15

Publishing Your Creative Nonfiction

Essays end up in books, but they start their lives in magazines. (It’s hard to imagine a book of recent but previously unpublished essays.) . . . The influential essayist is someone with an acute sense of what has not been (properly) talked about, what should be talked about (but differently). But what makes essays last is less their argument than the display of a complex mind and a distinctive prose voice.

—SUSAN SONTAG

It’s 1993, and I’ve just received my copy of the Georgia Review, where my essay “A Thousand Buddhas” sits among the pages. It’s my first acceptance by a national literary journal, and I can hardly believe it. It took a long time to write that essay and even longer to figure out where to send it, to wait through the evaluation process, and then to work with the legendary editor, Stan Lindberg, over the phone. It’s both thrilling and terrifying to finally see it in print.

It’s 2018. I’ve submitted a piece to a journal using the online submission manager Submittable. The program creates an account for me so that I can see where my submission is at every stage of the process. Within a week, I have my answer from the editor, and a couple of weeks after that, the essay actually appears in the online edition. The process seems a little dizzying in its swiftness. And I’m still both thrilled and terrified to see the piece in print.

The publishing world has changed a lot in the last twenty-five years, but some things never change: the need to write the best creative nonfiction I can, and then to do the necessary work of finding it a good home—whether that home be in a traditional print journal or in a quality online publication. The writing process, for me, does not feel complete until I’ve sent the work out into the world to stand on its own.

—BRENDA

Getting published involves more than just writing your best work; it means knowing where that work will get a good reception and how to revise so that the essay makes it past the eyes of the first readers. It means understanding the type of publication that might be receptive to your work: A print literary journal? An online journal? A venue that can offer multimedia capabilities? Or perhaps what you have written belongs in a magazine like Harper’s, a women-oriented magazine like O or Elle, or a specialty magazine like the environmental magazine Orion. All of these venues are possibilities, but it is vital to learn how to gauge and approach your potential audience.

Once you start aiming toward publication, your writing will take on a new level of professionalism. You may find focus where before there was just a blur, or you’ll finally figure out the dead prose that’s slowing down your first paragraph. Think like an editor, with hundreds of essays crossing your desk or your computer every month: What will make your essay stand out from the crowd?

Publication Venues

Literary Journals

These journals are literary publications, often but not always housed at colleges and universities, run by people who are in the business of publishing mostly because they love literature. They offer prestige, a small (around the low thousands, typically) but devoted readership, and exist on the low end of the payment scale. Acceptance rates are low, too, frequently 1 to 2 percent, and even lower for prestigious journals like the Kenyon Review. Literary journals often have particular editorial directions, such as Image, a journal of spirituality and the arts, or Seneca Review, which leans strongly toward the lyric essay. Some literary journals print artwork and other media. It’s important to read carefully as you select potential homes for your work.

The good news? You can develop warm, even mentoring relationships with editors of literary journals, who are passionate about great writing. Literary agents also read literary journals to get ideas about potential new clients whose writing they find exciting.

Online Journals

Online literary journals are as important a venue for literary writers as print journals. Print journals tend to have readerships in the low thousands; online journals may average ten thousand or more views per issue. The difference is largely due to accessibility and reading habits on the web—most web users surf and sample many different websites. Finally, the cost of creating an online publication is minimal—you have to learn the programming, which isn’t hard, and find a server that can accommodate your files. Most universities have servers students can request space on. The low cost of start-up, however, means online journals frequently pay little to nothing.

There’s a distinction between online publications that publish traditional print literature—posting it as it would appear on the page—and those that publish a mix of traditional print literature and literature that is by its nature web-based. There are also online journals that publish only hypertext- and hypermedia-type digital literature. In the first category would be a quality online journal like Brevity, which publishes short—750 words or less—creative nonfiction. In the second category would be journals like TriQuarterly Online—whose formats encourage interactive reading—and in the third category would be The New River, a gold-standard site publishing some of the best hypertext- and hypermedia-type digital literature around.

Browse online journals using a site such as LitLine and the list hosted by Every Writer’s Resource (see the list of websites at the end of this chapter). Enjoy the spirit and experimentation of this medium: streaming audio, streaming videos, art, even virtual communities are common. Let both your mind and your eye become engaged, and new possibilities will open for your own nonfiction.

Target Your Work

To target your work to the markets most likely to publish your particular brand of nonfiction writing, do your research. Browse in the library, bookstores, and newsstands as well as on your computer. Send away for sample issues of magazines. This will save you time and money. Editors hate getting work that comes from writers who obviously have never even cracked the covers of one of their issues.

Visit the websites of your target publications and read the submission guidelines posted. These guidelines will let you know the submission format the publication prefers, and they give further details on how to submit, such as the publication’s reading period—most do not read unsolicited material year-round—payment, and length limits. Also go online to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) for a list of quality literary journals; other lists can be found at New Pages, LitLine, and other sites on the web.

Most publications these days use an online submission service. Many use a service called Submittable, which allows you to upload your work onto a host site for editors to consider. Online submission enables you to check in on your submission, and you can even click a box to withdraw your work if it should be accepted elsewhere. Just because you are using online submission services, do not skip the cover letter! It should be as polished and complete as with a print submission.

Aim high, but not unrealistically so. It’s important to start establishing a publishing history, so don’t hesitate to send off to smaller, lesser-known journals. Getting your name out there in the publishing world will lead to greater and greater opportunities. Finally, look for contest and anthology submission opportunities. Good resources for these are The Writer’s Chronicle (published bimonthly by AWP and Poets & Writers (published bimonthly, available in bookstores).

Breadcrumbing

Read widely, fall in love with other writers, research literary journals and publishers. Check out agents, if that’s appropriate for you. Even when you do all of these things, though, it can feel overwhelming to figure out just what people and places are right for you. Who are the literary professionals most likely to be smitten with your work?

A process we and the writers we work with use is one we call “breadcrumbing,” and it is enormously helpful. Create a list of writers you admire and whose work feels similar to yours, in form, aesthetics, subject matter, or other qualities. Perhaps your writing uses a similar compressed lyric style, incorporates history or food, explores body image. List writers whose work shares this kind of DNA with your own. Then find these authors’ books. Note for yourself what literary publications publish these authors. Read these writers’ Acknowledgements pages (or other forms of thank-yous) very carefully. Add to your list the names of literary agents and editors they thank. If these writers thank friends who have helped by reading their manuscripts, you may want to check these folks out too—many active writers also edit.

This breadcrumbing will give you a running start on submitting your work—a list of venues, editors, and publishing houses tailored specifically to your particular interests and talents.

Elements of Your Submission

1.   Your essay, polished to perfection, with extra care taken on the first and last paragraphs. There should be no typos, grammatical errors, punctuation errors, messy print, or anything else that will undermine the professionalism of your work. Put your name, address, phone number, and email address on the upper left-hand corner of the first page. Number the subsequent pages on the upper right-hand corner, using your last name as part of the header. Example: “Miller—2.”

2.   Your cover letter. Use standard business format. Keep it short and simple. Avoid the impulse to be jokey or overly familiar. If you can, offer sincere praise of the publication that shows you are a reader as well as a would-be author. Do not tell the editor what your essay is about! The essay should stand on its own.

3.   For print submissions, include a business-size self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for the magazine’s response. If you want your manuscript returned, use a large enough envelope and sufficient postage. Generally, your submission process will happen online; the journal may charge a small fee that covers their costs.

Keep a record of your submissions, noting the date, the place sent, the title of the essay, and the result of the submission. You can also use an inexpensive submission manager, like Duotrope, to track your submissions.

Literary Agents

The function of literary agents tends to be something of a mystery for many writers, even for those well along in their careers. The fact is, many writers write and publish successfully without a literary agent. You should aim to work with a literary agent only if you feel you have a book project well underway, or have amassed excellent publication credentials, and you do not see yourself placing your work at a smaller, independent publisher or a university press. Agents exist to get your work placed at the larger publishing houses that pay substantial advances and publish books that they anticipate receiving substantial royalties. These are the publishing houses that exist, whatever individual editors may feel about literature, to earn money and maintain a healthy bottom line.

Agents earn their living by taking about 15 percent of their authors’ earnings. In return for that, they talk up your work to editors they know and have a strong working relationship with, submit your work for you, and make sure your interests are represented when an offer comes along. Bear in mind that no reputable agent ever charges a “reading fee” or any fee other than what can be deducted from your advances and royalties, along with compensation (once the book is placed) for copying and other costs attached to the actual submission process.

Publishing a Book

Collecting Your Essays

As you become more adept at writing short pieces of creative nonfiction, you may find yourself looking at these pieces with an eye toward developing a book. This is where a different kind of fun begins! You’ll begin to ask yourself these kinds of questions: What themes seem to naturally arise in your work? How are your essays connected? What happens when you put them together to mingle?

Rebecca McClanahan, in her essay “Forest in the Trees: The Challenges of Shaping a Book (Not a Collection) of Essays,” makes a distinction between a “collection,” which might simply gather together the best of your work in one place, and a “book,” which she describes this way: “A well-shaped book of essays is another genre altogether; though each essay can and should stand alone, each also relates to the other essays in significant ways.” She elaborates:

I never set out to write a book of essays, nor do most of the essayists I know. Rather, we find ourselves writing one essay, then another, then another. (I like how that sentence came out—we find ourselves writing—as if writing helps us find ourselves, which of course it does.) After a while, the essays accumulate. “How many do you have now?” a writer-friend asks. “Enough for a new book?” Well, that depends. Maybe enough for a collection, but a book? I’d have to think about that. Do all the essays talk to each other in interesting ways? Is there a center point, a hub, into which all the spokes fit? If I had to write the cover copy for this book, what central elements would I highlight?

If you think you might be ready to consider putting together a book of individual essays, have patience. Give yourself the time and space necessary for such an endeavor. One way to do this is to print out the essays. Find a big table, or use the floor, to spread them out, seeing them in new ways. Shuffle them around like puzzle pieces. What kind of invitation do you give the reader with the first essay? On what kind of tone or note does the book conclude? What is the role of the midpoint essay? How do the essays transition from one to the next?

Try several different orders, keeping an open mind. As with an individual essay, look for a guiding theme. What will this book be about? There will be some hard decisions: some essays you love just might not fit in this design, or they might be too similar to other essays in the book. Or the voice might be too jarring for the tone of the book as a whole. You might see gaps, opportunities for new essays that have not yet been written.

Study books of essays you love. How do they keep you engaged? How do they set the tone and theme from the very beginning? You might find that some books invite the reader in with a very short prologue essay that telegraphs what is to come. For example, in her book Just Breathe Normally, which collects short fragments detailing her recovery from traumatic brain injury, Peggy Shumaker opens with a prose poem titled “Just This Once.” It begins:

Once, in a wild place, I felt myself quiet down. I listened, drew silent breaths. It was dangerous not to warn the bears I was there, no question. But I wanted to live one moment in a wild place without disturbing the other creatures there. This delicate moment laced with fear—a life wish.

Though this scene has nothing to do, directly, with her injury and recovery, Shumaker (who is also a poet) decides to use lyric language and imagery to highlight deeper themes that will be an undercurrent for the book as a whole: how we deal with fear; how fear is an inherent part of being fully connected with life.

The Book Proposal

If you think your writing might lead you to a book-length project, it’s useful to know that many nonfiction books now—particularly the ones placed at the larger publishing houses—are sold on proposal (following we give an outline of a typical proposal structure). Writing a good book proposal has become an art in itself—proposals can range anywhere from twenty to forty pages long or longer and may take months to complete. Philip Gerard spent four months researching and writing the book proposal for Secret Soldiers: The Story of World War II’s Heroic Army of Deception, a time commitment that’s not unusual. As with publications of individual essays, book publications cover a variety of venues. There are the large, mostly New York–based houses that would include W. W. Norton, Knopf, Doubleday, Penguin, Random House, HarperCollins, and other imprints. These are the publishers that pay top dollar in advances and have access to the best publicity machines in the business, the kind that can get valuable TV and radio spots and take out prestigious and visible advertisements.

These large houses are, of course, the hardest publishers to get interested in your project, and the hardest to keep interested in you as an author: they publish books for the purpose of making money, and the fact is, in this competitive arena, the majority of books do not earn out their advance money. With the exception of W. W. Norton, these publishers are owned by large conglomerates, so you may find that many book imprints—Viking, Penguin, Putnam, Tarcher—are all housed in the same company. When you try your manuscript with one editor in the conglomerate, the rejection is typically final; much of the time you cannot go back and try other editors in the firm. Agents are particularly qualified to know what editor in the maze of imprints owned by one publishing conglomerate would be best for your project.

Nonfiction books can go out to smaller presses and to book contests in complete form, but generally, larger publishers make offers based on book proposals. At times, agents want to see a book proposal before taking on a new client. There are many books and websites with valuable information on writing a successful book proposal. Literary agents, too, will have a great deal of input about what kind of proposal will make your project shine. What follows is a typical proposal format. And note that even if you do not want to present a complete book proposal to a publisher, the information on marketing, comparable books, audience, and author bio and platform are useful to keep in mind for any book submission.

How to Write a Book Proposal

The Overview

This should be a short—three-to-five page—overview of what the book is about and why it matters. Editors will want to know what happens in your book, but they also want to know the significance of it to the reader. Why is this book important? What is it doing that is new?

Chapter-by-Chapter Outline

This will do just what it sounds like it will do—provide two to three paragraphs about each chapter. Consider what events happen in each chapter, but also what characters and concepts are introduced, and how the elements of the chapter work toward the whole. Make sure this stays congruent with your overview.

Author Bio

Most of us have brief bios we use that outline our educations, achievements, publications, and so forth. While that information is useful here, what editors will be looking for is “platform”—what have you done professionally that will enable you to connect with readers? Perhaps you have a blog with thousands of followers, or you have lived in a particular place and had an experience few others have had. Use every scrap of information that makes you seem like the right person to write this book and to find a wide audience.

Comparable Books

Sometimes this category goes under the name of “Competition” or “Competitive Titles,” which indicates the kind of dance authors have to do with this section. You want to indicate that there are books out there that are similar to yours and that they have found an audience. It’s tempting to write in screaming capitals in this section that THERE IS NOTHING OUT THERE LIKE MY BOOK! NOTHING! (See? We just did it.) But if it’s the case that no book like yours exists—and it rarely is—you are asking publishers to take a heck of a risk on you. You do want to make it clear that your book is going to add something to the literary world that is new and necessary. Provide a few sentences, at most a paragraph, on each title you regard as comparable or competitive, and how you build on them.

Target Audience

Clarify as definitively as possible who will buy your book. What people will be invested enough to purchase it? Be specific and do your homework. And don’t broad-brush it: publishers don’t want to know how many readers there are for researched nonfiction, or for memoir, or family history. State as clearly as you can how many potential readers there are for this topic. Explain how you know this potential group of readers exists.

Marketing

In this section, you will list what you can do to market this book, making your plans as practical as possible. Describe what you have already done in the way of gaining publicity—working with readings, newspapers, interviewers, radio, and so on—and how you will use this previous experience to market this book. Can you arrange a “blog tour,” in which you will contact established bloggers offering to write a guest post? Would journals that have published your writing be willing to help publicize it? If you know of influential writers who will offer to give you a blurb, give their names. Be creative. Publishers want to know what you will do to promote your own work.

Sample Chapters

This section is just what it sounds like. Include one to two chapters of your book (more if they are short) that show both your writing, and your book’s intentions, in the best possible light.

Small Presses

You are not stuck if you cannot get a press like Knopf interested in your book. Small, independent presses and university presses publish books that win major awards and reach important audiences. These presses may not offer the same advance money as the larger houses, but they are less likely to overedit your work and more likely to commit to you as an author over the long term. Their marketing can be hit-and-miss. You should always check out how well any smaller publisher is able to distribute its books—actually get them into bookstores—as well as get them reviewed and advertised.

Self-Directed Publishing

More and more presses out there will help you publish your book as well as provide a variety of support services, for a cash investment from you, the author. These presses often go by the terms independent or indie publishers (though, confusingly, small presses might use the term indie as well). Their price for a publishing “package” can run into many thousands of dollars. And services like copyediting can be extra, adding to the bill. The support services they offer may include publicists and cover designers, as well as in-house editors. They should have a sound distribution process in place. Unless you know the press well, ask a lot of questions, including what kind of support they will give, and how other books of theirs have done. Finally, your royalties with presses like this will be quite high—above 50 percent of sales, or higher.

Presses that have a curating process—in other words, they don’t simply accept every manuscript that comes in—call themselves hybrids. As with other indie presses, hybrids will charge for publication and other services. These presses will have the advantages of other indie publishers, along with some degree of consistent quality in their list. Indies and hybrids can grow to a size that gives them advantages in the complex publishing market. SheWrites Press, for instance, is a hybrid publisher that uses Ingram, one of the most important book distributors in the business, for its books.

Yet another avenue of self-directed publishing is the cooperative press. These are presses run by the authors themselves, though they may have publicists and designers, as well as other professionals, on call for their authors. Book View Café is a well-known cooperative press, founded by Ursula K. Le Guin. Book View publishes mostly ebooks, and membership is open to any author who has received in the past a traditional advance-and-royalties book contract. Members pitch in to do the work of providing feedback and editing to their peers’ books, as well as publicity after publication. Some writers’ cooperatives are founded just to publish the work of the founding authors. Many, though, are open to new members.

There are many online forums offering advice and how-tos for self-publishing. Self-Publishing Review’s website offers a lot of valuable information for authors considering this route. The Independent Book Publishers Association also has a wealth of information on their website.

A Final Note

It is wonderful—and a privilege—to think ahead to a lifetime of being a writer. Self-expression constitutes one of the great joys of life. And one of life’s most common—and keenest—regrets remains, “I should have written it down.” People lament not having written down their stories for a book-buying audience, for children and grandchildren, for others who have shared similar experiences, and ultimately for themselves.

You, our readers, have this to look forward to: the fact that your own indelible imprint on the world can be captured in the nearly indelible medium of language, be it ink or pixel. You need to ask yourself the question of what you want your written legacy to accomplish, and set your publishing goals accordingly. All the while, keep in mind that most important of all, you are building the tools of self-expression you need to satisfy the one you most need to satisfy in life—you.

TRY IT

1.   Give yourself a period of time—perhaps one or two weeks—to focus on breadcrumbing. List ten authors you love whose writing you find resonates with your own. You can’t always see these connections, so you might ask writer friends for ideas. Create a comprehensive list of editors, journals, publishers, and agents (if you are seeking agents), based on your breadcrumb trail. We always advocate buying books if you possibly can. But if buying all these books is financially prohibitive, browse a literary bookstore. Do your background research, and then plan submissions based on your breadcrumbing.

2.   Write a sample cover letter:

March 6, 2019

Wendy Woe, Editor

A Great Little Journal

Anywhere, Any State, U.S.

Dear Wendy Woe:

I’ve enclosed the personal essay “The Road Home” for your consideration. It covers a time period I spent working at a New Age ashram in Sedona, Arizona. I think, given your interest in personal essays that involve larger social commentary, it would be a good fit for your journal.

My work has appeared or is forthcoming in ___________ (and/or) I am currently studying nonfiction writing with ________________ .

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Signature

Print your name, street address, phone number, email address, and website address, if you have one, at the bottom of the page.

VARIATION FOR A GROUP: Pass around your cover letters, and write cover letters for one another. You may think of ways to present each other’s work that you would not come to on your own.

FURTHER READING

Resources Available Online

•   American Association of University Presses offers a listing of university presses.

•   Association of Writers and Writing Programs has links to numerous journals, magazines, and presses, as well as other useful information.

•   Electronic Literature offers a portal site for a great deal of nonfiction published on the web.

•   Every Writer’s Resource offers an excellent list of literary publications and a wealth of other information.

•   LitLine contains many literary publishing listings.

•   New Pages offers a listing of independent presses.

•   Poets & Writers.

•   Self-Publishing Review.

•   WritersNet offers a variety of useful resources and advice on everything from agents to freelance writing for writers looking to publish their work.

Print Resources

•   How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen

•   Literary Market Place

•   Write the Perfect Book Proposal: Ten That Sold and Why by Deborah Levine Herman and Jeff Herman (presents ten actual book proposals that resulted in book deals, with analysis)

•   Writer’s Digest