publishing excerpts of your novel

[dragoon_elf]

My good friend who's in publishing (but not creative... textbook/academic publishing) told me that if I were to publish an excerpt of my WIP novel that my chances of it getting picked up would go up 50% (obviously he doesn't know the percentage, he said this just to get his point across).

He also stated that the excerpt doesn't have to have a fully-arced plot at all as long as it's self-contained emotionally.

Has anyone had experience with this? Does getting an excerpt published help your novel greatly? If so, how does one go about doing so.

Cheers.

[James D. Macdonald]

It's entirely possible to get novel excerpts published as short stories (provided they have a beginning, a middle, and an end).

I suppose there's a correlation with getting the novel published later, but I'm not sure it's cause-and-effect. I think that if your writing is good enough to be published professionally in short form, then it's good enough to be published professionally in long form.

[CheshireCat]

I may be wrong, but I think dragoon_elf is talking about self-publishing an excerpt (maybe online?) in order to attract interest in the larger project.

[dragoon_elf]

Oh, I didn't even think of self-publishing, actually....

My question involves both then. Self-publishing and traditional. :)

[Gray Rose]

It is my understanding that traditional for-pay publications help, whether they are novel excerpts or short stories. I am not an expert but I am afraid that vanity publishing will be of no help to you.

[veinglory]

The first thing I would say is that textbook publishing is pretty much its own world.

Just putting a chapter oneline or self-publishing is unlikely to help because an editor for a mainstream press is fairly unlikely to read it--and some of them really don't like self-publishing much.

That said, Having a website that is attractive and has good samples and excerpt does very occassionally attract an editor or agent's attention. Well, I know of one case. If your work is good and the website is professionally presented it probably wouldn't hurt.

Is it going to help you get published in any meaningful, substantial way? I doubt it.

[kuwisdelu]

This is all from reading agents' blogs rather then personal experience, but here's what I think.

No, self-publishing an excerpt probably won't help you any unless it magically gets you a massive cult following, but what's the real likelihood of that happening? In fact, self-publishing anything will most likely hurt your chances if an agent or editor googles you and something self-published comes up.

However, from everything I've read on the subject, getting a self-contained excerpt from your novel--be it a chapter, a scene, etc.--published in a magazine or something like that will help you. There's probably no exact percentage, but if an agent sees that an excerpt from your novel was good enough for someone to publish, his respect for you will definitely go up. It's no guarantee, certainly, but just like having any other writing credits, it helps get you out of the slush pile and higher up in the agents' or editors' minds. In fact, I think it may help a bit more than other writing credits, since it applies to this piece in particular.

[JeanneTGC]

It might be easier to write an appropriate short story or article (depending on the publication), get that published, and therefore have a publishing credit, as opposed to spending time trying to get someone to publish an excerpt.

And that way you'd have more output and more to sell, and show any prospective agent that there's more than one book/piece in you.

[CheshireCat]

Oh, I didn't even think of self-publishing, actually....

My question involves both then. Self-publishing and traditional. :)

No to the first. Maybe to the second.

:D

It really does depend, but I'd question the wisdom of working to get published an excerpt from a longer work -- even an "emotionally self-contained" one -- when you're talking about a novel.

But then, I despised Reader's Digest Condensed Books.

Give me the whole thing or keep it.

[kuwisdelu]

But then, I despised Reader's Digest Condensed Books.


Oh god I hate abridged books so much. But a single chapter or scene that works as a short story is different, to me, anyway.

It might be worthwhile sending out a good short story-esque excerpt to magazines while shopping your novel if it doesn't take that much time for you. But if the effort of finding good magazine markets and that kind of thing start cutting into your agent-researching time toooo much, it may not necessarily be worth it.

As for trying to sell some short stories in hopes of getting writing credits for your novel... Lots of writers start writing short stories this way, and then find their novel sold while still getting rejections on their short stories. It turns out, in many writers' opinions, that the short story market is sometimes even harder to break into than the novel market.

If you think you have some short stories in you, or they're something you think you'd like to write anyway--definitely go for it! Short stories are a lot of fun, and if you DO manage to sell some, they'll be great writing credits. But don't make the mistake of thinking they'll be easier to sell just because they're shorter.