When working with clients, the editors in 5E often wrestle with perplexing questions not only related to craft but also to how writers can position themselves in a crowded marketplace. In a recent Office Hours session, our free monthly discussion on Zoom delved into how to develop a readership in advance of moving along the traditional routes in publishing.
The impetus for the topic was a recurring sense that writers often fall into an all or nothing mindset: There is a perfect agent out there, or the agent you’ve finally tracked down will sell your book, pronto, and you’ll move on from there.
Or: if your book is rejected by a number of publishers, you’re at the end of the road, so to speak. Given the plethora of outlets for short pieces—both fiction and nonfiction—we wanted to explore how important it is to get your work out in the world in as many ways as possible, and how to use every rejection as a chance to regroup and try a fresh angle.
For our conversation with writers working on both novels and nonfiction, we were joined by Mindy Greenstein, a clinical psychologist, and the author of two books, Lighter as We Go: Virtues, Character Strengths and Aging (Oxford University Press), and The House on Crash Corner (Greenpoint Press). She described her route from therapist and clinician to author.
She opened with a quote from Steve Martin, who said of making it as a comic in a crowded field: “Be so good, they have to come to you." Publishing short pieces helps get you noticed and builds your credentials. And if you get solid editorial feedback in the process, you’re well on your way.
Noting the frustrations in getting started, she observed, “Before, there were the gatekeepers, who made it hard to break in. Now that it’s so easy to put words out there, you have to ask, why will anyone hear what I have to say, when there are all of these other voices clambering for attention?”
It requires quite a bit of research to find editors who will respond with real enthusiasm to your submission. In our session, we brought up the fact that many of today’s best-read and respected magazines, both in print and online, like Granta, Catapult, and The Paris Review, are run by millennial staffers, and that many advertise an interest in attracting voices from “underserved communities,” however you define them. So where do you fit in?
The clue is finding your people, those magazines or sites whose interests and editorial visions may align with yours—where you might be “a good fit.” Can you envision your story, essay, or op-ed, if appropriate, on the site or in the magazine?
It’s critical not only to read, but also to perhaps subscribe to, the publications that speak to you both as a reader and a writer. Just as you would research an agent’s client list and submission requirements before submitting a query, you should look into how a magazine or website operates, and the type of writing they seem to encourage and appreciate.
Many literary publications are affiliated with university writing programs: The Sewanee Review from The University of the South; Ploughshares from Emerson College in Boston; The Missouri Review from The University of Missouri at Columbia, MO; The Antioch Review from Antioch College in Ohio, to name just a handful.
Does this mean that you need an MFA to contribute? No, but it does mean you’d be well served to look at some back and current issues. Nothing will sink your chances faster than sending a sci-fi story, for example, to a magazine or site that has never published one.
One of our participants questioned whether it was worth all the time and trouble to be published in literary magazines: “What real difference does it make to agents and publishers?”
Good point, we admitted: When we worked at major publishing houses and considered acquisitions, we knew that having a story in The Hudson Review, for instance, was not going to compel our colleagues in the sales department to jump up and down about a writer’s chances.
On the other hand, solid literary credentials demonstrate that the writer has laid the groundwork to cultivate a readership—see the title of our session—and knows a bit about how the literary world operates.
There are myriad ways to start narrowing down your options. Logging onto Twitter is one: “follow” writers, agents, literary magazines, and publishers there. Many publications, especially those that operate online only, like The Rumpus, put their submission deadlines up on Twitter threads. And many writers on Twitter will pose questions such as: “What are your favorite places to submit?” The flood of responses can tell you a great deal.
Another tried and true method is to peruse not just the winning entries in Best American Essays, but also the long list of sources for “notable” pieces listed in the back of the volume. In the 2021 edition of the compilation, we found “winning” essays from publications ranging from Harper’s Magazine, Granta, The New York Times Magazine, and The Threepenny Review, to Salmagundi (from Skidmore College), The Virginia Quarterly Review and The Point, started by grad students at the University of Chicago.
The “notable” sources were equally far-ranging, from Ecotone to the Nashville-based Turnip Truck(s) to The Margins (for Asian-American writing) to The Iowa Review, High Desert Journal, and The Dead Mule School, a twenty-six-year-old publication from North Carolina that requires a “statement of Southern legitimacy.” Even the titles will give you an idea whether or not your work is a good fit. All publishing platforms have their own requirements, editorial perspectives, and designated submission seasons.
It’s also noteworthy that the prestigious Whiting Foundation just gave out a series of prizes to literary magazines like Latin American Literature Today, The Bellevue Literary Review, which started with an emphasis on medical themes, Kweli, a relatively new forum for writers of color, as well as One Story, which sends one short story a month to subscribers in the mail, to be opened “like a letter from a friend.”
Though there have been some cutbacks in the world of literary magazines, notably with The Believer, whose recent demise was much lamented by writer Leslie Jamison, who had her first piece published there, there are still many, many options across multiple formats, including the “women’s magazines” like O from Oprah Winfrey (now online only), Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue.
There’s been a big increase in online outlets, many with targeted markets (African Americans, Asian Americans, mothers, people with disabilities), which has also increased what you might call the echo effect. Memoir Monday, a weekly newsletter and reading series now hosted by Narratively, and supported by Granta, Tin House, Catapult, Oldster, and Guernica, selects entries from across the web, not just the host publications. Recent installments have picked up pieces from sources like The LA Review of Books and a Brooklyn-based site called Pigeon Pages (“We are proud of the eggs we nest.”)
Other sites based in Brooklyn include a new magazine called The Drift, aiming “to introduce new work and new ideas by young writers who haven’t yet been absorbed into the media hivemind and don’t feel hemmed in by the boundaries of the existing discourse.” At the other end of the generational spectrum, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes speaks to women who value “witty words from brazen dames.”
A piece in any of the above, or elsewhere for that matter, might be “echoed” in the newsletter and presumably help expand your base of readers.
One of the participants in our Zoom session recommended a $5/month subscription to Duotrope, a database of publishing resources with extensive listings of magazines, agents, and publishers large and small. The service also offers to keep a running list of all of your submissions. The process can get complex in that many publications operate on a shoestring with small staffs and can take months to respond to submissions. So, lots of writers submit simultaneously if allowed. It’s useful to have reminders of the status of your efforts.
Growing a readership is clearly a task requiring persistence, patience, some old-fashioned literary sleuthing, and most importantly, a belief that your work does deserve readers. Finding them may seem like a time-consuming endeavor; but in today’s outpouring of words, opinions, and perspectives, you have to relish the challenge.
For more on how to hone your craft and join the community of writers, consider Zooming in to one of our upcoming Office Hours sessions:
