Excerpts

maestrowork · Dec 30, 2005

How often do magazines/journals buy excerpts from published novels? I understand that it's "serial rights" that the author is selling. Also, are these excerpts sales limited to unpublished work, or can an author sell excerpts that are previously published? How does it work?

Should the excerpts be "stand-alone," meaning they should read like a short story (even if it's part of a bigger book)? Or, can an author alter the original work to make it a stand-alone short story and sell it that way?

Thanks.

pdr · Dec 30, 2005

I've never done this...

I've not sold novel extracts to a literary magazine but I'm in the midst of my end of year 'send-them-off-to-market' short story marketing so I've been going through the lists.

At the moment I'm doing Canadian and American literary journals and quite a few accept novel extracts. Look at the Nebraska and the Canadian list that Emeraldcite has stickied at the top of this board and do a quick gallop through the journals on the lists.

I did notice one Canadian mag only wanted unpublished extracts and a couple asked for 'stand alone' extracts.

Happy Hunting!
pdr

Mike Coombes · Dec 31, 2005

At NFG we published at least one excerpt - it was a stand-alone chapter of a soon-to-be-published novel.

The Writer was Robin Slick, the Novel was Three Days in New York.

Maryn · Jan 3, 2006

I know I've seen chapters from Lawrence Block novels as short stories in Playboy, which is about as high-end a market as there is for short fiction.

The chapter always works as a stand-alone, but I never figured out if the author had made any changes (such as incorporating explanations or identifications which appeared elsewhere in the novel). I think the magazine presumes the reader won't be interested in anything that can't stand alone, although his appetite for the whole may we whetted.

Maryn, who rarely gets to use whetted in everyday conversation

Mike Coombes · Jan 5, 2006

Maryn said:
I know I've seen chapters from Lawrence Block novels as short stories in Playboy, which is about as high-end a market as there is for short fiction.

We're assuming, of course, that you only buy playboy for the fiction?

T.L. Newberry · Jan 13, 2006

From personal experience, most places usually reject excerpts from novels unless they -are- stand-alones. Unless you can make something absolutely enjoyable, despite readers not knowing what the heck is going on, a stand-alone is your best option.

As for repetitive selling on excerpts, every place has their own set of rules. The place I've submitted work to allow you to sell your stories elsewhere after two months of publication, and they usually take about three-four months to publish your story. However, some magazines pay less for previously published material, though that is completely understandable.

Mike Coombes · Jan 13, 2006

T.L. Newberry said:
However, some magazines pay less for previously published material, though that is completely understandable.

Most won't touch previously published, but that doesn't apply to excerpts; a stand alone chapter wil generally be treated as a fresh piece.

Excerpts

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

pdr

Mike Coombes

Guru

Maryn

Baaa!

Mike Coombes

Guru

T.L. Newberry

As Bronwyn Blacke

Mike Coombes

Guru