Forum / Publishers of short fiction that read unsolicited

• 
  Ann Bogle

  May 31, 06:08pm

  FSG will look at the first 50 pp. of a ms. What other NY publishers consider unsolicited and short story mss.? Are there short story agents? Independent presses with open reading periods? Foxhead, Atticus, and Salt seem closed at the moment. Other ideas?

• 
  Ann Bogle

  May 31, 06:10pm

  Graywolf and Milkweed publish 1% (30 books and 20 books per year) of submitted mss.

• 
  RW Spryszak

  Jun 01, 01:43pm

  Ann relative to your agent question, there is a large database (that is regularly vetted) of searchable agents at http://www.agentquery.com/

  I add that the site vets the agents that list there because of the vast amount of fraud that goes on under the guise of representing writers.

  And while we're on the subject, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have published an excellent primer on the subject at http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/agents/

  I'm not shilling for anybody, but this is the path I found to lead to reputable professionals in that field.

  And, of course, you already have this list I'm sure...
  http://www.newpages.com/book-publishers/

• 
  Ann Bogle

  Jun 02, 01:26am

  Thanks, Bob, for these clues. For years, I've understood that agents do not represent short story writers without a novel or two in the works. I attended a cnfic conference at The Loft last year, where I learned that the typical agent receives 10,000 mss. a year and accepts one new writer for representation. The New Pages pub'r's list is very helpful, and yes, I have seen it ... must study it again with an achingly open eye. Contests have replaced slush piles at some places and are very hard to win. After losing contests last year (saying "I lost" rather than "I did not win" empowered me. I had read that when Cynthia Ozick became too old to be eligible for the Yale Younger Poets Series, she QUIT writing poetry), I said "not again," until this year's deadlines came around and I entered a few of them.

• 
  Marcus Speh

  Jun 02, 06:45am

  I really doubt these numbers, Ann. There are about 900 people in the US (not counting the UK) doing business as literary agents, of which about 500 are reputable (perhaps), and findable, too. If each of these gets 10,000 manuscripts, we'd have 5,000,000 manuscripts (not short stories or flashes) fly around the US each year. This seems way too much especially given the fact that many people's desires to write and be read is nowadays covered by blogs, comments etc...an online world that makes it relatively easy for you to be heard or read at all.

  If I'm wrong that simply turns into another argument cementing the death of the current system. I had a most disagreeable experience with an agent (which I turned into the story that's just come out from Turtleneck Press — http://bit.ly/N3gVN6 ) and I'll not go there again. Agents are lucky to have us. There's no excuse for choking your golden geese.

  On your original question: I was solicited by one press (MadHat) and found another one by submission. The submission was for a very specialized call (flash novel) and acc to the publisher (Folded Word) very few submissions were a true fit to what the publisher had in mind.

  Lastly, on my blog now is my conversation with Chinese writer Julie O'Yang from Amsterdam who has just published a novel (with Amazon/Createspace) to high global acclaim. I think she's a bit of an object lesson on how to do this and she's also very approachable (she's just arrived at Fictionaut).

  Link: http://blog.marcusspeh.com/?p=7277

• 
  James Lloyd Davis

  Jun 02, 01:07pm

  I doubted those numbers also, Ann, but I'm aware that there is a surplus of manuscripts chasing diminishing markets and agents.

  Agents? That field has changed a lot in the last couple decades. It's as though agents today are unwilling participants in the process. It is odd that agents are now snarky, distant, unapproachable. It's as though the concept of advocacy and investment has disappeared entirely from publishing.

  And, yes, the number of predators out there has increased at an alarming rate... directly proportionate to the scarcity of bona fide agents and author-friendly publishers. It's an odd time.

  I still believe that writers deserve compensation for their work, that the idea they should pay to have someone read it is an unnecessary perversion, a devaluation of their work and of the art of literature in general. But... It's a matter of incentive. Why should publishers invest in a product with advances and marketing expense when there exists a vast number of writers who are willing to forego advances and take on the time and the effort to market the work on their own? They'll not only give away their work for free, but they'll pay to have it published.

  Maybe it's time to eliminate the entire middle marketing layer altogether, specifically agents and publishers. More and more, it sounds like the future is a process that moves directly from the hand of the writer to the reader. Why waste time on an unfriendly, unapproachable, maybe even obsolete method?

  Something to think about.

  When my novel's done, will I try the old route of agents and publishers? Absolutely. I have that much confidence in the work I've produced. But I'm open to new methods, new media.

  You can't sell your house until you put a 'For Sale' sign in front of it. You could pay prospective buyers to look at it. You could even give it away, but why on earth would you do that?

  If you think your work is good, don't give it away. It's a concept. All value is subjective, a concept. If you don't put a value on your work, how can you expect anyone else to do so?

  But I've talked about this before. At length. Some people agree. Some don't. The bottom line is that every writer should be his or her own advocate. Good writing is not enough to guarantee success, however you measure success. It's the way it's shaking out.

• 
  Ann Bogle

  Jun 02, 01:42pm

  If you consider that 300,000 new books a year are published in the U.S. alone, according to Bowker who keeps track, and another 300,000 are published print-on-demand, then 10,000 mss. per agent is not so hard to understand. The mss. go to agents as simultaneous submissions. The source for my statistic was a rather young and former Penguin acquisitions editor who had left New York to publish her own cnfic account of the Red River flooding and to consult on mss. in Minnesota. Milkweed and Graywolf (also on hand at the conference) reported receiving 2,000 and 3,000 mss. per year, respectively.

  Marcus, FABULOUS interview with Julie O'Yang.

  JLD, yes!

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