I was woundering if I where to attempt to have a series of short stories published. If they had to be in the same genre to be considered. And what is an editor looking for in a collection of stories.
short stories and publishing
- Thread starter Hopefull writer
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Do you just want the stories published, or do you want them published as a collection? If you want them published individually, start sending them out to literary journals. If you want them published as a collection, it would also be to your benefit to have a few of them published in journals, as it will help prove to a potential publisher that you're worth the time and money of publishing a short story collection.
They definitely don't have to be in the same genre. Pick up any collection of short stories by a single author, and you'll see big differences among the stories. Otherwise, who would want the collection? You could read just one story and know what all the others would be like. :] You do want all of them to be at the same high level of writing quality even though they may be addressing vastly different subject matter and utilizing different styles.
Hope that helps a little!
Kristen
They definitely don't have to be in the same genre. Pick up any collection of short stories by a single author, and you'll see big differences among the stories. Otherwise, who would want the collection? You could read just one story and know what all the others would be like. :] You do want all of them to be at the same high level of writing quality even though they may be addressing vastly different subject matter and utilizing different styles.
Hope that helps a little!
Kristen
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Hi there, Hopefull,
Kristen gives you some good advice. Short story anthologies are a notoriously hard sell, both to publishers and to the general reading public. Make sure that all of your stories are terrific, well-written, and fascinating, and you'll find a publisher. I agree that it's often a good idea to submit individual stories to literary mags, since publication in a well-respected mag is a solid endorsement to a publisher. Good luck! Keep us posted.
Lauri
Kristen gives you some good advice. Short story anthologies are a notoriously hard sell, both to publishers and to the general reading public. Make sure that all of your stories are terrific, well-written, and fascinating, and you'll find a publisher. I agree that it's often a good idea to submit individual stories to literary mags, since publication in a well-respected mag is a solid endorsement to a publisher. Good luck! Keep us posted.
Lauri
Kristen King said:
I don't want to disagree too much, but I've yet to read a collection of stories, or an anthology, that had stories of mixed genres inside. I'm sure there are some, but I've never found one.
I've read hundreds of collections and anthologies, and every one has been single genre. Either all SF, all fantasy, all mystery, etc. And I know single genre is all any of my publishers want.
You certainly can't pick up any collection of short stories by a single writer and find stories in different genres.
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Jamesaritchie said:
You can disagree as much as you want. :] Your point is a great one. But what about sub-genres? That's more what I had in mind, I think, but I didn't realize it until you mentioned. Within SF, for instance, you could have a story with romantic elements, a story with a mystery, an action story, and so on and so forth. Same for the other genres. The point I was trying to make is that you don't have to write the same story over and over again with different characters--mix it up. If it's a good story, it will be a good story anywhere.
And I have seen short story collections where there are a few stories that are just not what I expected from the writer at all--and they worked great! I haven't read short stories in a while (Kristen = pleasure-reading slacker), but I'll nose around and see if I can track down the ones I'm thinking about.
Kristen