Hello WW.

My name is Jo and I’m (very) new and on trial

I’m a final year medic (but also old, thanks to a mis-spent youth). I have always written for my own entertainment, but my work has never really seen the light of day (either ending up at the back of a drawer or the back of the Aga). Some time ago I wrote and presented a short story based on Alzheimer’s Disease for a medical humanities project. I was quite shocked as to how well it was received and amazed that I managed to move both the audience and my GP tutor to tears (in a good way!). It was wonderful to have a reaction to something I had written and also rather a relief to see that medicine hadn’t knocked all the creativity out of me.

The experience appears to have unlocked some long forgotten door in my brain and consequently, I have written a collection of short stories (~70,000 words in total). The stories have a common theme and, although they could be read individually, they work better as a team.

Having worked my way through several pages of the forum, I am beginning to suspect that a collection of short stories isn’t the ideal way to begin my journey. Is it worth sending out this type of work as a complete newcomer, or is the Aga beckoning? Does anyone have any advice or experience they could pass on about which agents might be best to approach in this case? If I had to describe them, I would say they are a cross between Oliver Sacks and Alan Bennett (if that doesn’t sound too ridiculous and amazingly bigheaded).

Thank you!

Jo
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Hi, Jo, and welcome to WriteWords

No, certainly don't consign the collection to the Aga - heaven forbid!, you never know when they will be needed.
Yes, it's true that Agents and publishers aren't interested in short story collections, but that is not the be all and end all of publishing. There are a number of well respected competitions - such as Fish and Bridport - where short stories are king, and a win can lead to publication as part of an anthology with other authors, or publication of your own collection. An ex-WWer - Vanessa Gebbie - has gone that route and seen her collection published by Salt Publishing, so don't give up hope. There are also magazines and ezines that publish short and very short stories (flash fiction), which are worth looking into.

- NaomiM

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You might also consider adapting some of them for radio - BBC Radio 4 invite short stories for various programmes.

Yes, do try Salt Publishing - they publish shorts. Worth a shot anyway!

Axxx

Hello Jo, and welcome to WW.

Just agreeing with Naomi that competitions and small magazines are the best hope for getting short fiction published - a track record in that could persuade someone like Salt to take you on - there are others, too, though not many. (Though on a point of information, and not wanting to raise anyone's hopes, I know of two writers whose first publication has been a short story collection from a trade publisher - one by Cape, the other due out from Harvill next year. In both cases I think the agent and publisher are really waiting for The Novel, but still...)

But certainly don't go anywhere near that Aga, at least not if you're holding an MS of stories which can make doctors cry.

Emma

Yes, medics are usually, by necessity, quite a hardened bunch! It was wonderful to see a reaction to it, up until this point I had only ever read it out loud to my German Shepherd (who often walks off mid-sentence). The medical school is planning to use my work for core teaching next year, so at least it will be useful to someone even if nothing else becomes of it!


Thank you for your replies – it’s very much appreciated. There is such a huge amount of information on this site and I have learned so much just by reading old threads. I will work on sending out individually to competitions, although it will be painful to separate them – they seem to compliment each other so well as a set!

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I will definitely be up-grading myself when my grant cheque arrives!

Jo
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Welcome to WW, Jo.

Don’t worry too much about separating them at this stage. If you have a few successes with competitions and magazines, you'll be in a better position to get them published as an anthology.

Good luck!

Dee

Thanks Dee!

I've managed (after a little faffing) to upload one of my stories. If anyone has ten minutes to spare it would be lovely to get some feedback on it.

Best wishes
Jo (now fully paid up and orange!)