While putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards as the case might be) is usually quite straightforward, novice writers are often at a loss as to how to get their writing into print. Let’s throw a little light on the subject.
By Marc de Faoite
Some writers simply write for the pleasure of writing. They are happy to leave their stories sitting in notebooks or on hard drives. But most writers want people to read what they have written. Perhaps you’ve written something and you would also like people to read it, but you’re not sure how to go about getting it published.
Let’s try to demystify the process by looking at some of the things you will need to keep in mind.
Is your work publishable?
You’ve written a short story, for example. The story needs to be as good as you can possibly make it. Experienced writers often leave a ‘finished’ story aside for a month or more before revisiting it with fresh eyes. It might still be exactly what you hoped and intended, but more often than not you will find some detail that needs to change, something that needs to be tweaked or expressed differently.
Writing is editing and proofreading
Before you even consider looking for a publisher you need to carefully edit and proofread your work. Make sure all the grammar and spelling is correct. If possible, show it to someone whose opinion you trust, preferably not someone too close to you, so that they can be honest with their reactions. Things that might seem obvious to you might not be clear to someone reading the story for the first time. Accept their feedback graciously, and if required make any necessary changes to your story, then proofread again.
Why is proofreading so important?
Editors and publishers are people. They get tired. They get bored. They get cranky if they miss their usual dose of coffee. Given the choice between a good story written perfectly, or a very good story full of grammar mistakes and bad spelling, an overworked (and more often than not underpaid) editor might choose the option that requires the least time and effort. By submitting a story full of typos you make it easy for them to reject your work, so maybe don’t do that.
Where to publish? Online vs Print
There are many places to get published. For short stories, the main venues you will be looking at are literary magazines and short story collections. Often literary magazines might be online only, though more established publications may have a print version too. Eksentrika recently featured this helpful list of publications. It makes for a good starting point.
Anthologies are generally put together by publishers and only appear in print. A publisher might limit a print run of a short story collection to just a few thousand copies, often fewer, sometimes far fewer. If the book does well it might see a second print run, but in a Malaysian context this is more the exception than the rule.
Online
While being published in print might feel like ‘proper’ publishing, online journals have a larger potential audience and far greater geographic reach. It might feel nice to see your story in a book on a shelf in your local bookshop but it’s unlikely you’ll have many readers in Uruguay or Ulan Bator. Don’t look down on online publications. There are many serious literary journals that only appear online. You can find some leads here and here.
Guidelines: follow the rules
In either case, you will generally come across submission guidelines. Some writers (wrongly) interpret this to mean that any requirements are optional. While certain publications may be more flexible around things like word count (the number of words in your story) the exact font type and size, or line-spacing required, many will simply reject work that doesn’t match the guidelines. Your story might be excellent (of course it is), but if it is saved in Comic Sans, or some other quirky typeface, it is more likely to be filed directly under B for Bin before even being read.
In short, if there are guidelines respect them, scrupulously. If no guidelines are given, this website can give you a few pointers on formatting.
Timing your submission
While some publications accept submissions on an ongoing basis, it is more usual to have a fixed submission period with an opening and closing date.
Many, perhaps most, publications receive the majority of their submissions on or just before the closing date of the submission period. Some editors will wait until all the submissions are received before they start reading the submissions, but often stories will be read as they come in.
You’ve read the guidelines and your story matches all the requirements. If it is ready, just send it straight away.
If your story is one out of ten received on a given date, the chances of it standing out are higher than if it is one out of five hundred received on the closing date. Where possible, get in early.
The local publishing scene
Malaysia’s publishing industry, particularly in regards to the English language, is quite small. This can mean that there are limited possibilities for getting published locally. But the small size has its advantages too, with the local writing community being generally quite tight-knit and supportive. Everyone knows everyone. Or if they don’t, they know someone who knows someone. The degrees of separation are minuscule.
While the pandemic might have prevented regular in-person meetups, the online scene is still quite active, with events, readings, and workshops happening all the time.
Malaysian Writers Community
Whether nationally or locally, the Malaysian Writers Society is an essential stop for any budding writer, with Penang having its own dedicated sub-group. You can join as a member or simply explore the many posts of the Malaysian Writers Community Facebook Group.
Penang’s writing community—a microcosm within a microcosm
Penang is blessed with several local publishers, with perhaps the two most notable being Areca Books and Clarity Publishing. Areca tends to focus more on non-fiction, particularly in the realm of social and cultural history. Clarity publishes Malaysia-focused fiction and non-fiction.
Rosalind Chua (left) and Patsy Yap (centre) of Clarity Publishing at the 2016 London Book Fair with author Gabija Grušaité.
Meanwhile Gerakbudaya bookshop, with its two outlets, is a hub of the local writing scene, supporting writers by hosting events and carrying what might well be the broadest range of Malaysian writing in both fiction and non-fiction available anywhere in the country.
Literary agencies in Penang
The role of a literary agent is to help writers find publishers for their work—usually book-length manuscripts, whether fiction or non-fiction—and negotiate the best terms on behalf of the author. Penang boasts two literary agencies. Impress Creative, helmed by Gareth Richards is an offshoot of Gerakbudaya Bookshop (full disclosure: I am fiction editor for Impress Creative). The second is Sivagurunathan & Chua, co-founded by Rosalind Chua, who is also the founder of Clarity Publishing mentioned above.
Publishing is rejection
Not every story you submit will be accepted for publication. Even the best writers regularly have their work rejected for one reason or another. For many people this is one of the more challenging parts of being a writer: all those hours put into honing your work only to be turned down again and again. But that’s the game. If you are to have any success in being published it is important not to give up. You might send the same story to a hundred different publications before it finds a home. Or you may have to accept that a particular story will remain forever unappreciated and homeless.
Few writers enjoy the process of looking for suitable publications and submitting work. It takes a lot of perseverance and patience to get a story published. It is not unusual for this process to take up almost as much time as actually writing. Sometimes it’s just the luck of the draw that your story lands in front of someone who happens to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate it at a given moment.
If you don’t feel ready to take the step towards publishing yet and are still building up your confidence as a writer, you might consider attending a writing workshop or joining writing classes. Some of Malaysia’s best known creative writing teachers include Brigitte Rozario and Sharon Bakar.
Rejection can be demoralizing. Don’t take it personally, which is a lot easier to say than to put into practice. There is a lot to be said for lowering your expectations. If you expect your work, no matter how good, to be rejected you will never be disappointed.
The difference between a published writer and an unpublished writer is that the published writer kept going despite the obstacles. Rejection is not the end of your writing career. Don’t give up. Get back on the horse. Write something else and try again.
Born in Dublin, Marc de Faoite is a freelance writer and editor based in Malaysia since 2007. His short stories, articles, and book reviews have been published both in print and online. Tropical Madness, a collection of his short stories, was longlisted for the 2014 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize.