Learning about publishing

I started writing again this year - really writing, for the first time in decades.

So far I’ve written a novella, a couple of creative nonfiction pieces, and a handful of flash fiction pieces. Learning more about traditional publishing has been a journey.

I’m coming at it with more strategy than a younger me would have: doing research before I submit, being laser focused on editorial fit, targeting a mix of realistic and long-shot outlets to hedge. I’ve got spreadsheets and dashboards to track things. It’s very nerdy.

The robot has been moderately useful here - surfacing presses and magazines I wouldn’t have found, but it’s terrible at gauging fit and quality. When you do find somewhere that looks like a good fit, you often discover that submissions are closed until next year, or they’re actually out of business, or you were wrong and they are, in fact, a terrible fit.

A few things I’ve learned:

• Agents generally don’t care about novellas, but there are presses that publish novellas and only accept submissions via agent. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• The Big 5 also don’t care about novellas and I get it. Paying $17 for a paperback copy of We the Animals is a tough pill to swallow considering how thin it looks on the shelf.
• Chapbooks exist, but no one cares about them except the people who write them.
• Contests are weirdly legit compared to other industries (with caveats).
• Flash is a dopamine trap: fast feedback, likely publication, low traction. It’s good for practicing compression though.
• Modern literary fiction (which I’ve been reading more of) seems to be 90% navel-gazey MFA nonsense written to impress other people with MFAs. Clever for the sake of clever is not a quality I envy.
• Tools like Duotrope are kind of neat.

There’s a lot of domain knowledge to absorb which I mostly enjoy. And I’m getting better as a writer and pushing myself along the way.

I just started submitting things in July and haven’t had any accepts yet, but have shortlisted at a couple of places, like Orion’s Belt. That at least feels nice (oooh, shiny!) and is a signal I’m on the right track.