Photo by ‘Short stories are the loose change in the treasury of fiction’[1]
J. G. Ballard
You’ve just finished writing your short story, what next?
Do you send it out to endless magazines and competitions, or do you get brave and try and get your first anthology published first? What do you do? After all your favourite authors like Stephen King, Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter all have collections of their own. Shouldn’t yours be up there right next to theirs? For me, I can see myself submitting ‘The Bone Flowers’ to a niche magazine such as Shoreline of Infinity or perhaps Uncanny, both specialise in science fiction and fantasy, with a touch of horror. But be aware, some publications may ask you to edit it to make it suitable to publish. In fact, I had to make several changes to ‘The Bone Flowers’ just so it would make this blog including removing several characters to concentrate on Dave and Daisy’s narrative, taking out a violent sub plot, and adding more realistic emotions; all of which were legitimate changes that improved the storytelling. Author Tobias Wolff is known for constantly revising his short stories as he says ‘These are not holy texts. This isn’t the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is work that as long as it’s available to me to make better, I will.’[2]
Most authors, including those named above, didn’t get their short story collections published until after they had a few novels under their belt. Stephen King’s first collection, Night Shift,[3] didn’t get picked up until 1978, four years after his first novel, Carrie,[4]hit the shelves, and Margaret Atwood’s first collection, Dancing Girls,[5] was published after her first three novels, nine years after her debut. Even though both authors started writing short stories from the beginning of their careers, they still had to release longer pieces of work before finally getting their first collections. Some authors only write short stories solely for magazines, and a rare few, such as James Joyce, get their short story collection published before any novel is even conceived. To do this today is very hard but not impossible so might be worth considering trying small presses; there are far more small presses than large publishing houses that specialise in niche marketing.[6] For instance, Tartarus Pressspecialises in weird fiction/horror and short story collections; perfect for my brand of plant-based horror and are based in the UK.
So, what’s the reason for the time lag between novel and collection?
According to QueryLetter.com ‘most publishing companies will not elect to publish a collection of stories by a first-time author’ due to readers being unfamiliar with a new author and, in some cases, editors are only ‘interested in what people want to read, not what you want to write’.[7] Your chances are better if you’ve established yourself through ‘an anthology, a literary magazine, or a contest’,[8] or even better, a website or blog.
In other words, you need to get your short stories out into the world for exposure and will ‘show you have the skill to write a good story and that there is an existing audience for your work’,[9] plus collections normally come in at around 40,000 words, which is about 15 stories, which can ‘feature both published and unpublished works’,[10] so perhaps it’s a good idea to get 5 or 6 published before making a pitch for your collection.
You don’t have to start with the big guns such as The National Short Story Prize or the Costa book awards to get noticed, just keep submitting to your well-chosen niche magazines, most of these will be online only making exposure easily accessible to anyone who can get the internet. The New Yorker, for example, has a monthly fiction podcast that showcases a short story alongside the works of a well-known author. The internet has offered readers and writers the ability to ‘exchange stories and to track down small publishers and magazines’ a valuable tool for getting noticed and enjoyed by all. Rachael Stock also recommends that ‘when thinking about your book idea to look at the market and judge if your book is one of those whose time is coming, or whose time is passed’,[11] so for me I think my time is coming as cosmic horror sems to be on the up, as it is pretty much mainstream with shows like HBO’s True Detective capitalising on it.
Now you’ve got several of your short story out onto the worldwide web, and in several literary magazine of note, what next?
Now comes the short story collection. The word ’collection’ is defined as ‘a group of objects of one type that have been collected by one person or in one place’,[12] or ‘a group of similar things that you have deliberately acquired, usually over a period of time’.[13] In other words, a collection is a group of similar objects (in this case, short stories) acquired over a period of time (publication/writing period) by one person (the author) and in one place (a book).
Basically, all successful short story collections feature some sort of central theme, and the stories may or may not be interconnected, but they should complement each other. Ronna Wineberg states that:
‘Putting together a book of short stories is like creating an issue of a literary magazine: The writer has to consider each story and the composition of the book as a whole. The difference between writing a single story and compiling them into a collection is significant.’[14]
Take James Joyce’s The Dubliners for instance: the stories are a series of loosely connected tales set in Dublin, that deal with the theme of death in some form or another, with ‘The Dead’ being the standout in the collection.
Tentacles
My short story, ‘The Bone Flowers’, is intended to be part of a wider collection of stories set within its own universe, with themes of a tentacular or vegetal nature. Some characters might be the main character of a plot, others simply a supporting actor, but the main thing that brings them all together is a singular catastrophic event that awakens unspeakable horrors. Some will live and some will die. And the title to be confirmed? I thought about calling my collection, Tentacles. My intention is to get at least several of the stories published through magazines first and establish some sort of authorial base, and then, if they are well received, and perhaps then pitch the collection to a small press.
References:
[1] J. G. Ballard, ‘Author’s Introduction’ in The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard (London: WW Norton & Company, 2009) p. xv.
[2] Tobias Wolff cited in Sean J. Costello, ‘On Editing: Tobias Wolff’, Notes From A Book Editor [Online], 27th February 2013. Available at: < https://bookeditor.co.uk/2013/02/27/on-editing-tobias-wolff/ >. [Accessed on 8th May 2024].
[3] ‘Collections A to Z’, Stephen King [Online]. Available at: < https://stephenking.com/works/collection/ >. [Accessed on 4th April 2024].
[4] ‘Novels & Novellas’, Stephen King [Online]. Available at: < https://stephenking.com/works/novel/ >. [Accessed on 4th April 2024].
[5] ‘Full Bibliography’, Margaret Atwood [Online]. Available at: < https://margaretatwood.ca/full-bibliography-2/ >. [Accessed on 4thApril 2024].
[6] ‘How To Publish A Short Story Collection: Tips For Getting Agents’ And Editors’ Attention For Your Short Stories’, Writer’s Relief[Online] October 2023. Available at: < https://writersrelief.com/how-to-publish-a-short-story-collection-tips-for-getting-agents-and-editors-attention-for-your-short-stories/ >. [Accessed on 8th May 2024].
[7] Rachael Stock, The Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book Published (Great Ambrook: White Ladder Press, 2005) p.10.
[8] ‘Five Ways to Publish Your Short Stories’, QueryLetter.com [Online]. Available at: < https://www.queryletter.com/post/five-ways-to-publish-your-short-stories >. [Accessed on 4th April 2024].
[9] ‘How To Best Arrange Short Stories In A Collection’, Writer’s Relief [Online]. Available at: < https://writersrelief.com/how-to-arrange-short-stories-in-a-collection-writers-relief/#:~:text=Short%20story%20collections%20tend%20to,both%20published%20and%20unpublished%20works. >. [Accessed on 8th May 2024].
[10] Ibid.
[11] Rachael Stock, The Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book Published (Great Ambrook: White Ladder Press, 2005) p.19.
[12] ‘Collection’, Cambridge Dictionary [Online]. Available at: < https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/collection >. [Accessed on 4th April 2024].
[13] ‘Collection’, Collins Dictionary [Online]. Available at: < https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/collection >. [Accessed on 4th April 2024].
[14] Ronna Wineberg, ‘Writing, Compiling, And Arranging Short Stories in a Collection’, Writer’s Digest [Online], 11th April 2017. Available at: < https://www.writersdigest.com/publishing-insights/writing-compiling-arranging-short-stories-collection >. [Accessed on 4th April 2024].