Magazines and Collections

Depending on what markets you send it to, it could work for or against you. On one hand, it might be a benefit when marketing the book: "Stories that have appeared in Really Cool Magazine and Super Awesome Quarterly!" On the other hand, your rights might be tied up if it takes months to over a year for the story to actually come out, then the waiting period before you can reprint it.

Nicole

NicoleMD said:

Depending on what markets you send it to, it could work for or against you. On one hand, it might be a benefit when marketing the book: "Stories that have appeared in Really Cool Magazine and Super Awesome Quarterly!" On the other hand, your rights might be tied up if it takes months to over a year for the story to actually come out, then the waiting period before you can reprint it.

Nicole

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Very true. On the other hand unless you've had quite a bit of success publishing shorts, and perhaps novels too, it's rather hard to interest publishers in a short story collection. At least it is here, on top of the world. I don't know what it's like down under.

bsolah said:

I do know a couple of small press publishers in Melbourne that are willing to publish collections from unknowns.

But I've also been considering *gasp* self-publishing.

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Nothing wrong with self-pubbing either, as long as you go into it with your eyes wide open. But here's the thing. You've got time on your side. You're still plenty young enough to sub the stories out to a whole bunch of markets and see what happens. If nothing, try the publishers. If that doesn't work, go the self-pub route. But don't stop writing new ones in the meantime.

bsolah said:

I am trying to hold back my impatience.

I mean, I'd like this collection out as soon as possible, but reality says, it won't be finished for a while so want to do something with those stories I finish early without ruling them out of the collection.

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If you can put off the collection for a bit, you can finish more stories, submit them and see what happens. You can always do the collection bit later whether they're pubbed first or not. Typical first rights last a year, so it's not like you'd have to wait that long.

Depends on the specific market, usually somewhere between zero months and a year. But they almost always state it specifically in the submission guidelines.

Nicole

NicoleMD said:

Depends on the specific market...

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And the contract...

Most collections - by big names or relative unknowns have most if not all of their stories published prior to the collection being published together - so that speaks to how flexible most markets are - though you should check each one out carefully before you submit - for the most part I think you should be okay.

For example, Miranda July's No One Belongs Here More Than You had stories published in Zoetrope, Fence, Bridge, Harvard Review, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Tin House - all major markets.

Good luck! There can never be too many short fiction collections!

Well known authors might shift a few copies of their latest anthology, but unknowns have no chance...there just isn't any demand for collections of short stories by unknown writers.

The most succesful shorts are the "classics" that have been reprinted and collected many times over. There is no point any budding writer guarding copyright and publishing rights on a few shorts, imagining they will make their fortune. A published short isn't worth the money it brings (often zero); the real prize is exposure and hopefully prestige, then the possibility that it sticks around in reader's/editor's minds. So if you have good shorts, get them out there, get them published. It won't weaken the chances of a collection, it will amplify them massively.

Normally a magazine will just take First Serial Rights for whatever country they are in. If so, then you are free to sell First Serial Rights for other countries to other magazines, or First Anthology Rights for the story to appear in an anthology.

Larger/more prestigious markets may take First English-language Rights (which leaves you free to sell the story in translation) or even First World Rights, but you'd expect them to pay you for publication if they want to have those rights. They may also have an option to reprint your story in an anthology. (F & SF specified that with the two stories I sold to them, though it was an option they didn't take up.)

Your own collection would have First Volume Rights, e.g. the rights to the whole collection, to be published as a book. (First Electronic Rights I'd assume would be the case for an e-book.) My own collection (all but one story previously sold) came out in 2003 and is now out of print, but if I wanted to resell it somewhere else First (British) Volume Rights had been bought by the original publisher.

If a market is going to put restrictions on reprints, then this should be specified in a contract which you will have to sign. For example, my contracts for the two stories I sold to Interzone in the 1990s ask for a year after their publication for any reprints unless a) the story is being expanded into a novel, b) the story is appearing in the author's own collection or c) the story is being reprinted in a Year's Best Anthology. If any of those apply, you had to request permission from Interzone, but the contract said that they would not unreasonably deny your request.

There are opportunities to sell collections to small presses in the UK in the SF/fantasy/horror genres, though in most cases it helps to build up a reputation with story sales first. As for major publishers - unless your name is Stephen King or Neil Gaiman, forget it.

*puts on picky terminology hat*

bsolah said:

So first rights do have a time limit?

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No. Once you sell first rights, they are gone. What some publishers require, however, is a period of exclusivity. How long depends on the contract.

bsolah said:

I've sent one of the stories out. This market leaves copyright with the author, but other markets I'm going to submit to retain rights for six months and then I can do what I like with it.

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Unless you're doing work-for-hire, you always retain the copyright. When you sell to a market, you've licensed them to publish under certain specific rights, such as First English Print Rights, First World Electronic Rights, etc.

And when you do publish the collection, you then have a copyright for the collection as a whole.

I'm being picky, because some unscrupulous publishers like to claim that signing over the copyright is the usual thing, when in fact, no publisher does. (Except with work-for-hire, and that's a special situation.)