Help - why isn't my fiction selling?

Competition is some kind of fierce for almost all paying markets. Anything that pays worthwhile usually has a 1 or 2 % acceptance rate. Those are very tough odds. Getting published means finding the right niche, which is a lot easier said than done. Good luck from a rarely published writer.

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Lots of people write and submit hundreds of stories before they ever sell one. Henri is right. The competition can be crazy. And the more well known a magazine, the greater the competition is.

One way to narrow down your chances is to make sure you check all the guidelines of the magazines that you are thinking of submitting to. Magazines have submission guidlines on their webpages. They also often ask for certain types of fiction. And then read the magazines to make sure that you have written something they have a tendency to print. Otherwise. you're just wasting your time and the editors' time, frankly. Do research on the particular magazines.

However, even with researching and reading the magazines, you are still looking at a standard 98% - 99% rejection rate for most decent magazines. Even good stories get rejected, sometimes simply for subjective reasons.

padnar said:

I am Padma Narayanaswamy an indian writer. Actually I want to make a dent in the market so I wrote a short story titled
At Last she forgives . The characters are western names and it is located in USA and than it was critiqued in CC. However I cannot still sell it why I cannot fathom.
I also wrote a story about India and Indians and even this was critiqued by CC. Even this is not accepted why is that ? I am at a loss .. I have shared the work in this forum . But nothing helps pl anybody can give me suggestions.
padma

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What is CC?

padnar said:

Well cc is criitique circle and i post stories there for critique .
Being Indian writer I know my limitations and so
i post my story there . I also have posted it here and after doing my editing based on those correctionsi send my story and I have received rejections.
Padma

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Just remember that most journals would consider that story published if it is posted online for all to see. Others might have more information on this but some publications would not take it if it is posted online already. Anyone else know about this?

Keep writing. Keep submitting. Everywhere. Just like the rest of us. I get the feeling you think that this is supposed to be easy. It's not. And if anyone suggested to you that it would be, they were sadly mistaken. If this is the only story you have--and you've exhausted places to send it--put it aside for awhile and write something else.

Billy: As far as posting online, that's why the share your work section here is password protected. So it's not considered published. I can't speak for CC.

I know some publishers give responses along with their rejections. Has anyone given you a reason for why your story was rejected?

It seems like now would be a good time to try to break in with some crossover Indian-Western fiction. I am currently reading Q&A (now republished as Slumdog Millionaire) and loving it! My tween to teen cousins (German-Irish-French decent all of us) love Bollywood movies and music. I wonder if there are any publications/lit journals/online sites for folks who love all things South Asia? It seems probable, given the recent fascination in the West with those cultures!

My very quick google-fu pulled up:

Shakti (literary mag exploring South Asian themes)

and

Sasialit: Literature of South Asia and the Indian Diaspora

Anyone know any others?

And certainly I wouldn't limit myself to India-themed pubs if you feel your story has wide appeal. I just read a fantastic African-themed story in the lit mag Witness. They are another one that seems to favor an intercultural perspective. They are a very competitive market, though.

billyf027 said:

Just remember that most journals would consider that story published if it is posted online for all to see. Others might have more information on this but some publications would not take it if it is posted online already. Anyone else know about this?

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Posting WIP material for peer critique in a private passworded forum on a writers' message board isn't the same as posting it on a public website for all to read.

-Derek

Sometimes you have to do careful market research before you can make a sale. I try to read the magazines I submit to--even if it means making purchases. Also, if you can't sell a particular story, you might want to try taking a look at the things that might be keeping it from selling, and adjust it or write a different one. There's really no magic formula for getting a story sold to a paying market. You have to have a great story targeted to the right magazine. Don't give up!

Robert E. Keller
http://www.scrollsofatlantis.com

Write in your native language. Judging by your posts, I'd say English is not your mother tongue. Am I wrong?

Post the story on our SYW board. You'll get much better advice.

padnar said:

Indians are in a peculiar situation though English is not my mother tongue I can say literally I eat drink and sleep English. In the sense right from my KG I studied in English. My mother tongue is Tamil and I have only speaking knowledge. I had my early education in Mumbai , so I was not able to read Tamil. Sadly to say my Tamil is atrocious.
I cant make out how yu people are saying that I am not a native writer. probably it will be helpful than for me to be as proficient in English as a native writer. I am a voracious reader of books and I read classicals like Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre etc But still I am at a loss.
padma

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...case in point. I rest my case.

padnar said:

Indians are in a peculiar situation though English is not my mother tongue I can say literally I eat drink and sleep English. In the sense right from my KG I studied in English. My mother tongue is Tamil and I have only speaking knowledge. I had my early education in Mumbai , so I was not able to read Tamil. Sadly to say my Tamil is atrocious.
I cant make out how yu people are saying that I am not a native writer. probably it will be helpful than for me to be as proficient in English as a native writer. I am a voracious reader of books and I read classicals like Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre etc But still I am at a loss.
padma

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Padma, no one is trying to offend, I just want to make sure you don't think we are There's a difference between speaking English all your life and speaking English "like a native". You can clearly communicate in English well, we understand exactly what you're saying but your English is a little "broken".

Just like people have accents when they talk, they can also have accents when they write. It's normal, you learned English from people who spoke it the Indian way so you speak English like an Indian. This is not a bad thing, it's part of your cultural identity and many Indian writers have put it to good use in giving their writing a "local flavour" you might say.

The difference in this case is that those writers have a perfect knowledge of English grammar and know how to make their text flow and be musical while keeping those little quirks of language that are entirely Indian.

Rather than try and hide the Indian origin of your writing, I'd be tempted to make it a feature. As others have said, with the success of Slumdog Millionaire, Mumbai is actually a pretty good setting for a story.

People LIKE exotic and unusual locations in their fiction ... a love story set in an Indian boarding school would catch more interest than one in America suburbia.

In fact, the short story magazines I read tend to be sci-fi, so they are almost NEVER set in boring suburbia. There has even been a recent series set in Mumbai. (It was about people who live in the slums, but work tele-operating equipment in rich people's homes in the USA .. such as 'automatic' vacuum cleaners, etc)

And also .. you wrote ONE story to try and break into the short story market? Just one?

Good luck!

Mac

padnar said:

I am Padma Narayanaswamy an indian writer. Actually I want to make a dent in the market so I wrote a short story titled
At Last she forgives . The characters are western names and it is located in USA and than it was critiqued in CC. However I cannot still sell it why I cannot fathom.
I also wrote a story about India and Indians and even this was critiqued by CC. Even this is not accepted why is that ? I am at a loss .. I have shared the work in this forum . But nothing helps pl anybody can give me suggestions.
padma

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Hi Padma. I've seen posts like this from you over on CC as well, and I sympathize. You seem to be searching for a magic sentence that will make it all clear, but there isn't one. I've read your stories, and I'm sorry to say that they aren't publishable yet. Maybe if you work on them long enough, they will be some day.

The fact that you don't speak English is plain to see in your narrative. That means that the reader hears a voice on the page they don't recognize. It sounds foreign. It doesn't flow in their mind, so the words that make up a sentence that they expect to hear following what you just told them, isn't what they get from you.

About a year ago, you posted something like this on CC, and I responded. The first thing I pointed out was that, when you are introducing yourself in English, it's common to say "My name is Padma Narayanaswamy" yet you still introduce yourself by saying "I am ...". Here, when someone starts a sentence "I am" they are typically going to follow with either a state "I am hungry" or plans "I am going to the store". Your reader gets something unexpected. That makes the reader stop and wonder why the sentenced was phrased like that. The more a reader stops mid-sentence, the more frustrated the reader will become.

Whatever point you are trying to make in your story is obscured by the fact that the reader has to fight through the words. Now, add to that the fact that, while you may have a good point to make, there are a hundred other aspiring authors out there who have a good point to make as well, and you are competing against them. But they state their point in an elloquent way that's pleasing to the reader's mind. And 99% of them don't get published. Many of them are here on AW, wondering the same thing you are, Why am I not published?

Sticking your work on CC or any other critique site isn't going to polish it to a publishable state. It has to come from you, already pollished. Sites like CC can only do so much. They can teach you grammar and syntax, but style has to come from you.

You want advice? Read twenty English novels. The more you read, the more the flow of published author's words will be reflected in your own. I'm sorry, but it's a long road, and I wish you the best.

Take care.
Fred

Hi Padma

Fred has a good point. It does sound as if English is not your native tongue and that might be a prob at the moment as I know that people's spoken English can be great and their written English not quite on the mark.

As for your subject matter - I really believe you should follow your heart and write about the people, places and situations that resonate with you, rather than worrying about what will sell. If your reader doesn't want to read about Indian people because they're a different culture - well, to be honest that's not a reader I'd care to retain. Of course I write a lot about my native culture, sometimes very acidly, so that is my experience.

I wish you the best of luck!

Susan

I'd suggest that you read modern novels as opposed to classics, otherwise you end up with an overly precise sound to the words. You need to alter the cadence of your written "voice", and pay attention to things like "yu" when you mean "you", dropping that interior "o" is a mistake you make consistently.

You learned "proper" English from someone who was most likely not a native speaker, and in India they teach British English as opposed to American English. I know it seems odd to think that there's more than one kind, but there is. The differences are subtle, but they're there.

Even in popular books like Harry Potter, some of the words had to be altered for an American child to understand easier. The article of clothing called a "jumper" in British English is "sweater" in American English. In America, a jumper is something very small children wear to play in - like overalls.

The point you made about being in an odd place with the language you were taught in school was actually the subject of much discussion not long ago on LiveJournal - specifically the instances of Indian students being assigned creative writing assignments where the bulk of the class chose European names and settings as opposed to those from their everyday lives. It seemed natural to the writers, but it didn't read natural to those who read the pieces.

It might even help if you can find American movies and watch them (make sure the voices are those of the original actors, not dubbed) to hear the way Americans speak. If you can mimic the rhythm of their voices, your writing will have a more natural flow.

And consider what others said about changing your settings. Most Americans write about America and American things; it's much less common to find an outside view of things. In that case, you can keep the natural cadence of your voice because the accent will fit the piece.

My suggestion would be to write more stories. Most magazines won't allow you to send a story somewhere else while they're still considering it, but that doesn't mean you can't have two different stories out with two different people.

To date, I still have not sold my personal favorite story. The first story I sold was, in my opinion, one of my weakest. If someone would've told me that would be my first published piece, I would've laughed at them. However, I happened to hit the right magazine at the right time. Getting published really is a combination of luck and skill. To help the odds work in your favor, write as much as you can and send it to as many places as you can.

Keep writing. And I would suggest - work on YOUR voice, not mimicking US (Americans). I hear Americans all the time. I'm interested in YOUR viewpoint. Write from your view, not mine.