Getting Published is Hard

I got off to a somewhat atypical start in this writing business. My first collection of short stories was picked up by an independent publisher which then folded almost immediately. So in a sense, I'm a traditionally published author, but as the book is now out of print, I don't have much to show for it.

Luckily, I'm difficult to discourage. I've soldiered on, making a few measured forays into the self-publishing world, and having some moderate success. But because I'm not satisfied with anything less than the undying adoration of all of humanity, I've been trying to shop my stories around the world of traditional publishing. And so far, I have a 100% failure rate.

The traditional path for a fiction writer frequently involves writing short stories at first. It's a great way to cut your teeth as an author, and getting published is quicker than it is with novels, especially in the digital age. Writers submit short stories to print or online magazines, who then put those stories in front of their readership. Some magazines pay professional per-word rates, some pay semi-pro rates, some pay a nominal acceptance sum, and others don't pay at all.

Each genre has its big names. For Sci-fi, it's Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog Magazine, and several others. For Literary Fiction, The New Yorker is huge, as well as Glimmer Train, and dozens of others. But to get into those magazines, you have to be a) very lucky, b) a genius, or c) have experience publishing in smaller magazines.

These days, most publications are a mixture of print and online content. Some publish more online than they do in print, since it's cheaper. Web-only publications generally offer lower rates, and many offer nothing at all--and still turn hundreds of authors away. Given the proliferation of markets, and the difficulty of getting published, one might think the best strategy is to put one's stories out to as many publications as possible.

The problem with shopping stuff to multiple outlets is that the vast majority do not take simultaneous submissions, meaning if you submit something to one place, you can't submit it anywhere else until you get an acceptance or rejection letter. From an author's standpoint, that blows bigtime, because response rates run as long as six months. But from an editor's standpoint, I get it. I'd hate to write an author to accept their piece, only to find out it's already been accepted somewhere else, and I've wasted my time. If an author did that to me, I'd probably never read anything of theirs ever again. And that is, in fact, how it plays out. From what I'm told. So it's a long, arduous process. A lot of authors ignore the simultaneous subs rule, but at the risk of burning bridges. I try to be more patient and cautious.

As frustrating and outdated as this system sounds, I'm a big believer in it. Because the world needs gatekeepers. I mean, just look at all the garbage that gets self-published on Amazon. Trying to rise out of that scrap heap is like trying to weave a rope out of sand. Money helps, but unfortunately most authors don't have money to throw at an advertising budget.

Online-only publications have gate keepers that are as tough as any. Those editors reject the majority of the material they see, but since most of the magazines don't pay, getting published in one doesn't really earn you much respect as an author. Unless someone is willing to shell out hard cash for your writing, you're in the bottom 99%. If you want to be in the top 1% (actually, fiction writers who earn any money from their work probably make up less than that), your writing and self-marketing skills have to be good enough to get someone to pay you to write down junk from your imagination. As much as people love to read, there just isn't that big of a demand for authors in this world. We could probably get by with, what, fifty at any given time?

Networking is, of course, massively important. Once you get accepted to a particular publication, you form a relationship with that editor. The door to that publication typically remains open to you, and other doors open as well. If you're savvy, this is the time when self-promotion really matters. But until that point, passing muster with an editor is far more important than self-marketing.

There are other ways to get a break, but this is by far the most common path, and you can't count on being the exception. For my novel, I plan to seek representation from a literary agent, but agents get as many query letters as editors, and if you're the agent, you're gonna go for the author that has a solid resume in publishing, nine times out of ten. So aspiring authors are always on the lookout for ways to distinguish themselves, and one of the most popular is by blogging. Heck, that's part of why this blog exists.

Blogs are great. Social media makes it pretty easy to get noticed, and if nothing else, a blog keeps you writing. But the thing is, you generally won't see writers sharing fiction on a blog. You see them doing what I'm doing right now: writing nonfiction about the art of fiction. Which is good. It's a great way to stay immersed in the craft, and you'll wind up teaching yourself a lot. But at the end of the day, you're not really displaying your skills as a fiction writer. So why not just post your stories on a blog? Well...

The problem with posting fiction on a blog is that people read fiction and nonfiction differently. Blogs, news, Medium articles, and Buzzfeed posts can be read a few words at a time, on a commute, or even while doing something else. Heck I can carry on a conversation while reading and still get what I want from the average blog article.

Fiction is meant to be immersive, and it's difficult to enjoy and appreciate it without giving it your undivided attention. If I'm, say, in the bathroom for a while, I will typically read Reddit, or something like that--something I can take in small doses. If I don't finish a given article, I don't really care. I read fiction too, but chances are I'd never start a short story, even if I had time. I don't usually settle in to read fiction unless I know I've got time to really get into it. I have to be able to allow the possibility that it will suck me in and keep me glued to the spot for hours. If there's a chance I won't have time to read to a stopping point, I won't start. And that's pretty typical, from what I see. Fiction is probably the toughest sell when it comes to how people shell out their attention.

Therefore, the media that work for nonfiction don't work as well for fiction. I'm not saying it can't be done, but again, you can't count on being the exception. Fiction readers prefer fiction packaged in books and ebooks, just like they prefer music packaged in albums and streaming services. Putting fiction in a magazine is like getting a song on the radio. Putting fiction on your blog is about like broadcasting your song on a CB radio. It's going to have a lot harder time making an impact.

Editors like to see a history of effort, so self-publishing and blogging are great things to have on your resume, and if you can find some backdoor to build an audience (like publishing fiction on Medium), that's great. But it's about like having volunteer work on a traditional resume. All it really shows is that you're a go-getter. It doesn't necessarily prove you can do the job.

It's a tough path I've chosen, but it's the only thing I'm any good at, so here I am. No regrets.

New Story Available!

My newest short story Enemy of Existence is now available in the anthology Coming Around Again, on sale now! The book was put together by the Central Arkansas Speculative Fiction Writers Group, to celebrate the group's 7th anniversary. It's the second anthology they've put out, and I'm proud to be included this time around!

The book showcases writing from CASFWG members, as well as writers from around the country. The theme of the book is anniversaries and cyclical events. There are a ton of amazing stories included, it's great read!

Pick up your copy now, and don't forget to leave us a review when you're done reading it!

About Enemy of Existence

A new world. A reluctant band of colonists. A violent secret.

They came to find refuge from the war that destroyed their home. Instead they found an enemy more savage and relentless than any they had faced before.

With no link to the world he left behind, one man must fight a losing battle for humanity's existence, and it will change everything he knows.

3 ways to Plot a Short Story

Many (if not most) fiction authors begin their careers writing short stories before moving into novels. For most of the 20th century, it was almost a requirement to start out this way; write and publish enough short stories to build a name for yourself, then move on to longer books and a publishing contract.

The system works a little differently now. Big magazines don't publish as much fiction as they used to, and fiction-focused periodicals are fewer in number, and their readerships are smaller Anthologies are everywhere, but again, the readership isn't huge. You're not likely to see a themed anthology in the top ten any time soon.

But there's still a big niche for short stories today. The simplicity and affordability of online self-publishing makes it easy to send your short story out into the world. It also means the fiction market is saturated with poorly-conceived, poorly-executed material.

So how do you stand out from the crowd? How do you win the hearts of readers? How do you edge out the competition when submitting to a magazine or anthology?

There's no secret sauce, of course. It's the same as anything else: success is a lot of hard work, and a little luck.

For me, hard work has always taken the form of learning and applying technique. I love books about the craft, but I've found there's a shortage of writing advice on the short story form in particular. Recently, I read Let's Write a Short Story by Joe Bunting of the website The Write Practice. It wasn't a bad book, but I was a bit disappointed. I went in hoping for a detailed breakdown of how short story structure differs from novel structure, and how to approach plotting and editing a short. Instead, I found the same old advice about submitting, self-editing, and staying on task. It was good advice, but I've heard it all before (and written about it too).

Luckily, I've had some ideas about short story structure churning in my head for a while, and my disappointment with Let's Write a Short Story has motivated me to share them.

Why bother plotting a short story at all?

I mean, it's short, right? Why go to the extra effort?

Well, if you're like me, plotting is as much a habit as it is deliberate practice. It's hard for me not to plot. But even if that isn't true for you, any story, no matter how short, is worth sketching out in advance. I firmly believe that good stories are like icebergs: the reader only sees the tip, but there's a vast framework beneath. (Like this quote? Click here to tweet it!)

And as I've said before, it's easier to work out kinks in an outline than in a story. Your first idea is rarely your best, so when you're approaching a story it pays to sketch it out first and revise a few times before committing anything to the page.

So how should short stories be structured? I've thought about it, and I'm pretty sure there are three general ways to do it.

Compressed Four-Act Structure

If you haven't read my series on story structure, this might not be familiar to you. Please go read it, it's awesome and everything I say is 100% right, because I'm super smart.

Anyway, traditional story structure can be compressed down to a shorter format. When plotting out signpost scenes and major turning points, you try to express what you need to as simply as possible. Instead of an entire scene or series of events at Turning Point One, you write just a single moment that changes the game. Instead of a whole Save-a-Cat scene, you write one moment, maybe just one line of dialogue that will engender sympathy for your protagonist.

I tried this strategy when I wrote my short story Deep (available from major retailers!). The story began with a couple bickering, and to create sympathy, I had the main character apologize to an android that overheard the argument. Apologizing to a robot is meaningless, of course, but it showed that she was embarrassed, and embarrassment is sympathetic. That was the idea, anyway. Buy it, and let me know if it worked!

Compressed story structure can work on a surprisingly small scale. With Deep, I crammed my entire four-act structure into about 5000 words. Four act structure is more about proportion than amount. As long as the important turning points are spaced right, it doesn't really matter how much story they contain. The resulting rhythm will still feel familiar.

The Vignette

A popular form with literary fiction authors and art house filmmakers, the vignette isn't really a story in the technical sense. It's really just a single scene intended to highlight a particular theme, emotion, setting, or character.

Vignettes can be done well, but they are often misused. Sometimes, authors will write vignettes as a way of exploring a setting or character, but nothing interesting happens in the resulting story. The writer merely describes a person or place, and perhaps gives us some interesting bit of backstory or exposition, but there is no narrative present. Vignettes like that are useful to write, but not very interesting to read. They're notes, really, not proper writing.

Remember; the key to good fiction is conflict. To keep readers interested, something has to be wrong, and it has to be wrong now, not in the murky, shapeless past. If you can't find the conflict, you're writing notes, not a story.

Good vignettes will paint a detailed picture of a theme or emotion. In Coffee and Cigarettes, Jim Jarmusch uses the vignette to explore the theme of awkward, tenuous conversations. The scenes he presents vary widely in tone, but at the heart of all of them there is some form of uncertainty, and that provides the conflict.

Vignettes can be extremely short, or relatively long. The thing that makes them vignettes is that they happen in a single time and place. A long vignette can be a riveting slow burn if you lay the tension on thick enough. Think of the opening scene in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds. That scene would probably make an amazing short story.

The key to using a vignette effectively is to keep the tension in focus. Even in the longest vignette, there's really no room for exposition. Get to the conflict, and let the reader stew in it until the scene comes to its close. Afterwards, the emotion you developed will still be ringing in their ears.

Sequence Structure

If you haven't read my article on sequence structure, here's a brief summary:

A Sequence is a group of related scenes. It consists of two phases, Action, and Reaction.

The Action Phase has three parts: A Goal, some kind of Conflict that impedes the character's progress toward that goal, and some Outcome (usually bad) that results from the conflict.

The Reaction Phase also has three parts: An emotional Reaction to the outcome, a period of Deliberation on what to do next, and a final Decision, which provides the next goal.

For more, read my article, or check out K.M. Weiland's series on this topic (I think my terminology is easier than hers, but the idea is the same...because I stole it from her).

Sequence structure as a short story plotting framework is new for me. I haven't actually written anything I've plotted this way (I've plotted, but I haven't actually written). But knowing how well this framework translates into novels, it stands to reason that it's a good way to write a short story. Gripping stories all have that domino-effect feeling, whether they're short or long.

In a novel, you typically have several main sequences linked up by smaller ones. The smaller ones can be cut short or interrupted, but the main ones should usually proceed unhindered. In a short story, I think you probably just need one, or one and a half. Let me explain.

The beginning of any story needs some kind of hook. Something has to be wrong right away or the reader isn't likely to get interested. To me, either a goal or an emotional reaction can provide this.

A goal is a desire with a plan. It can be established quickly, and then you move right into conflict. A goal in itself is already something wrong: wanting something means you don't already have it. Depending on what your character wants, that can be enough right there. Imagine a story starting off with one character wanting to kill another. That's conflict!

In sequence structure, the emotional reaction is a direct result of the preceding outcome. If the outcome is usually bad, that means the reaction is already fraught with conflict. You could open on a character fuming with frustration, buried under anguish, or blinded by rage. If you paint a good picture of what this person is like when they're frustrated, depressed, or enraged, you will supply a vivid portrait of the character (which is good to do early on), and you'll be starting with internal conflict that a reader can sympathize with.

Whether you start on Action or Reaction, all you need to do from there is proceed in the natural order. In a short story, I don't think it's a good idea to interrupt the flow of sequence structure. That might work in novels, because you have plenty of time to tie up any loose ends you leave dangling. But even meaty short stories need to be relatively compact. If you feel the need to interrupt or break sequence structure, maybe what you're writing would work better as a compressed four-act structure, or even a full novel.

Wherever you begin, I feel it's probably best to end on an outcome. This seems natural, because an outcome is more or less a synonym for an ending. You could end on a decision, but you'll want it to be one of those momentous, life-changing decisions that portends great or terrible things. Executed properly, a decision can create a resonant ending, which you always want. In general, though, I'm willing to bet readers will prefer ending on some kind of result.

So if you want to start with the Reaction Phase, your outline might look something like this:

• Reaction: Bob is angry at Sheila for sleeping with Dave.
• Deliberation: Bob goes back and forth about whether or not to kill one or both of them.
• Decision: Bob decides to kill them both.
• Goal: Bob wants to kill Dave and Sheila, so he goes to buy a gun.
• Conflict: The gun store owner knows Bob, and is suspicious about his motives for buying a gun.  
• Outcome: Bob takes his anger out on the store owner, and winds up getting arrested.

If you want to start with the Action Phase, your outline might look something like this:

• Goal: Bob wants to Kill Dave and Sheila, so he goes to buy a gun.
• Conflict: The gun store owner knows Bob, and is suspicious about his motives for buying a gun.  
• Outcome: The owner refuses to sell Bob a gun.
• Reaction: Bob's anger intensifies.
• Deliberation: He thinks of other ways to kill Dave and Sheila.
• Decision: Bob takes a knife from his kitchen and waits for Sheila to come home.
• Goal: Bob wants to kill Sheila.
• Conflict: Sheila returns home with their kids.
• Outcome: Bob can't kill her in front of the kids. He buries his anger, and we're left with the sense that life from then on will be very different.

Okay, maybe those aren't really great stories, but they illustrate my point. Sequence structure is an adaptable framework that allows you to create a domino effect of any length. This makes it perfect for short stories, because their length varies.

***

I've thought a lot about short stories. I'm a lifelong fan of story cycles like Bradybury's Martian Chronicles and Asimov's Foundation Trilogy (which is actually a collection of related short stories). But for whatever reason, there just isn't much material out there about how to write and structure them. There are hundreds of books about how to write a novel, but the only book I found on writing short stories had more to say about the publication process than the task itself.

These three structures are all I can come up with. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, but when I plot short stories, it's always in one of these ways.

How about you? How do you plot short stories, if you do it at all? Can you think of any other structural frameworks I could include? Comment and let me know!