Publishing in Community
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Publishing in Community
One person might get you published, but they can't get you read.
Tomorrow is publication day for A Natural History of Transition. Despite the fact that I’ve had months to prepare this newsletter, it’s difficult to know what to say. One thing I’ve been thinking a lot lately is how different this experience of publishing my first book has been from what I thought it would look like even ~5 years ago.
While getting my MFA in creative writing, there was a big emphasis placed on getting an agent. Agents would visit our classes and workshops to talk about how to query and what they were looking for. Any time publication was brought up, the first step was getting an agent. No other practical advice was offered, and while I don’t believe this was out of malice, I do think it’s a short-sighted vision of how publishing works today.
I spent years querying agents and getting positive rejections for another book, or even worse, requests for the full manuscript and then radio silence. Eventually, I just gave up; I shelved that book and turned to the more pleasurable task of writing another one. In the intervening years, somewhat unthinkingly, I just continued to put books and writing at the center of my life: I worked in bookstores, taught writing in schools and colleges, did short writing residencies, interned in book marketing, and connected with other writers online. I fumbled my way through pitching online magazines, racking up many failures and a few successes. In short, I slowly built up a community around me.
Those are the people who are reading me today (you are probably among them!). There’s a common refrain in MFA programs, that you only need one person to say “yes” to be published — one editor or agent who believes in you enough to let you in the door. This may be true, but it sounds lonely to me. And in my experience, one person may help you get published, but they can’t get you read.
I’ve talked before about starting the journal smoke and mold in 2019, when I was frustrated by being told over an dover again that there was no audience for my work, or that the agent or publisher didn’t know how to market it. I was determined to find this audience, to show people that there is actually a huge appetite for trans stories that grapple with climate, environment, and creating place. At the same time, I started looking for publishers in a different way than I had before. I stopped looking for agents and started looking to see, out of the publishers out there, who did I think would really get this new work? I made a list of small presses whose work with trans authors I already respected, and then I wrote a book proposal.
Proposals are usually considered the first step of a nonfiction project; it’s less common to see them requested for fiction, but I’m so glad Metonymy Press used this as their first step to inquiring about publication through them. Writing that proposal helped me see the whole framework for how A Natural History of Transition came together; it let me reflect on who in my life so far had supported me, and how this book spoke to them; and it let me envision a future where all the different communities I’d been a part of would be excited about and supportive of something I wrote. The proposal was different than the query — rather than asking someone to support me, I was showing a press how all of my work and connections could team up with their prowess to create something beautiful and unique.
I’m sorry if this is boring. I hope it’s not, of course; but increasingly I’ve become more and more interested in how books find their readers, how they circulate in the world, and what I can do to make some changes to the system. If you keep reading this newsletter, that’s probably what I’ll be focusing on for the future.
For now though, I’ll be spending the week celebrating ANHOT, and getting ready for a small virtual book tour, which features many authors I’m so excited to be in conversation and community with. Thank you for reading, all, and I hope to see your face in the Zoom soon!
What I’m Reading
A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt. At first I was put off by the very academic language in this book, but then I thought, maybe I just haven’t read someone in a long time who has such a clear and in-your-face sense of their own style? Belcourt mixes his own theorizing with poetry, reflections on writing and sex, Grindr, growing up on the Driftpile Cree Nation, and teaching creative writing to students in Northern Alberta. Read it if, like me, you enjoy reading writers with a clear project in mind beyond the ‘perfection’ of craft.
And a shout-out to Two Dollar Radio, a press that is quickly becoming our window here in the states into the thriving queer and trans lit scene across our northern border (they published the US edition of Brief Body, and will publish John Elizabeth Stintzi’s My Volcano in 2022 when Arsenal Pulp Press publishes it in Canada.)
Podcasts make pretty good book school…
Lately I’ve been devouring two podcasts that demystify the publishing industry while simultaneously critiquing its business-as-usual operations. Faced Out comes from Brad and Liz of East Bay Booksellers in Oakland, and they talk about the weird resistance among “indie” booksellers to stop stocking white supremacists on their shelves, as well as the nitty gritty about how book distribution works. Meanwhile, the Influx Press Podcast from editors Kit Caless and Gary Budden started a series of Lockdown Discussions last year which are wide-ranging dialogues on the business, art, and risks of small press publishing, with topics like “Money, Writing, Publishing”, “What are publishers afraid of?”, “Self Publishing” and more. Bookselling and publishing are two fields without a clear path to entry, and these podcasts have a great deal of interesting & accessible information.
Publishing Opportunities
Brink literary magazine is accepting submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and translations until April 30.
Alien Magazine is open for submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry: "We are not a science fiction magazine, though we are open to SF work. By ‘Alien’ we mean "outsider" or anything that exists outside the societal norm”
Lupercalia Press is seeking “art and writing by trans and queer creators that focuses on themes of transgender and queer sex/sexuality/excess/celebration”. Lupercalia is also looking for a social media director (paid position).
Sublunary Editions is open for manuscript submissions until May 31. Seeking poetry, fiction, and essays that push formal boundaries.
Poets & Writers is accepting applications for grant funds to pay writers participating in virtual events. Organizations running events or workshops in California, New York State, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Seattle, New Orleans, Tucson, and Washington, D.C. are eligible to apply.
Stellium Literary Magazine is open for submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and prose poems by Black queer and trans writers until May 1. They also accept work from other Black and QTPOC writers.
Black Warrior Review is accepting submissions of fiction, poetry, and flash for a special queer ekphrasis issue curated by Anaïs Duplan. Deadline May 10.
My book A Natural History of Transition, is available to preorder through Metonymy Press.
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