Short Story Collections

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djunamod

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Hi Everyone,
I was wondering what people know about publishing short story collections (this would be literary or contemporary stories). I've heard a lot of things about this, like how only writers who have had short stories published in mags and such can get a collection published or if a famous writer wants to publish his/her stories. On the other hand, I've seen several writers and have met one or two while in grad school whose first book published was a collection of short stories. It almost seems like in the 1950's and 1960's there were writers who made their reputation publishing short story collections (Alice Monroe, Grace Paley, etc.) but I keep hearing that the short story, outside of the small literary mags, are passe (which I'm not sure I believe - I just saw a guy yesterday in a cafe I was at reading "The Best American Short Stories" and he didn't look like he was forced to do it for a college class or something :D).

Any thoughts on this?

Djuna
 

shinta

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I know that agents do not typically like to take on short story collections without the promise of a novel at the end of the deal. Short stories may not be passe but mainstream publishing world certainly frowns upon it without the backing of a sound literary magazine publication. Jhumpa Lahiri, Daniyal Mueenuddin were published in the New Yorker before main stream publications took their collections on. There are still some smaller publishing houses( Sarabande for instance) accepts primarily short story collections. Or else, having a pedigree like the Iowa Writers Program may help. (For example, Nam Le). Indie publications may be another way to go. Not impossible to publish without any of the above, just extremely difficult.
 

Kalyke

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The only thing I have heard that can be of any help at all is that you need to have published several full novels to be considered for short story of short novella publication. On the other hand, if you can get yourself into the New Yorker or another magazine like that, it will look good on your resume.
 

Izz

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It almost seems like in the 1950's and 1960's there were writers who made their reputation publishing short story collections (Alice Monroe, Grace Paley, etc.)
Unfortunately, in regards to the short story, the publishing world has changed a whole lot since the 60s. There just isn't the money in short story collections that there is in novels.

I do still hear (very occasionally) of someone selling a short story collection along with a first novel, but i can't remember the last time i heard of someone selling a short story collection to a major press without having been a) a well known novelist, or b) famous in some other way (James Franco, for example).

Maybe, with the rise of epublishing, the mainstream short story may rise with it. I keep saying that in hope, if nothing else :D
 

jvc

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As others have said, the problem with trying to get a short story collection published is that you do tend to need to be a famous author. Not saying that it would be impossible to get your short story collection published, it just makes it very tricky. If you had a lot of short stories already published in mags then this could be a way to get your foot in the door and make it happen. But those mags would have to be high callibre mags.
 

Jamesaritchie

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You do not need to be a famous writer to get a short story collection published. You do almost always have to be a published writer. It's always been the case that almost all short story collections are made up of previously published short stories. You have to sell the stories to magazines first, and then have the collection published.

Why would anyone want to buy a collection of short stories that aren't good enough to sell to magazines?
 

Calypso

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If you 1. aren't already famous, 2. don't have a novel contract in the works, or 3. haven't been publishing by ridiculously big places like The New Yorker, Paris Review, etc., then I think collection contests are your best bet. You can even be a "nobody" and win one of these contests -- your stories just have to be good. Obviously they are very competitive and your odds are low (like with everything else) but I think this is the most realistic shot. The contest winners are generally published by university presses or small presses. Alternatively, you could look into submitting directly to these small presses.

The fact is that agents and big houses probably aren't going to bother with your collection unless you meet one of the three requirements I listed above. Good luck and keep submitting to literary journals -- racking up publications this way will help your writing career no matter what.
 
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