I'm polishing up a collection of literary short stories to show an interested agent (and dying of impatience and anticipation--I can't believe she's interested in short stories!), and I'm wondering about two things. First, I've seen threads about this before, but I couldn't get a definitive answer from what I read...what is an ideal length for a short story collection? Mine is just 51,000 words, which I know would be on the slim side for a novel, but, from what I've observed, short story collections tend to run shorter? I'm deliberating as to whether I should add more stories. I have a few more that I could revise, but I really like the movement from one to the next in my current manuscript.
Also--six of these stories are published, two are not. I know it's an asset to have published stories when pitching a collection, but is it a problem if all of the stories are published? Will agents and publishers want a few new ones in the collection? My impulse is to send out both the unpublished stories once I've put the finishing touches on them, but do you think I should hold off until I've shown the manuscript to the agent?
Wish me luck, guys! I feel so close! I also feel like, if I blow this, I probably don't have very good chances going forward *____* So I'd better not blow it!
Also--six of these stories are published, two are not. I know it's an asset to have published stories when pitching a collection, but is it a problem if all of the stories are published? Will agents and publishers want a few new ones in the collection? My impulse is to send out both the unpublished stories once I've put the finishing touches on them, but do you think I should hold off until I've shown the manuscript to the agent?
Wish me luck, guys! I feel so close! I also feel like, if I blow this, I probably don't have very good chances going forward *____* So I'd better not blow it!
