Special EventsFrom Fiction to the Printing PressBy Melissa Golding, WIW Member Nearly 50 writers learned the ins and outs of the fiction writing life, finding an agent and having their short stories and novels published at the January 21 "From Prose to Publication: The Reality of Fiction Writing" WIW seminar. The all-day event featured a keynote address and four sessions designed to introduce writers to some general guidelines necessary to getting their work published and to provide specific advice for their individual problems and concerns. In his welcoming remarks, WIW President Joe Barbato shared his thoughts on the qualities that all successful writers share. "As a journalist and contributing editor at Publishers Weekly, I've interviewed dozens of successful writers, from John Cheever to Stephen King . They all share certain traits: They are bright, energetic and unusually driven in their work. They don't choose to write—they have to write." The keynote speaker, Richard McCann, is an author of literary fiction and poetry who teaches in the Masters of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at American University. He read aloud "Crepe de Chine," a story from his 2005 book, Mother of Sorrows, a collection of linked short stories. He began his writing career as a poet and didn't start writing fiction until his mid-30s. Much of his work is autobiographical, and he said that for him, publication is often linked to self-exposure. "Serious fiction writing is not a primary career—most of us have day jobs," he said. "I always get some students in my classes who want to finish their novels and make a lot of money. Writing, for me, is more of a calling than a career. The rewards of it are more ineffable—not necessarily material." He offered some advice to fiction writers seeking to get their work published. "Read a lot of magazines. Editors of literary magazines have hundreds of subscribers, but they get thousands of submissions. Spend a couple of hours at The Writer's Center in Bethesda, Md., looking through their literary magazines. Getting published is like joining a conversation. The writers that I love, I want to be in conversation with them. Ask yourself, 'What's the conversation that I want to enter?' Then, send to those publications over and over. "Another thing to do is to think about what one wants from publication. Initially, for me, it was to give me a sense that I was OK—to get an affirmation that I needed. This made the journey of getting from writing to publication more complicated." When asked about his own writing process and how he chooses to approach beginning a new work, McCann told the audience that he always starts by thinking in nonfiction terms. "At the end of my life," he said, "I would like to have used up my life. I use the stuff that life gives me, and I turn it into my work." He then drifts away from the facts of his own life and experiences, and the piece becomes a work of fiction. During the first panel session of the day, authors Tim Wendel, C.M. Mayo and Clyde Linsley discussed how they turned their creative writing into published fiction. Ken Ackerman, an author of three books of historical nonfiction, moderated the session. Wendel, whose books include Castro's Curveball, a novel, and The New Face of Baseball, said that his road to publication was "particularly rocky." Castro's Curveball was rejected 33 times, but has since been bought for both print publication and for a movie. He addressed three points he wished he had known when he was trying to get Castro's Curveball published: First, he thought he needed an army of people to help him at the beginning of the process. "You only need one or two people to believe in your book as much as you do—these people can be an agent, an editor or a teacher." Second, Wendel said he operated under the misconception that "Successful writers don't ever get rejected," and, third, he advised that writers "be selective on who they bring into the project. These people must be onboard for the vision that you have for your work." When he was between agents, he sold Castro's Curveball during a "meet and greet" meeting in Random House's New York boardroom. "You've got to sing out—you can't rely on your representatives to do it," he said. Mayo, who has written and published Sky Over El Nido, which is a winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and the travel memoir Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California and the Other Mexico, shared the sports psychology phrase that has seen her through many a difficult time: "CRA: Consistent, Resilient, Action." She also discussed the importance of collecting "signals" that editors and agents will refer to when considering your work for publication. These signals include getting writing prizes, publishing individual short stories in literary magazines, earning writing degrees and applying for and winning attendance at writer's retreats like Breadloaf and Squaw Valley. Former two-time WIW President Linsley is the author of the Josiah Beede mystery series, and has been freelancing since 1986. "Persistence—that's my only secret," he told the audience. When he was in his 40s, after building a successful journalism career, he decided to send out an old manuscript of a novel he'd written and start looking for an agent. He sent his book to 50 agents, all of whom rejected it. Finally, he sent it to a publishing company willing to accept un-agented manuscripts and it was accepted. He used the acceptance to get himself an agent, and, when his original publisher went belly-up, he found another publisher and signed a contract to write three historical mysteries. During the second session, "Through the Fiction Editor's Lens," moderator Richard Peabody, founder and editor of Gargoyle Magazine, was joined by editors Blair Ewing of WordWrights, Nathan Leslie of Pedestal Magazine and The Potomac and Julie Wakeman-Linn of Potomac Review. One of the issues discussed during this session was whether it is acceptable to send the same piece of fiction to multiple publications simultaneously. Although some of the panelists at both sessions thought it was an acceptable practice—provided the writer informs the editors that it is a multiple submission and also notifies them if the story is accepted elsewhere—Peabody disagreed. "Editors [who discover you've sent your story to other places] will blackball you," he said. "You will be found out. Many editors won't read multiple submissions. For me, [these writers I work with] are family. It is a question of loyalty." All of the editors stressed the importance of following each magazine's submission guidelines. Literary agent Elaine English of local agency Graybill & English and Terri Merz, owner of Chapters: A Literary Bookstore, joined forces with Barbato during session three, "The Industry Perspective," to discuss what agents look for in fiction writers, what gets authors invited to book signings and what the next bestselling books might be. In addressing what types of books might make the bestseller lists in the future, Barbato repeated a quote William Goldman once said of Hollywood: "Nobody knows anything." "Trends will come about," he said, "but don't necessarily try to follow them. No one knows what the next one will be." He stressed that readers crave stories, and there is something magical about any work that succeeds. English said that writers shouldn't worry about the market when creating their own work. "Focus on the stories in your head—those that say something to you as a writer." She also quoted some interesting publishing industry facts and figures: Fiction accounts for only 10 percent of books published every year. Yet for 2005, among the books that were sold, 18.1 million units were fiction, compared to 13.7 units of nonfiction. English also stressed some of the things that publishers and literary agents look for in an author. "Publishers aren't simply buying books. They are looking for authors to make careers of—authors who can deliver a number of books over a period of time, and who write consistently. There is a lot of competition in the publishing industry these days, but it is perhaps creating better writing than what was being published 10 years ago." Merz has been a literary bookseller for 20 years. Defining literary fiction as "the harmonious balance between style and substance," she gave some encouragement to the writers in attendance: "There are so many gradations in fiction these days. If you persist, you can get your story told. You should devote yourself to writing the book you want to write." The final session of the day was an hour-long "Open Forum" moderated by WIW Treasurer Al Portner . Attendees discussed their current projects and received specially tailored advice and suggestions for their specific problems and concerns from several of the panelists from earlier sessions, including Peabody, Mayo, Ewing and Ackerman. Among the resources mentioned during the WIW Fiction Seminar were: The Writer's Center, Bethesda, Md. On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner Publisher's Marketplace/Publisher's Lunch The Author's Guild The Shortest Distance Between You and A Published Book by
Susan Page Critique Groups Poets & Writers Magazine C.M. Mayo's Workshop Page |