Going about the business of writing

[canadian]

Most editors & publishers in paying markets pay no attention whatsoever to a long string of non-paying publication credits in an unknown author's resume. They only look at the work. If it grabs them and is the kind of thing they're looking for, they'll snap it up.

Best thing to do is check out what's available in the paying market for the kind of stuff you write. Go through the time consuming process to find them (Google, read magazines, ask other writers for leads). Read what these markets have published in the past and, if your writing's in that arena, send it off.

Remember, there's no such thing as an overnight success. In writing, as in most other things in life, it's the hard work that pays off.

[Ed]

... which brings me onto my next question, which is what do you define as a paying market, Ed? Are you saying that we should restrict ourselves only to pro-rate publications? My problem is that I can look at the stories that I have and rate each one differently. I'd like to think that most of them have at least some merit, but I know that there are some that are better than others - and however much I work on the other ones, will always remain so. So do I just sit on the rest, or do I send them out anyway, but maybe to somewhere lower down the scale?

Bear in mind I'm not holding myself up as an expert - only repeating what I've been told. We had quite a long Q&A session on markets, and all this came up. Sometimes you just have to follow your heart and, like I said above, of the freebee and token markets submit to those publications you like the look of - the fun places, or ones you think are cool and would feel proud to have your stuff in. Even the pros will sometimes donate a story to a non paying publication they like the look of. In some instances that can actually pay off, as with the BFS ( http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/ ) whose magazine gets read by the type of folks (editors) who are looking for material for their Year's Best anthologies, so you initial payment of zilch may at some point get you a reprint sale of anything up to a grand, or maybe more if they pay royalties too. (Edited to add: but this is the exception rather than the rule - when you send your work out to the FTLO or token markets, you are very unlikely to be advancing your writing career. You're just doing it for the fun of it, as are most of the editors.)

There is such a thing as a trunk story, though. Some should never see the light of day, not even in an e-zine with only ten readers, most of whom only look at the mag to find typos in their own story. So don't get hung up on the notion you have to find a home for everything - even Dr Barnardos gets stuck with a few orphans nobody else wants, and they don't shove them into caves. Hmm... I can feel a story coming on... trunk orphans... but I digress.

With those stories you think are weak in some way, try combining two or three together, or just sit on them until one day you find a way to use the premise in another way. I've done that a few times, or have just revisited an old story, seen it for what it is (when at the time of writing I couldn't) and re-written it from a completely different angle.

[delboy]

Grill, the idea of need makes perfect sense. That's why I do it, too. And, I suspect, most of the other regulars on here are the same, too. Luckily, I also love it. As previously stated, if I was in this for the money I'd have been better off keeping the paper-round I had all those years ago.

Doesn't mean our time and efforts aren't worth some ££££'s too!  

Del

[Sallyq]

I'd like to add to Ed's last comment that we aren't always the best judge of our own work anyway. I've easily sold stories that I thought were very weak, and have other stories that I consider good strong work which are still sitting on my hard drive. And like Ed says, I have many 'trunk' stories that either haven't been sent out or have bummed at so many markets, I've put them away. Though even that doesn't have to be forever. I sold a story to The Weekly News last year that I first wrote about 10 years ago, so sometimes it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

And for your first point, I don't think you can ever have too much work out there. I've submitted over 100 pieces this year already, and over 50 of those are still out. But I'd agree about choosing markets carefully. I gave up submitting to '4 the luv' markets two years ago and whilst it was a struggle at first, it certainly focussed my mind on writing publishable material. But I also only sub to print markets nowadays (apart from competitions) and that might not be for everyone. I do count 'contributor' copies as payment, but that also depends on the market (and what I think the publishers are getting out of it!). As Ed said the BFS magazine, Dark Horizons, is a '4 the luv' market that only pays in contributor copies, but it's one well worth being in, in terms of reaching the right editors' desks.

[Grillmeat]

Sallyq said:

Dark Horizons, is a '4 the luv' market that only pays in contributor copies, but it's one well worth being in, in terms of reaching the right editors' desks.

Agreed. I have read some of the stuff in there from time to time and would love to have a story their regardless of pay.

[joneastwood]

As to not being a good judge of your own work - I've recently been reading the complete collection of shorts and novellas by George RR Martin called 'Dreamscapes'. In between the stories he talks about how he wrote them and how (if ever) he sold them. One of my favourite moments is where he talks about a series of shorts he wrote which included the story 'Sandkings'. He was pretty dismissive about the story and didn't expect it to do that well - only to be proved wrong. The story wons loads of awards and was used for the pilot episode of the new version of The Outer Limits. Apparently it's made him more money than most of his other shorts put together.
I'd love to be proves wrong like that...