Hi guys,
I'm compiling a short story collection for my M.A. thesis, and I'm wondering if I have any hopes of selling this? I'm not interested in self-publishing. Five of the stories have been published or are slated for publication, two in national magazines, and I'm sending out others...but I don't know how much that will even help. I've heard that short story collections are difficult to sell, but a number of my favorite authors--Junot Diaz and Lorrie Moore most notably--started their careers with short story collections, so I know it's not impossible. I write literary fiction. Many of the stories feature the same cast of characters, and the others are thematically and tonally similar. So far, I have about 130 pages that I feel good about, and I'm aiming to get the collection to around 220 pages, since that seems standard for length.
Thanks for reading! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.
I'm compiling a short story collection for my M.A. thesis, and I'm wondering if I have any hopes of selling this? I'm not interested in self-publishing. Five of the stories have been published or are slated for publication, two in national magazines, and I'm sending out others...but I don't know how much that will even help. I've heard that short story collections are difficult to sell, but a number of my favorite authors--Junot Diaz and Lorrie Moore most notably--started their careers with short story collections, so I know it's not impossible. I write literary fiction. Many of the stories feature the same cast of characters, and the others are thematically and tonally similar. So far, I have about 130 pages that I feel good about, and I'm aiming to get the collection to around 220 pages, since that seems standard for length.
Thanks for reading! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.