, as well as providing information
on contests and anthologies.”
And as always, be persistent and
patient. Not to mention thick-skinned. There will be rejections.
***
Also, at WORDfest, it was a relief to
hear from book guru Shayla Raquel that virtual book releases can be as
satisfying as those in person.
Raquel’s must-haves for that perfect
launch:
· The
best book you can possibly write
· Professionally
edited
· With
a professional cover
· And
professional formatting
· A
user-friendly, mobile-friendly website
· Author
platform (social media presence, community of influencers, email list, etc.)
· At least three
months to execute the launch
And if it sounds as if she’s talking
only to authors planning to self-publish, she’s not. It’s even possible to
relaunch a previously published book. And if by “platform” you think she means
being on every possible social media outlet, she’s not. “Find two you love,
including your blog. . . The way you (build platform) is by being authentic,
(posting) about things that make me fall in love with you. You don’t have to
sell your book.”
Writers do, however, “need to have goals
so you can achieve them,” Raquel insisted, because you’ll be launching on that
“complex beast” Amazon. “Your book launch depends on making this animal work for you,
not against you.”
Make it work by researching categories, prices,
and endorsers.
Think of Amazon categories as genres,
Raquel told her audience. Pick the most relevant ones, but rather than choosing
“science fiction and fantasy,” which is too broad, get more specific with
categories such as “technothriller.” Then research the competition. “It will be
hard to outsell authors in categories they dominate,” and launching writers
will strive to find categories in which their books have a chance to become
bestsellers.
 |
Image: Pixabay
|
And about pricing—“it’s an art, not a
science.” Check the most common prices for ebooks in the chosen category,
remembering that prices can always be changed. Raquel’s suggestions are to
launch at 99 cents the first week. “You want it to be a no-brainer for someone
to buy that book.” Later pricing can go up to $2.99 to $3.99 for ebooks and as
much as $12.99-$19.99 for paperbacks, depending on genre. (Note: for KDP,
authors must change their royalty setting to be able to sell at 99 cents.)
To find endorsers, Raquel recommends
cultivating book bloggers, as well as checking out book promotion sites, whose
prices can vary from free to “very expensive.” Both tasks should be done prior
to launch. Although she suggested several, writers may want to check out book
bloggers and promotional sites as well as contests with possible prizes at the
all-purpose Reedsy site.
***
And here’s readers' fav #7:
Recycling floods of words
into multiple venues
Is anyone else feeling jealous at the sight of
all the creative stuff our friends are making from unlikely sources during the
pandemic? You know who I’m talking about. The ones who craft amazing whatzits
from leftover yarn or cook from-scratch restaurant-worthy entrees out of stuff
found in the back of their pantries, even post pictures of themselves
impersonating famous paintings.
Well, writers, here’s our
turn at creative recycling. With crafts like mining our yet-to-be-published
novels for short stories – 1,000 words are easier and quicker to sell than
100,000. Or writing fanfic from our own fiction by giving a minor character an
expanded role, reimagining a scene from a different point of view, or taking
that sea of back story we can’t quite find room for in the big book and giving
it a story of its own.
This isn’t a new idea for me,
but it got new life recently while I was, as I posted last month, refurbishing
some of my previously published short stories for Wattpad. When I dropped some
of them in my critique group’s Dropbox, one sharp-eyed critique partner noticed
that one employed an episode from a novel the group had recently critiqued.
Why, she asked, would I
turn a novel into a short story?
The short
answer was so that I could make a separate sale of the short story, which
didn’t exactly replicate the novel chapter it was based on. And has, in fact,
been sold twice, while the novel still languishes. I didn’t mention that a
second short story (which has also sold twice) was the backstory of another
character who ended up in that same novel
Or that
still another unsold novel has generated other multi-published short stories.
Still, I
had said enough to whet her interest. Where, she, a veteran of long form
writing, asked, do you sell short stories?
The
answer to that proved too lengthy for a Facebook post, so I’m expanding it
here. I’ll also delve into the inspirational benefits to be gleaned from
writing short stories that make us want to try our hands at longer works with
those characters or settings.
First,
let me whet the appetites of you, dear readers, with suggestions for where to
sell those story whatzits I see churning in your brains.
When I
was writing a lot more short stories than I currently am, my bible for
publication venues was Duotrope’s Digest, with its listing of thousands of active
markets for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. (It’s since added visual arts
venues and literary agents to its mix.) In addition to listing markets and
their contact information, Duotrope adds interviews with
editors, word counts, numbers of acceptances, approximate response time, and your
own personal spreadsheet of submissions.
Is there
a downside to all this bounty? Yes, of sorts. Since my initial writing
days, Duotrope has added a subscription fee. Still, at $5 per
month or $50 for 12 months (each with a beginning free trial) it’s still a good
deal. In fact, although I dropped my subscription when I began writing more
long form, I’m tempted to return.
However,
for those who want to dabble in the publication waters, there are free options.
One is The Submission Grinder. I’ve tried it and found it does almost
everything Duotrope does, although as yet only for fiction and
poetry, without charge.
I’ve also
used another not-for-pay source of primarily genre publishing markets, Ralan.com.
Other
free sources for short stories as well as longer works include the blog Publishing . . . And Other Forms of Insanity, which also has agent listings; New Pages; and Reedsy.
Still,
the possibility of getting money from some of those words we’ve devoted so much
time to isn’t the only reason for the mix-and-match use of short stories and
novels. There’s also the possibility of faster gratification – publication in
weeks instead of years. Plus, short story publications don’t require literary
agents as gatekeepers. And most of them don’t require any more in the way of a
query letter than the bare facts of the stories title, genre, and word count,
and the writer’s own contact information.
And short
stories on their own are ways to generate ideas for longer fiction. I’ve
hatched the germ of at least a couple of novels, as well as valuable backstory for
characters, from short stories written for the market or for writing
conferences. Shorter forms are great for trying out ideas. An alt-history short
(again, multi-published) turned into a more conventional historical. A fantasy
story that flopped at a workshop got new life in a different genre.
And for
anyone unsure of which point of view to use, short stories are exercises in
possibility. After all, it’s only a few thousand words. . .
Before
proceeding, please note that crafting short stories from already-written or
in-progress novels isn’t a simple matter of putting a chapter on a chopping
block and cutting a few thousand words. Long form and short form writing are
separate works of art. We will find ourselves writing new beginnings or
endings, eliding middles, even reimagining our characters.
Think of
this as you contemplate your friends’ other crafts on Instagram or Facebook.
Maybe they ran out of their favorite yarn and had to improvise. Maybe they had
only canned spinach for that quiche instead of fresh or frozen and dared not
post the first results to Instagram. Practice, revise, rewrite. Don’t be afraid
of any un-Instagram worthy writing results but prepare to turn floods of words
into marvelous stories!
