Expert: Cathy Clamp - 8/24/2007

Question
Dear Cathy,

I've spent the last four years working toward my English degree.  I graduate after this semester.

The last three-and-some-change years have been very disappointing: I've written four novels, twenty-two short stories, and more than a dozen articles, and between all of them only one little article has been accepted for publication--in FOUR YEARS.  I've faithfully submitted each one after carefully research, but nobody is interested.

This worries me.  It seems I have no talent for fiction writing, despite what the majority of my English professors have told me, and no talent for writing articles.  I've received plenty of rejection letters from agents, publishers, editors, etc, but not one acceptance letter (save the one I mentioned).  

I'm starting to feel as if I made an error by deciding to become a fiction writer.  Nobody in the business seems to like my work.  In light of that, I'd like to ask if writing non-fiction may suit me better.  So many agents represent "98% non-fiction, 2% fiction", and so on--am I wasting my time trying to sell fiction to the world while nonfic writers get all the glory (and profit)?

Should I go to grad school and learn all about non-fiction writing?  It seems the world of fiction will remain forever closed to me, and sad as that makes me, I can't refuse to accept reality: my fiction sucks, and nobody wants to pay a dime for it.  

Of course, since I know nothing about non-fiction I'll have to start from the beginning of my education again (in writing courses, anyway), but it seems I have no better choice.  We bestseller-hopeful writers can't spend our entire lives simply hoping, can we?  Sooner or later we have to face the facts, as hard or upsetting as those facts may be...

Thank you for your time.  Hope to hear from you soon.


Chris

Answer
Hi, Chris!

Sorry you're getting discouraged by the publishing process. If your professors think your writing is good enough, then I'm wondering if maybe it's not that the writing itself that isn't good, but perhaps you need to improve your query letter skills. Creating query letters and synopses to interest agents and publishers is a learned skill, just like any other form of writing. You didn't mention at what stage of the process you're getting rejected. Have the agents or publishers actually looked at one or more full manuscripts or stories? If so, did you get any feedback on whether the problem lies in plot, characterization or flow?

I'll be honest--writing non-fiction is no less difficult than fiction or articles. They're simply different skill sets. I also write articles for major magazines when I have time between books, and I've learned that the query letter is by far the MOST important thing I've learned to do. The articles themselves aren't terribly difficult, once you learn what editors are looking for. Y'know, I taught a course for the Florida Writers Association recently on beginning freelance writing. If you'd like, I'd be happy to send you my lectures for that class that discuss the elements of a query, how to get expert quotes and such. Just hit the "follow-up question" button at the bottom and give me your email address and I could send them along. I'd post it here, but this box doesn't provide enough space. They're pretty long lectures.

Naturally, writing fiction (both short stories and novels) is totally different and a lot depends on taste of the editor. I've found that a lot of authors tend to be better at either short stories or novels. Short stories are a bit of a struggle for me, because the plot arc is so small. There's not much room to expand on an idea. But my co-author PREFERS short stories. She has to work to include enough subplots and detail to flesh out a novel. So, that might be an issue with you too if you're trying to do both schools.

What genre do you write in fiction? Maybe we can focus in on honing your submissions to get it read by the right person, before you give up on fiction entirely to pursue other things. :)

Cathy