Anthology Update & What Is A Professional Writer?

Thanks all for leaving comments and e-mailing me about Augusto Monterroso's estate. I'm happy to say I've gotten in contact with them and it's looking like there's a very good chance I'll be able to include his story in the anthology. Tuesday night I did a read-through of the stories in the maybe pile. Out of the 276 stories, I check marked 149. What does this mean exactly? Well, those 149 stories were what stuck out to me at that moment. Because these stories are so short and rely so much on my participation as a reader (i.e., a lot of imagination), my mood at the time (even the weather) can sway my opinion on any particular story. So I'm setting those stories aside and next week will read through the 276 stories again. I know the suspense is killing some of you, and I apologize for that, but I hope you understand the amount of time and thought I need to put into these stories. If this were a magazine with multiple issues, I probably could have made my decisions by now and sent out responses. But obviously in terms of this anthology -- most likely a once and done thing -- I have to be extremely selective.

Finally, I am curious to know what you think makes a professional writer. A couple posts back in the comments section there had been a mention of novice and professional writers, and I had said for argument sake let's assume a professional writer is someone who makes their living completely off their writing, with no other source of income. Daniel Olivas then mentioned how he didn't quite agree with that statement, saying he doesn't think many "professional" writers write full-time.

He's right, of course. As Joe Konrath once put it, more people play in the NFL than there are people who write full-time.

No two writers are alike. Michael Connelly published four novels before he quit working as a crime reporter and went to write full-time. T.C. Boyle regularly publishes stories in The New Yorker and Playboy and has a book coming out almost every year, many bestsellers, but still he teaches writing at the University of Southern California where he's been since 1978. My buddy Joe Schreiber, who has two novels coming out next month (one a Star Wars novel, another an original horror novel), works full-time as an MRI tech. He's married, has kids, but still manages to find time to write. When I asked him once if he ever thought he'd get to a point where he could write full-time, he said he'd be happy to get to a point where he could cut back to part-time work and spend the rest writing.

Again, no two writers are alike, but despite all those differences, I consider all three of those gentlemen professional writers.

There is no definitive answer on this topic. Just like everyone has their own definition of what lazy means, everyone has their own definition of what professional means. I will say that I think many people base whether or not someone is a "professional" in terms of success. If a writer has a bestseller or wins a lot of awards, they can easily be considered a professional writer (even if that writer still has a day job). Then there are other writers who aren't very well known, who have never won an award, yet they somehow manage to make enough money to stay afloat writing full-time. Would they, then, be considered a professional writer?

This is why I'm curious to see what other people think. And this doesn't even have to apply to writers. Like, what makes a professional musician? Somebody who's signed by a major record label and whose songs are played nonstop on the radio? They make their living off their art, sure, but so do some people in cover bands that play local bars. Not a lot of people, but a few, and if both types make their living off their music ... well, I'm sure you see just how slippery this slope really is.

It's also worth noting that there are "professional writers" who are arrogant assholes that act very unprofessional most of the time. Yet they continue to be successful in the amount of books they sell, the awards they win, etc.

And then you have the novice writer who has been trying to sell a novel for years and hasn't managed it yet, and despite how frustrating it is, how it looks like it will never happen, they manage to maintain a level of professionalism in every aspect of their writing.

I could keep throwing out examples but I think I'll open it up to you. Again, there's no right or wrong answer, but still I'm curious to see what you have to say.

And The Flood Gates Have Closed

I'm going to keep this short and sweet and to the point. Over the course of the month of August, the number of stories submitted to the Hint Fiction Anthology came to 2,463. With the 207 stories from the initial contest, it's safe to say that over 2,500 stories were submitted to the anthology.

The number of stories added to the "maybe" pile came to 276. I could probably have gone through those stories right away and cut it down in half, but I'm going to take a week or two off, come back to that pile with some fresh eyes. (And before anyone asks, out of the "maybe" pile I hope to select about 100 stories.)

I guess it's because this whole thing started off as a contest, but I've seen it around the Internet (not to mention I heard from the person stripping off the author info and forwarding me the stories) that many writers thought this was a contest too. I guess in many respects, just about anything is a contest, but this was simply an open reading period. A certain numbers of stories will be selected for inclusion; a large number will be rejected. There will be no definite winner -- no first or second or third place -- but I guess with competition so fierce, just the fact that if your story gets picked makes you a winner.

But I don't want to go that far, because in my book, you're all winners.

Anthology Update: Week Four

This guy (?) is due to give birth in four weeks, the same amount of time the Hint Fiction anthology has been open for submissions.

As of this moment the number of submitted stories has reached 1,978. Last week the number was 1,587, which means 391 stories were submitted this week.

So far 230 stories have been added to the "maybe" pile -- out of the 391 stories this week, only 52 were tossed in.

I had mentioned last week about doing a specific breakdown, week by week, but I wonder if that's even necessary. If you're that interested, you can just go back through the last four weeks of posts. Not that I don't think it's interesting, of course, and while I'm sure a few of you might find it interesting too, the fact is that number is only a few.

Which brings me to the other point I mentioned last week -- what I've learned from Google Analytics.

Going back to the first day I launched this website until right now, the Hint Fiction page has gotten 7,257 unique views. The Hint Fiction Contest Winners and Finalists -- good examples of Hint Fiction -- has gotten only 3,635 unique views. My blog post on July 6, "Regarding Hint Fiction," where I give a brief overview of how the concept and book came to be and talked about the thesis and my reasoning behind it received only -- ready for this? -- 438 unique views.

I don't know about you, but I find this extremely fascinating. I don't know, maybe it's because I'm in the minority of writers who try to familiarize themselves with a particular market before submitting. That's not to say that I've never sent out stories without familiarizing myself at all with a particular magazine or anthology, but I always try to read the guidelines, find the magazine or anthology's aesthetics, even try to learn more about the editors. I especially do this if I'm entering a contest; I try to learn as much about the judge as possible, what they like to write and read, because, for the most part, that will give an idea on the types of stories they're apt to like.

But would you look at those numbers again? About half the visits to the guidelines actually clicked on the contest winners and finalists. Obviously this was probably done more out of curiosity than anything else, but still, people wanted to get examples of what Hint Fiction was before they submitted. What's more, a very limited number of people actually viewed the post "Regarding Hint Fiction" (which, incidentally, I had hyperlinked from the guidelines over the thesis part).

A few weeks back someone had e-mailed me suggesting I talk more in-depth about Hint Fiction, give examples of good and bad stories, etc. I told him that, while it all sounded good in practice, the reality was it would be a waste of time. The month leading up to the anthology almost all of my posts were about Hint Fiction, talking about what it took to write an effective piece, and I even opened up one post to anybody who had any questions and concerns. And, for the most part, nobody did.

Listen, I don't want it to sound like I'm complaining here. This is just the nature of the beast. Most writers don't care to learn more about a market they're submitting to. They figure whatever they write will either sink or swim. And stories of 25 words or less? Why, they think, that's easy!

Of course, you and I both know that's not quite true. Not to write a truly effective piece of Hint Fiction, and the fact that only about 10% of the submitted stories have made it into the "maybe" pile should testify to that -- not to mention that ultimately, less than 5% of the submitted stories will actually make it into the book.

So what, if anything, should one take away from this blog post? Do your research. If you're submitting to a particular market, especially one as unique as this one (and I like to think of it as unique), take a couple of minutes out of your probably-not-too-busy day and freshen yourself up on the guidelines and aesthetics and whatever else. It won't guarantee that you will make a sale, but it will help put you closer than those who send stories off the cuff.

Finally, I wanted to mention that, as expected, I have "hint fiction" set up on Google Alerts, so if it's mentioned on a website or blog, I've probably stumbled across it. And what's interesting is that some writers are posting their Hint Fiction stories -- the same stories that they're submitting!

Now, I'm not one of those stickler who says that hey, if it's published on your blog, it's considered published. In fact, the guidelines even say that reprints are allowed. Though I guess what I had meant when I said reprints were stories actually published in a real journal, not on your own blog. Not that it makes a difference one way or another -- if the story's great, I'll probably accept it -- but I find it interesting that writers wouldn't think twice to do that. Keep in mind that it's a very small number of writers, but, well, I wonder if it's because these stories are so short that people don't really consider them stories. Like, oh I don't know, the writers are not really taking the form seriously.

Let me say it another way -- Esquire just recently had a short story contest. How many writers do you think submitted stories and then immediately posted them on their blogs for everyone to see? If you're thinking the number is close to zero, then we're on the same wavelength, so I ask you: why oh why would they then post their Hint Fiction stories?

About two and a half more days until submissions close. Remember: you have until Tuesday at midnight here on the east coast of America to get in your stories. Keep 'em coming!

P.S. Thanks to everyone who entered the mini-contest yesterday. It was fun, and I appreciate how so many people were open about what they're persistent about. In the future I promise the winners of these giveaways will be selected randomly, but for this one I have to give the prize to Kathleen Ryan who was VERY open about her persistent nature. Kathleen, e-mail me at robert (at) robertswartwood (dot) com with your address and I'll ship the magazine to you as soon as possible. And thanks again everyone for participating. I'm looking forward to having more of these mini-contests in the future, and I hope you do too.

P.P.S. Sorry for the delay in this post; my web hosting was down late last night, and around 4 a.m. I finally said screw it and went to bed and now here I finally managed to make it back to the computer.

Anthology Update: Week Three

The three baby hedgehogs above represent how many weeks the Hint Fiction anthology has been open for submissions (a stretch, sure, but ain't they cute?).

As of this moment the number of stories submitted to the anthology has reached 1,587. Last week the number was 1,129, which means 458 stories were submitted this week.

So far 178 stories have been added to the "maybe" pile -- out of the 458 stories this week, only 55 were tossed in.

Next week I'll do a more specific breakdown. I'll also talk about some of my thoughts regarding the process so far. (Sneak peek: according to Google Analytics, the Hint Fiction page has received about 4,500 unique hits, while the page featuring the winners and honorable mentions -- good examples of Hint Fiction -- has gotten about 2,350 hits ... that's about half the hits, and what, I ask you, can you take away from that?)

That interview with NBC went well. I have no idea when and if my segment will air (she's doing two stories, one on Twitter and another on writers using Twitter as a writing forum), but when I know, you will know.

One of the questions asked is one I'd like to bring up here. Basically, what are my thoughts on people saying that Hint Fiction and Twitter-fiction and other forms of very short stories are only popular today because people have short attention spans?

My answer? Yes, people do have short attention spans nowadays, but is that any reason to disregard or dismiss very short stories like Hint Fiction? Absolutely not. That Hemingway piece was written back before the Internet even existed; there have been many other very short forms written before the Internet and age of ADD too. Ultimately, Hint Fiction and other very short forms are exercises in brevity, trying to tell an impacting story in as few words as possible. If anything, it should help writers hone their self-editing skills. Also, through the years -- centuries, even -- writers and artists and actors (anybody creative and talented) has managed to adapt to the changing mediums. The Internet and now Twitter is just another thing that writers are using to their advantage. When the next big thing comes along, writers will figure out a way to use that to their advantage too. In the end, is there a lot of crap out there floating around the web? Yes. But is there some brilliant pieces of work, too? You better believe it.

(For the handful of you now remembering the original essay on Hint Fiction, yes, I did make fun of the fact people nowadays have severe forms of ADD and can't sit still for long periods of time, but what seemed lost on a few people was the sardonic tone of the essay -- basically, it wasn't meant to be taken too literally.)

Also, remember how I had mentioned a local school district was partnering with the local library to do a community-wide reading program and they wanted to have three writing contests and include Hint Fiction as one of the contests? Well, here's the link.

Finally, on a more personal note, I'd done a post awhile back about our pet rat Ralphie and how it looked like he had another tumor and would soon die. Well, miraculously, that tumor (or whatever it was) went away, and he appears to be in very good health. What's more, yesterday was his birthday. Truthfully, we don't know his exact birthday, but August 21st is the date my wife assigned it, so he is now officially two years old. Here's hoping he makes it to three.

Anthology Update: Week Two

See -- even Hillary Clinton knows how many weeks the Hint Fiction anthology has been open for submissions.

Now let's get down to the nitty gritty, shall we?

As of this very moment (about 4:00 a.m. here on the east coast of America), 1,129 stories have been submitted. Last week the number was 644, so that means only 485 stories were sent in this week. Down from the first week, yes, and I expect next week to be low too, but then have a surge of stories in the last couple days.

And out of the 1,129 stories submitted so far, how many did I put in the "maybe" pile?

Only 123 in all.

As a recap, I'd placed 82 stories in the "maybe" pile last week, so that means I put 41 stories in the "maybe" pile this week.

Yes, the number's been cut almost in half. Why? Because I'm not being as lenient as I was the first week, where I put anything I thought was decent in the "maybe" pile. No, now decent doesn't do it.

What else to say? I don't know. It's late, and I need sleep, but I just got an e-mail from someone asking me to confirm the proper e-mail address to send submissions. That address again is hint.fiction@gmail.com. Apparently there's a bozo or two out there making up fake e-mail addresses for writers to send their stories to. Should I be surprised? No. Should you? Of course not. Just remember to send it to the right address and everything will be okay.

Also, I should mention (for those of you who don't follow me on Twitter) that Monday I spoke with a researcher at NBC. She's doing a series of articles about Twitter and very very very very short fiction and asked me some questions about Hint Fiction and the anthology. David Erlewine has already been interviewed on, like, camera, and Monday I'll be zipping down to Washington, D.C. to get my ugly mug on camera too. I also hope to meet up with some writer friends while I'm down that way, so it will be a lot of running around, but I'll try my best to tweet my progress a la Neil Gaiman as the day wears on.

Yes, I know -- you all can hardly wait, but patience, people, patience ...