Storytellersunplugged

by Gerard Houarner 

The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.
- James Baldwin

Linda and I received a surprise invitation to be author guests at a local Fangoria con. Gordon Linzner, writer and former publisher/editor of Space and Time, Sarah Langan, award winning

writer, and David Wellington, who’s been using the internet in interesting ways, were all on the panel.

The con operation was smooth, the moderator polished, the attendance at our panel was small but hey, they blew us up on a big video wall behind us, so that was pretty cool.

David Wellington had a good number of fans in attendance, received most of the questions, and was reassured by some that they’d read his online fiction and had gone ahead and bought the books. That’s what we all wanted to hear.

At one point, I was asked a question that surprised me, though really it shouldn’t have because I’ve heard the type so often: something about writing short stories and breaking into the business.

I didn’t have time to think about it but instinct made me say, no, I’d advise writers now to write novels. There are so few short story markets, particularly for dark fiction, and so little money, and so few people pay attention, that really, people are better off getting practice and working their chops out on full-fledged books. They’re easier to sell, I thought. The pay is (slightly) more rewarding.

Even better, if you really want to earn a living writing, get into non-fiction. The pay is way better, the markets far more extensive. But that’s a digression…..

So lo and behold, a couple of weeks later, I find Linda’s copy of the latest SFWA Bulletin (no. 177, Spring 2008), and there’s Mike Resnick and Barry Malzberg engaged in their eternal conversation about writing and such (well, 37^th published one, anyway). And right off the bat, Mr. Resnick says the advice some older established writers give on breaking-in-the-business panels is wrong. In the 50’s and 60’s, sure, there were lots of markets, but in this era, there are far more book slots open a year (1,640 by his genre count) than short story slots in professional venues ( about 24 by his count, more if professional online genre markets are included, but obviously no where near 1,640).

Now Mr. Malzberg certainly has a point that short stories take a lot less time and turn-around is much quicker, but as Resnick points out, you’re competing against Big Names (who help sell magazines and anthologies) with a highly developed skill set. In my mind, there are also authors who seem to specialize in the short story, who really “get it” or perhaps have a keen understanding of the markets and can whip out something for one of those limited slots fairly quickly and efficiently. There’s also the reality that many of those short story slots, at least in anthologies, are invitation only, going to Names and/or one of the Dependables who can produce to specs on time, at length, and who get themselves at the right bar seats at conventions or on the email lists that matter. As Resnick points out, in the novel arena, the Big Name (or names) can’t fill all the available slots. There just seem to be a lot more openings for writers trying to break in.

Yes, a lot of competition, too. Granted. But one in a million is slightly better than one in ten million.

Anyway. I feel justified. Somewhat.

But there’s more. Really, it’s all about giving advice to writers just starting out, and it’s about the publishing business, which is much smaller than it used to be, and much, much bigger.

First off, another digression! Sorry, just for context.

Slate had an interesting article on internet reading/writing recently, (Lazy Eyes, How We Read Online by Mike Agger http://www.slate.com/id/2193552/ ).

Bullet points. Single lines. Bold type. You know, the stuff that looks like it’s for the cognitively disabled if you see it in print (or maybe you’d consider it experimental). Linked in, baby. And there’s even hope for the writers who prefer print and pray for the “ludic reader.”

Now back to the SFWA boys: Mr. Resnick concluded there is a good deal more happening that should be discussed at these breaking-in panels, like online magazines (paying professional rates, of course), “medium press” which is what used to be the small press before people starting making a living off of them, and before that what used to be called in the really old days, simply, a “publisher,” and podcasting, blogcasting (uh, are we doing this at storytellersunplugged?), and probably things he didn’t even mention directly like creative commons licenses, and of course there’s the whole “branding” thing, and establishing “platforms” and using “social networks”

and –

Oh dear, a long run-on sentence on the internet – unforgivable. There goes my internet career….

Anyway, he points out the possibility that in the near future a writer (of sf – that is, purely a genre fiction writer) could make more money from non-print sources than from the old-fashioned paper medium.

So maybe I didn’t go far enough at that Fangoria panel. Write short stories and give them away! Oh, wait, they do that on MySpace. Not sure how that’s working out. But, for sure, write in short sentences. Don’t settle for Hemingwayesque. Use bold type. Bullet points.

Etc.

Advice. It ain’t easy.

I’m the last person who should be talking about this kind of thing, since I’m old and old school and really only like telling stories and hate the publishing business (see post from earlier this year) and schmoozing and promotion, but I find myself fascinated by certain very narrow windows of opportunities for storytelling and marketing creativity in the business.

For example: Linda and I also recently appeared on Hour of the Wolf (http://www.hourwolf.com/toc.html , the venerable WBAI Saturday morning staple (and I do mean morning – Jim Freund hosts the show from 5 to 7 AM). We both read as part of the program. Linda’s had success with her internet readings in the past – her Fearzone appearance (http://www.fearzone.com/play/linda-addison-reads-mami-wata-goddess-of-clear-blue  generated some sales, an invitation to be a “voice” in another writers’ reading, etc. I was shocked when I read a “performance” piece (toned down on mic as I adjusted to the “radio” environment) and received some on-air and, later, online feedback. Even made a sale.

Which got me thinking about this storytelling business and podcasting, and maybe there’s a way for me to link the two and generate some interest and business. There’s that damned learning curve, and the day job/family responsibilities/house falling into a rabbit hole of time thing, and so on….

Anyway.

Back to David Wellington (http://www.brokentype.com/davidwellington/), he of the active group of fans in attendance at Fangoria. He’s accomplished a great deal through web serials, a device first used, I believe, by Doug Clegg to initially circulate his novel, Naomi, and brought to wide public attention by Stephen King and his attempt to generate cash with The Plant (interesting feedback at http://www.brokentype.com/blog/000665.html). More recently, Tim Lebbon offered a free serialized novella tie-in to his novels Dusk and Dawn.

So.

Advice.

What to tell folks trying to break into the business?

Never give away your stories. Most of the time.

Write short stories, publish in big magazines, build an audience, sell that novel. Except when you can’t.

Promote the snot out of your work. But don’t irritate readers with endless appeals to buy your books.

Blog. But don’t be whiney, don’t bore readers with endless trivial details, be relevant, be charming, be ironic, be negative because that draws a lot of readers but don’t be too negative because that doesn’t generate sales to the people you’re insulting.

Sell online. Don’t bother.

Go to cons. Don’t bother.

Um, damn.

Maybe the best answer for these breaking-in panels is to ask the audience – why do you want to go into this line of work?

Or, what do you want to get out of publishing? What is it that you’re actually trying to break into?

Is it about seeing your name in print? Do you want see your name on a paperback or even hard cover book with a really nice cover? (Um, then don’t go into commercial publishing – STOP IT, I’M KIDDING!). Do you have a story to tell, a character to write about, an issue or a theme that drives you to the keyboard? Do you want to be part of the literary traditions of a particular genre, or follow in the footsteps of a particular school of writers?

Most importantly, do you want to make your living as a writer? How badly? How much do you want to give?

Because, yes, if you want to see your name in print and have a book out, sure, send your stories to the zines and publishers and maybe your stuff will get picked up someplace, sometime, or maybe not, and maybe in the case of a novel the ms may linger unread in an editor’s “pile” for years and eventually you pod your book and sell a few copies to your friends and do all of that sort of thing, and presto, you’re a published writer.

Advice to young writers trying to break in?

When I was very young, a writer friend told me she’d attended a college writers’ workshop (so long ago, workshops weren’t fashionable or particularly marketable because not everyone wanted to be a writer) in which the instructor told the class if any of them were writers, they wouldn’t be sitting in the room.

As we say in the Bronx, that’s some cold shit.

Kinda like that James Baldwin quote.

But in some, perhaps many ways true.

Writers write. They get their stuff out. They find ways of connecting to markets. “Zane” sold her writing on the street by the page and parlayed that into a miniature publishing empire.

Is that any way to break into the business? Well, when I met her, she was doing pretty well living in a cool loft over her own bookstore in Baltimore and drawing hundreds of African-American females one night for a book signing for an anthology in which she was one of the authors and selling cases of books (one individual actually bought a case and had all the authors sign all the copies so she could give them out as Christmas presents – that’s a reader!). She said she would have drawn more if Prince hadn’t had a concert in the city that night.

Of course, I haven’t seen that scenario replicated too often.

Some years ago, an award-winning short story writer was selling subscriptions to his stories with weekly email deliveries. Don’t know if he’s still making a go of it, but at the time the math seemed to be working out.

Fiction and non-fiction markets are evolving as we speak. What I think writers, new and old, want or need to hear about is not what worked 50 years ago, as the SFWA boys pointed out, not the easy and “true” way that’s been repeated over and over and slowly faded to near irrelevance in new environments, but what’s happening now.

How exactly can you build a readership for a web serial, and how do you demonstrate to a paying publisher that the readership is ready-made market?

Is anybody making money off of podcasting, yet? Is it at least creating money-making opportunities?

The business is changing. What part of the business are we participating in? Are we taking advantage of emerging opportunities? Is there room on cell phones for genre story downloads for which we can get paid?

This blog is certainly a way, and its creators/managers Dave and Joe have worked diligently to keep us “on the edge” out here in the internet wilderness. Makes me feel like I’m not entirely irrelevant.

Obviously, what works for some, won’t for others (in the SFWA dialogue, Fictionwise.com worked wonders for Mike Resnick, did nothing for Barry Malzberg). Some folks have the gift of comprehending markets and delivering exactly what’s needed, and/or socialize and connect well to folks in person or through online personas, and/or can be relentless sales machines. Quite a few are tech savvy, which I think counts quite a bit.

How badly do you want to make a living as a writer? Another person’s gifts can be learned, to an extent, certainly well enough to get a few results and make at least a modest impression on people. Takes time, though. Diligence. Do you want it bad enough?

Are you lucky? Patient? Talented? Charming? Shameless?

Breaking into the business. Is that something like jazz - if you have to ask, you’ll never know?

I’m still a tad ambivalent about the “advice” I gave on that panel – I think I was sending folks in the right direction, but maybe not with a strong enough push? Maybe a better answer is to challenge new writers to investigate/google stuff like web casting and creative commons licensing, to look closely at their electronic lives for opportunities to get their work into the hands of readers directly and see if they get laughed at (rather than a form rejection letter from an editor) or asked for more.

Oh, yeah, and like I heard Stephen Jones once say, write better stories.

And I didn’t even get to the really crummy parts of the business that I wanted to talk(whine) about again to justify that Baldwin line. Oh well. I still like the quote. I’ll keep it up there, even if I didn’t quite hit that particular mark.

(Oh, yeah, again. Barry Malzberg had some more very interesting things to say about other kinds of misleading things told to writers at these breaking-in panels. And talk about what’s happening now, an annotated Amazon Kindle contract is presented – hunt down the SFWA Bulletin issue, ask around, even become a SFWA member….or marry someone who is).

There’s your headline quote justification!

 (Now somebody please tell me they get the title reference.)