Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard
Our listeners sent us some questions about writing shorter fiction. Here are the questions:
- How do you market short stories today?
- Has ebook self-publishing made novellas more viable?
- How do you structure a short story?
- How short is too short?
- Is publishing sections of a novel a viable way to get traction for that novel?
- What should I look for in the semi-pro market if professional publications have rejected my work?
- What aspects are crucial in novels, but which don’t belong in short fiction.
Publication “reputation” references: Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write, Writer Beware
Credits: this episode was recorded in Cosmere House Studios by Dan Dan the Audioman Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:01 — 13.8MB)
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Go buy a short story collection that has a variety of authors in it, and read it.
“Mind over Matter” by Howard Tayler (from Called to Battle, Volume 2 from Privateer Press.)
Learn how to sell yourself short.
They mentioned reading one of the Gardener Dozois/ GRRM anthologies on the show and it just so happens they have a new one that comes out on October 10th called The Book of Swords. Their anthologies are definitely worth checking out. I got the first couple to just read stories by Pat Rothfuss or Brandon or Scott Lynch and ended up reading the whole thing every time and I found some cool new writers like Sam Sykes (Buy his book).
http://www.powells.com/book/book-of-swords-9780399593765/62-0
And the Utah Quadruplets, Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard, answer your questions about short(er) fiction! Why bite-sized novellas are good for marketing, pacing in tight places, how short is too short, using serialized publishing for extra traction, and how do you find a great semi pro market? Along with fizzling your bang, and ballooning subplots, characters, and locations! It’s all here in the transcript available in the archives or over here
https://wetranscripts.dreamwidth.org/134412.html
So while you’re waiting for the next episode, write something else!
Maybe worth mentioning is the submission grinder. It’s a free website that helps you manage your short story submissions and has a huge list of markets. http://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/
Takes very little time to find a new market to which you can submit your story. It also has statistics that help you know how long of a wait to expect before you hear back on your story.
What did you guys mean by “page 80?” Could you explain that a bit more?