Writing & Selling Short Stories & Personal Essays

by Windy Lynn Harris

  WESTERN: Set in the American West, usually between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

  YOUNG ADULT: Writing intended for an adolescent audience

  Some of your short stories will include more than one of these categories, and others will not. Some magazines will mention which of these categories they’re currently acquiring, and others will be vague about it. Readers have an appetite for all kinds of writing, so don’t worry that you’ve strayed off the publishable map if you now realize you’ve written a New Age Horror story or some other unusual combination. There’s room in this marketplace for a New Age Horror story. In fact, I’d like to read one myself. If a story is written well, there will be an audience for it.

  In the following chapters, we’ll go into great detail about matching your specific prose, whatever it may be, to potential magazines, but for now, study the list of possible categories and compare them to your finished short stories. How many ways can you describe your story to an editor?

  CATEGORIZING PERSONAL ESSAYS

  When you write a true story in first-person point of view, you have a personal essay, but to market your prose effectively, you’ll need to understand what type of essay you’re offering to potential editors. Is it creative nonfiction or participation journalism? An opinion piece or a biography? There are several types of personal essays, and not every magazine publishes every type of them. It’s up to you to understand this category and make smart marketing choices.

  Creative Nonfiction

  Sometimes a magazine will say they only accept pieces of creative nonfiction. We talked a bit about creative nonfiction earlier, but here’s a refresher: Creative-nonfiction essays contain a large amount of scene writing and employ sophisticated storytelling techniques. All creative-nonfiction essays include accurate, well-researched information while telling an appealing story.

  Sometimes they blend statistical fact-based journalism with literary art. Sometimes they are narratives about experiences with grief or a piece of parenting advice that explores our deepest fears. Creative-nonfiction essays can be many things. To identify your own writing as creative nonfiction, check the balance of your scene writing and narrative. An abundance of scenes and the use of fictive storytelling techniques are clear signs of a creative-nonfiction essay.

  Did You Write an Article Instead?

  Before we look at the different types of essays you can sell, we need to be sure that you haven’t actually written an article. The difference between articles and traditional essays is one of the most confusing concepts for newer writers, but the distinction is important. To sell your work effectively, you must understand what you’re offering.

  Joan is sure that all of her short pieces fit into the personal-essay category, but Samantha has been wondering if she’s written a few articles along the way. To help you understand exactly what you’ve got in front of you, let’s take a closer look at the difference between essays and nonfiction articles.

  The Personal Essay

  A personal essay is based on a personal experience from which you have gained significant meaning or insight or learned a lesson. It can also be based on a milestone or life-altering event. Essay writing is your heart-work, done in your own way, and at your own pace, edited with all of the tools that come along with the craft.

  It’s a true personal narrative where the writer describes an incident that resulted in some personal growth or development.

  It is written in first-person point of view.

  It includes dialogue, imagery, characterization, conflict, plot, and setting.

  The writer uses scenes and theme to convey a point. There is a lesson or meaning to the story.

  It is a subjective account where the writer has expressed her feelings, thoughts, and emotions.

  Your essay can be about the time you climbed Mount Everest or that time you fell down the stairs. Your subject can also be a personal opinion on an issue such as the garbage strike, crime, or unemployment.

  The Article

  An article can be based on personal experience and expertise, too, but there are significant differences. Articles are fact-based pieces of writing that involve research. They are not introspective. They are objective pieces of writing that mirror the informational tone of the magazine in which they appear.

  The prerequisite for a well-written article is crisp, clean, factual copy. You can’t make anything up. These articles might require you to interview a subject. Any facts mentioned must be verifiable. Some categories include parenting, health, travel, author interviews, and music.

  Some writers find themselves scratching their heads when they look at their travel essays, wondering exactly where they fit. Samantha is scratching her head, too. She’s written several pieces about Madagascar, all completely accurate and factual but in first-person point of view.

  The Decision

  If you’re still wondering whether your essay is really a magazine article, maybe it is straddles both categories. I’ve had many clients over the years who created awesome prose of this type. It usually happens when someone has written a personal account of how something specific (and well-researched) has affected his life. Some examples: “How Meditation Changed My Eating Habits,” “How a Raw Food Diet Saved My Marriage,” “How Astrology Landed Me a Job,” etc.

  If you have more facts than personal history in the piece, selling it as an article will be easier. To do that, you’ll need to pitch your article idea to an editor. Later in this book, there’s an entire section dedicated to pitching that will help you sell your articles.

  If your voice is the highlight of the prose or if the story you reveal has a transformational element, you’ll find it easier to sell the piece as a personal essay, even if your piece contains a large amount of factual information. To sell a personal essay, follow the five steps in this book.

  There are many of these types of works getting published every day. The line is blurring between strictly nonfiction and essay, creating even more opportunities for writers who have a talent for well-researched heart-work. The way writers take these essays to the market is evolving, too. There are a few markets that actually take pitches for personal essays now, including Unworthy, BuzzFeed, and Narratively.

  Samantha now feels confident that most of her finished essays are personal travel essays, but she does have one finished piece that fits into the article category. She’s setting it aside for later. For now, the discussion will return to categorizing personal essays.

  Types of Essays

  Most editors have a narrow list of the types of essays they’d like to receive on submission. To know which magazines could be a viable match to your work, you first need to know which of the three main categories your essay falls into. Let’s take a look at the three main personal-essay categories:

  LITERARY ESSAYS: These essays employ extensive use of literary elements, such as symbolism, style, tone, theme, characterization, and scene-building. Often, these essays are recognizable by their unique or lyrical voice. Many literary essays find homes in literary magazines, but literary essays don’t need to be limited to these markets. Essays that appeal to a large market, like those that are humorous, satirical, and nostalgic, can find homes in other outlets, such as regional and consumer magazines and some newspapers.

  REPORTED ESSAYS: (sometimes called Participation Journalism) These informational essays blend a personal narrative with some reporting and statistical analysis. Many travel, parenting, and political essays fit into this category. Lifestyle magazines and newspapers publish these essays, though some literary magazines do, too. Read The Huffington Post and The Washington Post for great examples of reported essays.

  EVERY OTHER ESSAY: There are many kinds of true stories being published today: humor, satire, opinion, slice-of-life, nostalgia, reflections, and more. There are endless ways to convey the human experience and many forms you can choose as a vehicle. This third category of essays includes anything you create that doesn’t fit into the literary
or reported categories. This category of essays has the potential to be published in literary magazines that aren’t heavy on literary elements; lifestyle, regional, commercial, and some trade magazines; and newspapers.

  Once you study the essay in front of you, make a decision about these three main categories. Did you write a literary essay? A reported essay? Or is your essay some other wonderful thing? Ask yourself, What kind of magazine have I seen this type of writing in before? Or was it a newspaper?

  Joan has decided that some of her essays are literary essays and some might be considered “other.” Samantha’s essays fit into two categories as well. Her travel essays fit into the “reported” category, and her humorous essays fit into “other.”

  Essay Categories: Going Deeper

  By now you understand what makes a personal essay different from an article, and you know which main category of essay you’ve written. You even know whether your essay is a piece of creative nonfiction or not. Now it’s time to look at sub-categories. Consider these other personal-essay descriptors:

  ARGUMENTATIVE: Attempts to convince the reader to adopt the writer’s point of view

  BIOGRAPHY: Reveals the personal view of the writer about a notable person

  CAUSE AND EFFECT: Explains why or how some event happened and what resulted from the event, lays out the relationship between two or more events or experiences

  CRITICAL: Analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, and methods of someone else’s work

  COMPARE AND CONTRAST: Discusses the similarities and differences between two things, people, concepts, or places

  DESCRIPTIVE: Provides details about how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, makes one feel, or sounds

  EXPERIMENTAL: Uses an unusual format or layout or unexpected language

  HUMOR: Written with a humorous tone, can be satirical or quirky

  INFORMATIVE: Teaches readers about a person, place, or event

  INSPIRED REPORTAGE: Another term for literary journalism

  LITERARY: Use voice, scenes, dialogue, character, tension, theme, and other literary devices to tell the story

  LITERARY CRITICISM: Explains how and why a poem, short story, novel, or play was written

  LITERARY JOURNALISM: Uses literary elements to tell the story of a person or place, presents a subjective view on a topic and is always a piece of creative nonfiction

  LYRIC: Relies on descriptions and imagery to tell something in a poetic, musical, or flowing way

  NARRATIVE: Tells a story, the most common type of creative-nonfiction essay

  PARTICIPATORY JOURNALISM: Another way to say literary journalism

  The magazines you choose to submit your essay to might or might not specify these categories as part of their submission needs. Investigation is easy though. By reading potential magazines with these categories in mind, you’ll be able to see which magazines carry each category—and if your essay belongs among their pages.

  Take a look at the essays you’d like to send out. Are they literary essays, reported essays, or something else? Do you think they also qualify as pieces of creative nonfiction? And what about those additional categories? How many describe your essay?

  CATEGORIZING BY TOPIC

  By now you know what main category of short story or essay you’ve got on your desk and even some additional subcategory information. Those lists will give you great insight into making submission choices, but you shouldn’t stop there. You can unlock additional marketing potential by studying your prose like a detective. You’ve got another group of descriptors to think about: topics.

  You’re searching for niche-market potential here, so any topic you can sniff out will help—they’re a terrific gateway to publication. Does your work contain current events? Have you written about a holiday? Perhaps you wrote an essay about grief or a short story about African elephants. These topics have audiences. There are entire magazines devoted to exploring grief and a long list of magazines that feature nature and animal stories. Once you consider your topics, new opportunities arise.

  Great news: The topic of your short story or essay doesn’t have to be limited to just the main idea. Go further than that. Maybe your grief story is about the loss of a father who struggled with addiction. That’s a publishable topic. Maybe your essay is about you and your sisters fighting at the funeral of this same father. Family relationships and sisterhood are also sellable topics.

  Let’s take a closer look at that short story about elephants. Maybe you’ve braided the main storyline with another separate topic: an activity that the main character enjoys when he’s not taking care of the animals. He might like cooking, or maybe he’s a runner training for a race. Both cooking and running are sellable topics. You might even find a trade magazine interested in your story.

  Make a list of as many topics as you can. A few possibilities: divorce, gardening, parenting, mind/body/spirit, crafts, pets, travel, outdoor recreation. Think about your workplace. Locations can be topics, too. Consider these setting-related topics: church, the Midwest, trains, seaside, the rainforest.

  YOUR TURN: CATEGORIZE YOUR WORK

  After studying the information in this section, you’re ready to take the first of five steps to publishing success: categorizing your work. You might have several pieces of short writing on your desk or perhaps just one. Gather your polished prose, and get started.

  You might prefer to use a legal pad to take notes here, but I like to print out a hard copy of my essays and short stories when I’m working on categorization. I make notes on the first page. Do what makes sense for you.

  First, let’s look at the obvious: What kind of writing did you complete? Is it an essay or a short story? Are you sure it isn’t an article? If you wrote an article, set it aside for now. For short stories and personal essays, keep reading.

  Short Story Categorization

  You have four types of information to collect about your short story. Note each of these items:

  Without including the title and byline, what is your word count? Is this piece microfiction, flash fiction, or a short story?

  Is this a genre or literary short story? If it’s a genre story, which type is it?

  What subcategories can you identify? Examples: historical, humor, romance, LGBTQ, religious.

  What topics can you identify in this story? List as many as you can. Examples: marriage, grief, dog shelters, antique cars, restaurants, the environment.

  Personal-Essay Categorization

  You will need to collect five key types of information about your personal essays. For each of your essays, answer these questions:

  What is your word count? Reminder: Essay word count should reflect only the body of your essay. Don’t count your title and subtitle.

  Which main category of essay did you write? Literary, reported, or “other”?

  Is your essay creative nonfiction?

  What subcategories can you identify in your piece? Did you write a narrative essay? A travel essay? Political? Parenting?

  What topics does your essay contain? Identify as many as you can. Examples: mental illness, sailing, safety, seasons, history, sports.

  Keep your category lists nearby for the next section of this book. Now let’s take a look at what Joan, Samantha, and Hershel wrote when they worked through this exercise. Each wrote down his/her word count, and here’s what they came up with.

  Joan is going to work on a fictional version of the ferris-wheel incident, but for now, she’ll focus on marketing her essays. She knows that most of her essays are appropriate for the literary market and that two of those are pieces of creative nonfiction. She’s also got two essays that fit the “other” category. Joan’s topics include parenting, grief, kayaking, gardening, and mind/body/spirit.

  Samantha has a few great humor essays, one nonfiction article, and some reported essays to market. She knows that her work doesn’t fit into the creative-nonfiction category. Her style is mainstream and satirical. Samantha’s topics include
Madagascar, relationships, pets, travel, some politics, academia, and organic farming.

  Hershel is relieved to answer the “Am I writing literary or genre fiction?” question. He is writing both, which means he’ll be marketing some of his stories to literary magazines and one of his stories to a genre magazine. Hershel will be sending consumer magazines both kinds of writing, depending on the vibe of the magazine. His topics include small-town life, natural disasters, religion, insects, brothers, weather, and football. There’s no rush when categorizing your work. Allow yourself to step back from the story and see it as a sellable piece of writing. Once you’ve examined your work and identified all of the selling potential within, you’re ready to move on to the next step: figuring out where to send it.

  15

  WHERE SHORT STORIES & ESSAYS GET PUBLISHED

  Once you’re confident about how to communicate your writing project, it’s time to figure out where to send it. This chapter is going teach you how to discover potential magazines and how to match your work to the right market, but first let’s talk about the people at those magazines who will receive your query letter: the editors.

  The term editor refers to a couple of different jobs in our industry. There are copyeditors and developmental editors that help your manuscript shine, and acquisition editors who make decisions about what to publish. The editors you’ll be working with here are on the acquisition side. They read through submissions and accept or reject prose for upcoming publications.

  Editors are our publishing partners. They are not arbitrary gatekeepers tossing rejection letters out with glee. They’re far from it. Magazine editors are a specialized team of literary enthusiasts who are devoted to showcasing the best writing they can find. There’s no need to be nervous about approaching these people with your writing project; they’ll be gentle. They’ll respect your time and effort. Editors, in fact, want you to approach them. They need you to approach them. How else will they find anything to publish?