How do I get a short story/novela published?

You don't need an agent for short stories. You just need to check the market listings for your genre. IIRC, you work a lot with fantasy? I'd suggest checking Ralan's (www.ralan.com) if the story fits that genre. Most guidelines for that market are listed there.

Caveat: 40 pages is going to be a bit much for most mags. You may have better luck with ezines, but certainly start at the top of the payscale and work your way down.

So you wrote a bk. Good

Here are my 2 c's of advice:

- define the genre (Fiction/Non-Fiction in general; Horror, Erotica, for ex., as sub-genres in Fiction, and Spirituality, for ex., in Non-Fiction);
- now you can query an editor, or a publishing house, specializing in the genre, but best, IMHO, is to
- find an agent working w this genre (preferably non-fee charging agent, in my opinion; look in Assn of Authors Representatives - http://www.aar-online.org, or buy the bk "Guide to Literary Agents", by Writer's Digest, published and updated annually; best, buy last yr, or current yr issue in mid-yr time, like now for 2005 issue, if you can find it, as used (much cheaper) from Amazon, or such; not much changes, and you can always cross-check w the website above; if an agent appears in those directories, chances are excellent that they are legit and pro; the AW has a free agents newsletter; check it on AW home page;
- read carefully in the respective entry who is this agent, what is his record as he is presenting it, what this agent wants and how s/he wants it in "How to Contact" section of the respective entry (at least this is how this section was named in the "Guide to Literary Agents 2001" bk from which I quote, but you'll understand what I mean when you read the directory);
- follow the directions to the T;
- send the required material and start praying; don't bite your nails, b/c there's a very good chance that you'll be left w/o them before they reply ;
- DON'T try to ask what's going on w the material or if it has been received, a wk after you'd sent it; wait the specified period of time (which is mentioned, usually, in the "How to Contact") and inquire after a reasonable period of time, say between a wk and a mth;
- all those actions should be done professionally, I mean be polite and to the pt, use nice and good stationary (all this may be unnecessary to say, but I merely repeat what all the bks and articles about the sub will tell you), use professional formatting of the query/cover letter, proposal and mss; for this, use the Writer's Digest bk "Formatting & Submitting your Manuscript", by Cynthia Laufenberg et al, which IMHO is the bible for the subject of formatting lit correspondence and mss's;
- in the case of a rejecting reply, aka the dreaded "rejection" in the field lingo, just go on living and try some more, if you wanna be published and then, some more; that's maybe the best practical advice to be given;
- finally, there's always the alternative of self-publishing, which is an entirely diff veg soup; try to avoid the vanity publishing houses; there's a Forum for
self-publishing here; Trafford is a good on-demand (the bk is kept on an electronic device and printed and sent to the customer only when ordered and in the respective numbers, a very good feature, obviously) publishing establishment for such, for ex.

Lastly, there are countless bks and articles about the sub. Good investment, if you buy such bk/s.

Good luck,

Dan

What you wrote, Samuel , is not a shorty, but a novelette.

Under 7,500 words - short story
7,500-17,500 words - novelette
17,500-40,000 words - novella
over 40,000 words - novel

Your work has ~10k WC, so it falls in the second category, so look for publishing.

Good luck,

Dan

I crossed with WriteRead, and agree with most of what's written.

Saying "40 pages" is somewhat nebulous. While I sold our first two books using page count, what most publications will want to see is the word count. There are two ways to find out your word count, depending on what word processing program you use.

If you use MSWord, go into "File: Properties: and click the Statistics tab." That will show you the ACTUAL words in your manuscript, or the letters or the paragraphs, etc.

If you work in WordPerfect (my preference), go to "File, Properties, and click on the Information tab." Again, you'll get the ACTUAL words.

However, long, long ago before there was software, books were still written, and words were still counted. But rather than pay a person a salary for the sole job of going through every typewritten page and counting the words, they devised a method to determine ESTIMATED word count. There are still publishers that use estimated counts, so it's never a bad idea to know how much you've written by both methods. To figure out your ESTIMATED word count, you need to doublespace your manuscript, use Courier 10 font, and set your margins at one inch all the way around (without page numbers). Then count your pages again. The estimated method depends on the concept that there are APPROXIMATELY 250 words per typewritten page in Courier font. Multiply the number of FULL pages by 250 and then hand count the words on the last, partial page.

While it won't make much of a difference on your short piece, a full sized manuscript can have a 15,000 word difference using the two methods. (Long story on WHY they used, and still use, estimated word count. But I'd be happy to expand if anyone wants to be bored by the reason! )

So, let's say that you've already done one inch margins and double spaced it. You have about 10,000 words in 40 pages. I consider this still in short-story territory, rather than novelette, but different publishers have different standards. Regardless, 10,000 words is difficult to find a home for. Most magazines prefer 1,000-5,000 words (even 7,500 is hard to find a home for).

You might have better luck finding an anthology book rather than a publication. As stated above, Ralans Webstravaganza is a good place to find one in your genre (which you didn't say, BTW -- sometimes that can make a difference.) Or, as an alternative, there are several new e-zines that are starting an old concept back up: serial stories! But true serial stories aren't just chunks of a story. They're like a book series in short form. Each piece, or "chapter" has its own plot arc with a cliff-hanger ending that makes people want to come back for the next bit.

Charles Dickens wrote serial stories and they were a huge success. It might be something to consider if you think you can rework the story to suit. But you might wait to see if you get a bite first.

Oh, and no -- you don't need an agent for a short piece.

Hope that helps!

Cathy, if I may, about word count (WC): in MSW you have the Tool feature in the tools bar. Click it and you have the Word Count in the menu. You have it also as a floating toolbar, which can hang there and so it shows you the WC constantly when you click the down menu arrow, down to words, lines, characters, etc.

Dan

Cathy C said:

While it won't make much of a difference on your short piece, a full sized manuscript can have a 15,000 word difference using the two methods. (Long story on WHY they used, and still use, estimated word count. But I'd be happy to expand if anyone wants to be bored by the reason! )

Click to expand...

I'd like to know! I've always wondered about that.

An anthology is a collection of stories within a self-contained volume. Not a magazine or regularly published work, in other words. A one-time shot. You should be cautious of these -- there are a lot of people who *want* to publish an anthology, but don't have a publisher, nor intend to pay the submitters.

You'll want to get the guidelines for the anthology (that's what you use Ralan's for -- he has an anthology section). The anthology will have a reading period, and the editors will list how and where to send your manuscript. For instance, there's one listed on Ralan's right now called "Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy: Humorous tales of Sword and Sorcery." The guidelines state:

[size=+1]Guidelines[/size]
The anthology will contain twenty-five to thirty original humorous sword & sorcery short stories of up to 10,000 words.

No multiple submissions. [This means don't send more than 1 story]



No electronic submissions. [This means you can't email your submission]



Please include a SASE for reply. [They want a self-addressed, stamped envelope from you.]Submission Period: January 1, 2005 to August 1, 2005
Reading Period: August 10-30, 2005; responses will be mailed by September 5, 2005
Rights: 1st World Publication Rights in the English Language for a term of five years.
Pay: 4-6 cents per word upon acceptance of final draft, as an advance on pro rata (based on final page-count) share of 35% of net revenue.

Click to expand...

You'll want to make your submission adhere to Standard Manuscript Format. The guidelines on this one don't have a word count limit, but most will.

Sure, Solatium! But for those who bore easily, you might skip this post! LOL!

Originally, word count was determined by estimating that 10 words would make a line of type in Courier 10 font, and there were 25 lines on a sheet of paper with 1.5" margins (I looked this up to be sure, so I'll have to correct my other post about 1" margins). This estimate allowed for differences in dialogue lines vs. descriptions.

So, if you knew the author was playing by the rules, and you received a 300 page manuscript, you would know that it was 75,000 words. See, the editor had to know the word count to order the book covers. Yes, there are only a few sizes of book covers unless the publisher wants to spend the money to custom cut, and the pages have to fit inside of it tightly! When the cover is printed, the spine art (which is separate from the front and back cover art) has to bend properly and if the book is too short, the reader will notice a space where the bend should be.The printed words, plus the "white space" or margins, tag line ends, space between the header and footer, etc. are adjusted to fit the covers ordered by the editor.

This is why you'll often see pre-1970 pulp romance or mystery or horror novels that have bunches of promo pages about other books at the back. They bought the covers in bulk to save money, and the book HAD to fit that cover size. So, the promo pages are "filler" to make sure that the cover fits snugly due to a short manuscript. A single "sheet" of printer's paper will hold 16 pages of paperback sized pages. A category book is ultimately a cost venture. You don't want left-over pages on the printer's sheet, so you pick the smallest cover and want a word count that EXACTLY uses the smallest number of printer sheets.

Now, the difference in a manuscript between ACTUAL word count using MSWord or WordPerfect versus estimated word count can be phenomenal! An actual ms. of 60,000 words printed in Times New Roman font suddenly becomes 75,000 words using Courier and estimated word count! This is still an issue between older writers and newer ones, who never had to write under the old rules. Category romance (Harlequin, Zebra, etc.) STILL USE the old method, because they have much shorter novels with stock covers (meaning that they buy bulk and use the same size cover for their Blaze line, and their Bombshell line, etc.) Category books actually have a "shelf life" like milk and lunchmeat, and are removed after the expiration date, so cost is a HUGE issue to H/S (Harlequin/Silhouette).

"Single title" books are longer and publishers usually buy their covers to fit the book, rather than the book to fit the cover. But even then, a "line" will often set size standards to get the best buy for the buck and then adjust the font or margins to fit in the size they've determined.

How's that for a boring history lesson?

Oh, and thanks WriteRead for the MSWord tool. I hadn't used it before. But since I mostly use WordPerfect and then convert, it doesn't come up much.

The key word here, Cathy, is "An actual ms. of 60,000 words printed in Times New Roman font suddenly becomes 75,000 words using Courier and estimated word count!"

Wonderful and very illuminating explanation, esp what w the fillers for the prebought covers. Hmmm... Int'ing!

Dan

Word count

Just one thing. "Estimated" word count is not an estimate. If done correctly, it's teh only accurate word count there is. Far, far more accurate than what you get in MS Word.

MS Word does count words, but the word count does not tell the publisher how much paper the novel will use. "Estimated" word count tells the published exactly how much paper a novel will use, right to the exact page.

Counting words this way can save the writer some nasty surprises down the road, even if the particular editor you deal with doesn't have a clue how to count words this way, and sadly, we're getting into a generation of editor who have no real training in either editing or publishing.

When a writer sells a novel he thinks is the right length, but gets that length by MS Word count, odds are about three to one that writer will be asked to make some cuts. This is nearly always because neither the writer nor the editor knew the right way to count "words," and it isn't by using MS Word.

I don't know anything about word count but in other threads on this forum, I believe the courier font mentioned is 12. The rest is the same (double spaced - 1 inch all around).

Click to expand...

Oops, this issue comes up a lot, and I should have clarified. "Courier 10" is the NAME of the font, like "Times New Roman". Courier 10 is available in point sizes from 6 to 32. That's the name in WordPerfect. In MSWord, it's called "Courier New". Sometimes I forget to explain that because I don't use Word. Sorry.

Courier

Cathy C said:

Oops, this issue comes up a lot, and I should have clarified. "Courier 10" is the NAME of the font, like "Times New Roman". Courier 10 is available in point sizes from 6 to 32. That's the name in WordPerfect. In MSWord, it's called "Courier New". Sometimes I forget to explain that because I don't use Word. Sorry.

Click to expand...

Depending on teh project, I use either MS Word 2003 or WordPerfect 12, and I have Dark Courier installed in both. I use Dark Courier because it prints much better than Courier New, and anything that eases the strain on an editor's eyes is good.

I think many confuse pitch and point. The proper font is one of the Courier family, Courier, Courier New, Dark Courier, Courier10BT, etc. The right size is either 10 pitch or 12 point, which are both the same size, but measured in different ways. Word processor fonts are point, not pitch, so 12 should be used.

When it's said to use Courier 10, this means 10 pitch, so when you fire up the word processor, you click on Courier 12 because in a word processor, Courier 12 is Courier 10 pitch.

James, psl clarify to me why the estimate is the correct word count, even more than that of MSW. And why the MSW isn't accurate. I didn't understand.

Thank you,

Dan

WriteRead said:

James, psl clarify to me why the estimate is the correct word count, even more than that of MSW. And why the MSW isn't accurate. I didn't understand.

Thank you,

Dan

Click to expand...

Because when done right, the estimate isn't and estimate, but an actual space count. MS Word count ONLY words, and words do not all come in the same length. "Enclyclopedia" takes far more paper to print than does "an."


To a publisher, not necessarily an editor, but to a publisher, any combination of six letters or spaces is a word. This is called "printer's rule." Therefore, a sixty space line of Courier 12 has exactly ten words. Twenty-five such lines on a page is exactly 250 words, even though your word processor may tell you it's 320 or 150.

Books are printed on paper, and it's paper that publishers care about, not ink. Actual word count simply can't tell the publisher how much paper that nopvel will take to publish. Since paper is far and away the most expensive part of publishing, this matters greatly.

Even a half page or less of writing at the end of a chapter is still 250 words because that half page still takes a full page of paper when the book is published.

A page that's all short dialogue that your word processor tells you may be under 100 words is still 250 owrds because it takes a whole sheet of paper to publish.

A line with only two words of dialogue is still ten words because that line still takes a full line of paper to publish.

Courier 12, with a siixty space line IS an actual word count as publishers count words. Actually, since the right margin isn't justified, yu need a 63 space line because some words will cut off and wrap to the next line before others, but it still average to sixty spaces per line.

You can estimate by counting actual words on a page and then ,ultip[ly, but this is an estimate, and never has been the correct way to go about it. This was always done by those who have no clue what "printer's rule" is, and how publishers actually count words.

You can, or couse, make teh same computation with most fonts, it just takes more work. Courier 12 is purposely sized to make this count automatic. With most word processor, if you use Courier 12, one inch margins, and twenty-five lines per page, you can then count every page, every page, as having 250 words, and you'll never ever be caught off guard by having an editor ask for unexpected cuts.

Okay, then I understand that it boils down to the paper size, like 8x11 ("), for ex. that counts, for obvious reasons, or I'm mistaken, here? What's the norm? For there will be a diff no of words in every paper size.

If so, then when I'm asked what is my word count, I should put, really, the mss in Courier 12 font, being the norm, in the standard specified paper size (letter, legal, etc., the norm, again), and then multiply the no of pages by 250. This, totally ignoring the MSW count.

Am I right?

Now, if so, what do I do w my bk in writing to which I assigned a personally customized paper dimensions and a font of my choice? The WC of this work is to be discarded and counted by the above stated measure rule?

Dan

Samuel Dark said:

I have one of these, its called Flight: Extreme Vision of Fantasy. Its pretty good. How would I get on one of these? Just ask? Send it in to the editor? Or...what?

Click to expand...

i got the same book,good stories in it =)

Count

WriteRead said:

Okay, then I understand that it boils down to the paper size, like 8x11 ("), for ex. that counts, for obvious reasons, or I'm mistaken, here? What's the norm? For there will be a diff no of words in every paper size.

If so, then when I'm asked what is my word count, I should put, really, the mss in Courier 12 font, being the norm, in the standard specified paper size (letter, legal, etc., the norm, again), and then multiply the no of pages by 250. This, totally ignoring the MSW count.

Am I right?

Now, if so, what do I do w my bk in writing to which I assigned a personally customized paper dimensions and a font of my choice? The WC of this work is to be discarded and counted by the above stated measure rule?

Dan

Click to expand...

You're correct about the count, but I don't know what you mean by assigning customized paper and font. You don't get to do this with commercial publishers.

If you self-publish, you can count words any way you wish, tell the printer to use any kind of paper you wish, and choose your own font. You're paying for it, so you get to pick and choose.

But when you're writing for a commercial publisher, they pick paper size, they pick the font, they choose the cover, and everything else. None of this is the writer's business. All the writer does is write a good story, and submit it ALWAYS, on 8.5x11 paper, double-spaced, etc.

You never, ever get to tell the publisher what size paper should be used to publish the book, or what kind of font should be used, or anything else.

Thanks, James!

Yes, I'm fully aware of the helpless position of the writer vs publisher. Including the title.

Dan

Publisher

WriteRead said:

Thanks, James!

Yes, I'm fully aware of the helpless position of the writer vs publisher. Including the title.

Dan

Click to expand...

Welll, you have to look at it this way. It isn't really that the writer is helpless, but that each person does the job he's best at. Publishers hire top people to do marketing, research, cover art, tiltes, etc. The writer is the best at writing, and these other experts are best at what they do.

It's all about getting a published novel that stands the best chance of selling. Publishers spend millions researchng what the reading public wants and how they want it, what they will buy and what they won't.

They don't always get it right, but they come closer than writers would. I like having all those people on my side.

B/c of this expertise and professionalism of each party in the pubbing process, I maintain that Market and Marketing should be the realm of the agent and the publisher/editor, respectively.

I would definitely welcome an open and polite debate on this issue, here, in which all sides of the industry will take part- the writer and the publisher thru the editor and the agent as the go-between.

To reiterate, I say that the agent is the best to say about the market, and the ditor, the best about marketing.
The writer should define the genre, and the agent knows instantly what and where and how. Many writers don't know their left from right in the beginning, at least, and why should they?

As about marketing, I, as the writer, am fully prepared to commit myself to whatever the ditor thinks is suitable to do, in the frame of my abilities, but not to propose campaigns, or whatever.

As you aptly say: let everyone do what he knows best.

Dan