Writer's Relief, Inc.

At Writer’s Relief, we’re approached by countless writers every year who want help submitting their short story collections to literary agents. The short story is an exciting literary form that many writers have mastered, but few writers truly understand how to get a collection of short stories published.

It takes talent and practice to make short stories work. Some novelists begin their careers with stories and work their way up to longer forms (novels or memoirs). Other writers prefer to work in the short form and eventually find themselves with a stack of stories inches high, wondering, “Why not turn my short stories into a collection?”

Short stories are becoming increasingly popular, not only because they are mini works of art, but also because busy people have shorter attention spans. There are hundreds of literary magazines and journals looking to publish individual stories (and Writer’s Relief keeps tabs on all of them), but finding a home for a collection of short stories is no easy task. Short story collections are harder to place because editors are unwilling to take chances on unknown writers; unless you’re Alice Munro or William Faulkner, you will find it considerably more difficult to sell your work.

Don’t let us thoroughly discourage you from trying to get your short story collection published—there are some things you can do to increase your chances.

Whether or not they mow their own lawns, writers need to be landscapers. The landscapes (aka settings or locales) of books, stories, and poems can be just as important as characters, plot, and prose style in making a creative work bloom.

We’ve written in the past about how to make your landscapes multitask within your narrative, so we thought we’d offer examples of famous novels with memorable landscapes (novels many of our well-read blog visitors know well!). Why are these landscapes appropriate to these books? Why do they resonate with readers? We can all learn something from the way super-skilled authors establish settings.

In need of a book recommendation? We’ve got you covered! Check out what the WR staff has read & rated by following Writer’s Relief on Goodreads. This week’s books are:

• The Metropolis Case, by Matthew Gallaway

• Name All The Animals: A Memoir, by Alison Smith

• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (Dirk Gently #1), by Douglas Adams

Q: Do I need to copyright my novel, nonfiction book, short story, essay, or poems by registering them with the Copyright Office (Library of Congress) before submitting to literary agents or literary journals and magazines for publication?

We’ve got the answer!

If you are dipping your toes into the sometimes-tumultuous waters of fiction writing for the first time, you might be feeling a bit daunted right now. But there are certain rules and guidelines to follow that can help you keep your writing both focused and engaging (and, therefore, more publishable). Here are our top eight guidelines for beginning fiction writers.

Writers who enjoy creating parody—novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, or poems—know how important it is to pay careful attention to copyright infringement. Parody is a literary style that uses elements from a well-known work to create a brand-new work—one that obviously calls to mind the original—and although this seems to be in violation of copyright law, parodies and spoofs are protected by law as long as they adhere to certain rules.

At Writer’s Relief, we tend to come across a lot of writers who dabble in other forms of artistic expression. This got us thinking—who in the world of popular music has decided to expand their writing to poetry? Spanning across genres, see who has led double lives as songwriters and published poets.

Want to write a query letter that will really get the attention of literary agents? There are plenty of ways to do it, but not all of them are right. Many people ask us for examples of great letters that they can base their own query on, but the truth is that each letter must be a reflection of both the writer and the book being submitted.

Do you remember the poetry you wrote as a teenager? Many poets would rather eat paint chips than share their teen-angst poetry with the world. Teenage poetry is often raw, drippy, sloppy, histrionic, self-centered, and overdone. But there are valuable lessons to be learned in remembering the way we used to write before we ever dreamed of getting a poem published.

In need of a book recommendation? We’ve got you covered! Check out what the WR staff has read & rated by following Writer’s Relief on Goodreads. This week’s books are:

• 1984, by George Orwell
  

• Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities, by Alexandra Robbins

• The Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick