From Screen (or Typewriter) to Page

Essentials of Breaking Into the Fiction Markets

By Mary Rosenblum

 

 

 

            You work on that story or that novel. You write the first draft, revise, hand it to readers, listen to their comments and revise again.  You’re done, finished.           

            Now what? 

            This is the point at which a lot of aspiring writers stall.  They finish that story or that novel and then… Well, what then?  The market  seems like an impenetrable wall at times, too steep to climb, to opaque to see through.  But it’s not impenetrable, nor is it a wall.  If you understand the steps of professional submissions, you’ll find it a lot easier to navigate your way through the markets successfully.

 

To Market to Market

            The first stumbling block is, of course, where do you send it?  First decide what you have.  Is it fiction or a personal narrative that can be classed as Nonfiction?  If so, what is the general theme?  Is it a piece about killing your first deer?  Living with your mother when she has to move in with you, training your rambunctious puppy?  Decide who would enjoy your narrative – deer hunters?  Middle aged women dealing with aging parents?  Dog owners?  Now find magazines these people would read:  Field and Stream,  Mature Living, Dog & Kennel. 

            If you’re writing fiction, what kind?  Horror?  Fantasy?  Science Fiction?  Romance?  Mystery?  Market lists will categorize their listings, and you’ll find these subdivisions of fiction.  If you’re writing mainstream fiction that doesn’t really fit a particular genre, read the market lists that ask for fiction in general, and see which description seems to fit your story. 

            Now, repeat the above steps until you have a list of three to five potential markets.  Five is better.  Why  do this?  It is not very likely that you will sell your piece to the first market you try.  You might, but as a new writer with no sales value – yet – to your name, your story or narrative will have to connect with an editor.  He or she will love it, and will decide to publish it even though you will only sell one issue of the magazine  -- and that is to your mother.  You now have a start on building that name.  But because you have to find the editor who loves this, rather than simply thinks it’s a nice piece, you’re going to have to send it out again and again, most likely. 

            Rank those markets from the top paying market to the ‘freebies’ who only pay in copies.  Start at the top.  Why in the world would you want to give away something that someone  might have paid you for?  Of course start at the top. When you receive a ‘no thanks’ from that first editor, paperclip a new SASE to a new copy, slip it into an envelope, address it, stamp it, and head for the mail box.  Yes, right now.  That’s the best way to combat the rejection slip blues.

 

Log It In

            Right now, start a submission log.  Create a file on your computer or buy a paper notebook.  Record the date you send a manuscript out, the publisher you sent it to, the cost of postage.  Leave a space for a return date and notes.  When you hear back, record that date and what you got – acceptance (Yay!), form rejection, scribbled note from the editor.  Next time you send a manuscript to that editor, you’ll know that you don’t need to start watching the mail box for six weeks, and last time it was a form rejection.  If you get a note this time…wow, you’re getting closer!  If twelve weeks go by, hmmm, maybe it’s time for a polite query note:  Did you get my submission?  Should I resend?

            One marvelous reason to keep that log religiously, is that it will become a snapshot of your career growth.  At first you’ll have a list of rejections, then a sale here and there, then more and more sales.  Looking back years later, you’ll be able to trace your writing career from day one. 

            It is also a way to keep track of where you have sent a particular story or narrative.  You’ll find that it is very embarrassing to get a note from an editor reminding you that you sent him this story nine months ago and he doesn’t like it any better this time around.  Oops.   But you have already made a list of those five markets you’re going to send this story to, anyway.  Check those markets off as you send the story out. 

            If you decide to file your taxes as a professional writer at some point, your log offers testimony to your professional approach to the business of writing, and allows you to document the money you have spent on submissions. 

           

Format: Sunday Best

            You’ve decided where to send your story or narrative.    Now it’s time to check your format. You want to dress your submission in its Sunday best.   While it’s true, that a dynamite story should stand out and catch the editor’s attention, even if written on wrapping paper with crayon, let’s consider the realities here.  Large circulation magazines get about 1000 submissions a month.  That editor has to at least start reading those manuscripts.  Editors are human.  If they are trying to get those ten or twenty manuscripts read before lunch and yours is in a hard to read font, is single spaced, and has tiny little margins…well, clearly you didn’t bother to read the writers guidelines so clearly posted on the magazine website, in the market lists, and available for the price of an envelope or stamp.  Bet you didn’t bother to learn to write, either, Mr. Editor thinks.  He already has a headache from reading.  Reject. 

            Those guidelines are available, always.  If nothing else, send a business sized envelope addressed to yourself and stamped to the editorial offices of the publisher and ask for the writers guidelines.  Often, you’ll get more specific in formation that way than you’ll find either on the website or the published market lists.  But do find the guidelines before you submit your work, and read them.  Send in the manuscript in the form they ask for it. Sure, when you’re as famous as Stephen King, you can send in your story pretty much any way you want to format it.  But you’re not that famous yet.  J Make it easy on the editor with eyestrain. 

            You’ll find an article on basic, all purpose, manuscript formatting on the LR website: Submission 101

 

To Return or Not To Return

            It used to be common practice to include an envelope with sufficient postage for the return of your manuscript, whether it was a novel or a short story.  That was back in the typewriter days, when that manuscript represented hours of typing, and copying technology was primitive.  Now, when laser or inkjet printers spew out 400 pages in a matter of minutes, return postage often costs more than the cost of printing a new copy.  It is now totally acceptable to tell the editor in your cover letter that the manuscript is disposable and include only a business sized SASE for the acceptance letter or rejection slip.  If you plan to do that, be sure to write ‘Disposable Copy’ on the first page of your manuscript.  Editors are very careful with submissions and live in fear of destroying an ‘only copy’. 

            Do include some form of SASE, either that business size for a disposable copy, or a larger mailer with postage for return of the entire manuscript.  Publisher’s mail rooms are taught to ‘round file’ any submissions that lack return postage of some sort.  They will do this.  Publishers cannot afford return postage for the flood of submissions that arrive in the mail room weekly. 

 

Cyber Submissions

            Now, or course, many new Ezines have cropped up and even some print magazines accept electronic submissions.  All publishers now want electronic copy of your story at some point, anyway.  If you are submitting online, be very careful to read the submission guidelines carefully.  Some want attached files, others want the entire piece in the body of the email.  Some will ask for a particular format, such as Rich Text or an  ASCII (Text) file.  Follow their instructions to the letter.  It is easy to delete an inappropriate submission. 

            Since it is very difficult to be certain that your email actually arrived in this day of spam filters and virus checkers, it is appropriate to ask, in your email, if the publisher would please reply to your email so that you know it arrived.  Some will do so, others will not.  It is fine to ask. 

 

Where’s My Story?

            We’re all anxious for an answer when we first send out stories.  You wait by the mailbox…gee, the editor has had it two weeks!  Nearly all market listings will include an estimated response time. That may be a few weeks or three months or more.  That’s a guideline, but real life happens to editors, too.  Generally, wait at least fifty-percent more than the estimated response time before querying about your seemingly lost manuscript.  Then query politely.  A furious demand for instant action will probably get you an instant rejection slip.  But a polite, Did you get my submission?  Would you like me to resend it?  Is going to tweak the buried-in-slush editor with a twinge of guilt and make her a bit more likely to read your submission with favor once she digs it out from the pile.  You didn’t snarl at her.  You’re nice.  Hmm…this really is pretty good…

            Realize, too, that when editors decide to accept a novice writer’s manuscript, they will often hold it for some time, waiting for a strong issue to open up, where they can include a new writer’s piece without sacrificing strength in that issue.  So a longer than normal response time where an editor whose response time has been very consistent may signal a ‘yes’ this time.

 

What Now?

            You’ve run through your five markets, you can’t come up with another place to send this story or narrative…what do you do now? 

            Don’t throw it away!  It’s easy for novice writers to think of stories as about as perishable as fish.  Didn’t sell it?  Quick, throw it away before it stinks up the house!  But stories and narratives get rejected for many reasons.  It may be perfectly saleable, but nobody wants this story on this topic right now.  Put it away.  Create an Inventory file.  You’ve tried your best and these stories didn’t sell.  But writing is forever and you’re going to be around for a long time, right? Three, five, nine years from now, an anthology may open up.  Gee, they want ghost-dog stories.  Oh, gosh, didn’t I write one like that five years ago?   They do, you did, you pull up that old story, maybe revise it some because of course you’re a much stronger writer now…and you sell it. 

            Your writing is not a fish to eat or garbage-can now.  It is more  like gold. If you don’t use it now, put it away in a safe place.  You may need it later.  There’s nothing more satisfying than collecting a check for something you wrote some time ago and merely had to send off to the editor. 

 

The Bottom Line

          Nobody sells everything they write.  As a novice writer, learning your craft and struggling to break into the markets, you won’t sell everything you write.  Later on, you’ll sell more often than you get rejected, if you keep at this.  But right now, the important thing is to write what moves you, find markets for it, and keep it circulating until you have exhausted those markets.  Meanwhile, you’re writing new stories or narratives and sending them out. 

            This applies whether you’re writing in short or novel form.  The quickest way to end your career as a writer is to write one piece and then stop while you send it out to various editors, refusing to write anything else until this one has published.  The minute that novel or short story or personal narrative has hit the mail box, start the next piece.  Keep moving. You’re getting better with every piece you write.  If they don’t buy that one, they might love this one. 

            Don’t try to analyze trends and decide ‘what editors are really looking for’. By the time your story gets out there, this trend will be over.  And editors don’t know what they’re looking for next – they’re looking a great story and that will start the next trend.  Why shouldn’t you start it?

            The more you write, the more likely you are to sell. 

            The more your work is out there, circulating across editorial desks, the more likely you are to sell.

            So get busy.  What are you waiting for? 

 

            And no, since you ask.  I did not sell my first novel. Or my first short story.  J  But I’ve sold plenty since then.

 

Mary Rosenblum’s fourth SF novel, Horizons, will be released by Tor Books in November 2006.  She has published four mysteries as Mary Freeman, and more than 60 short stories in large-circulation magazines and anthologies.  She also has a host of unsold stories and three novels in inventory.