Lit Mags and Anthologies Can Help You Get Your Collection Published
Taking Anne Lamott's "bird by bird" advice up a notch
Marquart made a special point of thanking the journals’ “editors who first read and published these evolving chapters.” That thank-you was noteworthy, because few authors write stories or essays with a book contract already in hand. Many don’t even try to envision the shape of a collection until they have a strong body of work. Creating that body can be a lonely, uncertain process. Marquart was thanking those journal editors for making the process less lonely, less uncertain, and more endurable. For investing in her work.
Hello Loreates,
Another hell of a week, no? Even if we don’t live in a physical war zone, we’re all now subject to continuous psychological warfare. The Mad King’s genocidal ravings this week pushed many of us right up to the precipice. I know it’s hard to pull away from this vortex, but we must, for at least a few hours every day. If we don’t preserve time and focus for art, reflection, connection, and meaning, then we’ll succumb to the regime’s depravity and surrender what matters most.
Since I’ve been devoting my focused hours this week to my essay collection, I thought I’d share some of that process with you here. In my MFA program, many students were flummoxed by the prospect of assembling a collection — whether of poems, essays, or short fiction. They wanted a how-to workshop. Of course, there’s no one way to assemble a collection of anything. I might say that the secret is to honor the contents of the collection, but that’s like saying the secret to raising a family is to honor the truth of each family member. Sounds great, but how exactly do you do that?
When it comes to collected essays, poems, or stories, I believe that literary magazines hold several valuable keys. That’s why I’ve been doggedly submitting the essays from my collection-in progress. This week one of the central stories in my project, ‘The Lost Box,’ was published in The Common online:
I was simply going to announce that news here, but then I thought, why not share with you the process of getting that piece published and the reasons why I think this small victory matters for the future of my collection. As Anne Lamott said, you do the work bird by bird. Or, in this case, essay by essay.
Read on!
Aimee
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I have many friends who also got agents and book deals after their stories were published in lit mags. Literary agents will often scan journals for emerging talent. When they see it, they’ll reach out.
