Am I shooting myself in the foot? query: publishing credits

skray said:

Hey,

I apologize if this is in the wrong place. If so, please oblierate it immediately with your ultra cool mod laser beams.

I'm working on my query for a UF novel. Two years ago I got a short published in a collection, which i was thrilled about. However, the press is virtually nonexistant. One of my professors put the thing together as a hobby press. He prints stuff all the time, but I don't think he makes it available to the public outside the university. I can't find even a trace of it on the internet.

So, by mentioning this thing in the bio section of the query, am I shooting myself in the foot? Will agents assume I'm a sucker and got scammed? Or that I'm a self-publisher and I'm trying to pass it off as a legitimate publishing credit?

I also have some poetry published with a university press, but does that matter in a query for a novel?

Just curious.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

First, welcome to AW.

Second, generally, questions like this are best posted in Query Letter hell in Share Your Work forum (password "Vista"), in Novels, or in the water cooler, I think. When in doubt, read the sticky threads for a forum to see what directions are given.

But to answer the question, in my opinion, if it was just a hobby-product, and not available to the public, it's probably not worth mentioning. The rule of thumb seems to be mention only professional publications or non-professional publications of distinction. So, I wouldn't mention the anthology if it were me. With the poetry, if it was published in a competetive anthology/magazine/etc., can't hurt, but, again, how prestigious was it? Generally, anything at college level is not going to be a credit worth mentioning unless it carries prestige.

With anything less, it's better just to leave it off. Any many writers get agents without prior publishing credits, so they are only worth mentioning if professional or truly competetive/prestigious, in my opninion.
~suki

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2008/03/how-and-whether-to-list-your-publishing.html

I suppose this blog link could be useful.

If it were a press run through the university then that would have been quite prestigious, even if it was part of a course they were running.

However, if it was just a professor who did this in his spare time and not affilitated with the University then I would leave it out.

Am I shooting myself in the foot? query: publishing credits

Probably not. But it probably doesn't help, either. Most slush readers will probably skip right over publishing credits they don't recognize, may pause over ones they do, but what will concern them is the story in hand.