Hi Everyone,
I was wondering what people know about publishing short story collections (this would be literary or contemporary stories). I've heard a lot of things about this, like how only writers who have had short stories published in mags and such can get a collection published or if a famous writer wants to publish his/her stories. On the other hand, I've seen several writers and have met one or two while in grad school whose first book published was a collection of short stories. It almost seems like in the 1950's and 1960's there were writers who made their reputation publishing short story collections (Alice Monroe, Grace Paley, etc.) but I keep hearing that the short story, outside of the small literary mags, are passe (which I'm not sure I believe - I just saw a guy yesterday in a cafe I was at reading "The Best American Short Stories" and he didn't look like he was forced to do it for a college class or something ).
Any thoughts on this?
Djuna
I was wondering what people know about publishing short story collections (this would be literary or contemporary stories). I've heard a lot of things about this, like how only writers who have had short stories published in mags and such can get a collection published or if a famous writer wants to publish his/her stories. On the other hand, I've seen several writers and have met one or two while in grad school whose first book published was a collection of short stories. It almost seems like in the 1950's and 1960's there were writers who made their reputation publishing short story collections (Alice Monroe, Grace Paley, etc.) but I keep hearing that the short story, outside of the small literary mags, are passe (which I'm not sure I believe - I just saw a guy yesterday in a cafe I was at reading "The Best American Short Stories" and he didn't look like he was forced to do it for a college class or something ).
Any thoughts on this?
Djuna