Is it viable to self-publish your short fiction?
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Sagas of Icelanders
11 min read
The author explicitly cites reading Icelandic sagas as the inspiration for their new writing style, describing it as 'a form much older than the short story.' Understanding the literary tradition of these medieval prose narratives illuminates what the author means by writing 'tales' rather than modern short stories.
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Little magazine
12 min read
The article centers on the author's 22-year relationship with literary journals like Ploughshares, McSweeney's, and The Kenyon Review. Understanding the history and ecosystem of little magazines—small-circulation literary periodicals that have historically launched major authors—provides essential context for the gatekeeping system the author is critiquing.
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Amateur
9 min read
The author makes a significant philosophical distinction between being a 'professional' writer seeking income and becoming an 'amateur'—'a person who wrote just for love.' The etymology and history of amateurism, from Latin 'amare' (to love), illuminates this identity shift central to the essay's argument.
Alexander Chee is a well-regarded literary author who posted recently about the importance of submitting your stories to literary journals.1 He wrote:
I sometimes think about how the life I have, I have because I sent stories out to magazines. I learned early on that the writing I published brought me new friends, lovers, work opportunities, and that continues.
I don’t disagree with this sentiment. For a long time, I thought submitting your work (and weathering the attendant rejection) was the most important part of being a writer. On Dec 20, 2003, I sent out my very first story submission, and I have always dated the beginning of my writing career from that moment. I have submitted my work for 22 years, and I have 2,100 short story rejections (and sixty plus acceptances) to show for it.
But...less than two years ago, I started writing short fictions in a very different style than I’d heretofore used. I’d been reading the Icelandic sagas and a lot of pre-modern prose fictions, and I thought to myself, “I bet that I could write something like this. I could write down a tale very simply, just as easily as I’d speak it to a friend.”
I spent several months writing stories in this style. I knew something really special was happening: the stories were flowing quite easily, and they were different from anything else I’d ever written.
And then I asked myself, “Who could possibly want these stories?”
Sometimes editors just don’t want you
For twenty-two years, I had been submitting stories to literary journals, and nothing had happened. Even when stories were published, there was not much evidence that anyone had read them. I was certainly never a contender for awards or honors. Never won any contests, even the ones you pay to enter. And never broke into the top tier of literary journals—no Ploughshares or McSweeney’s for me. I was stuck.
Furthermore, as I was experimenting with these stories, I was in the midst of two book releases: a YA novel came out from HarperTeen in Jan 2024 and a literary novel from Feminist Press in May 2024. I had high hopes for both, and I hired an independent press agent to try and drum up some interest in these books. The agency did their job, and my publishers did their job too, but there was simply no interest. Nobody cared
...This excerpt is provided for preview purposes. Full article content is available on the original publication.