Playing the Short Game online workshop series
I'll be giving three free online workshops on how to market and sell short fiction, based on my Playing the Short Game writer's guide, sponsored by the Newmarket Public Library and the Writers' Community of York Region (WCYR). You need to register online for the workshops, which will take place on three consecutive Tuesday evenings: April 21, April 28, and May 5.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 7-9pm — Playing the Short Game #1: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction
This workshop will give you critical advice on how to sell your short stories to professional markets and to build a career as a short fiction writer. Topics covered include:
Rights and licensing for short fiction
A strategy for selecting your target markets
Finding short fiction markets
Selecting the right market
Submitting short fiction to a market
What not to do when submitting
What to do after submitting
Tuesday, April 28, 2020, 7-9pm — Playing the Short Game #2: You Sold a Story! Contracts, Editing, & Reality
This workshop takes a writer from when they learn an editor wants to buy their story to after it's published and the reviews start coming. Topics include:
Understanding how editors and slush piles work
Why editors choose or reject stories
What to look (and look out) for in short fiction contracts, and how to ask for changes
How to work with an editor during the editing process for your story
How to handle rejections and reviews
How much promotion is reasonable when you sell a story
Cool things that might happen: Awards, best of anthologies,…and even movies
Tuesday, May 5, 2020, 7-9pm — Playing the Short Game #3: How to Make Your Short Fiction Work for You
This workshop focuses on the phase in a short story writer's career when they've established themselves and have built up a backlist of published short fiction. It will explain the many ways a successful short fiction writer can leverage their own inventory of published stories, as well as other aspects of an established short fiction writer's life. Topics include:
Leveraging your backlist
Selling reprints
Selling in foreign languages
Selling audio rights
Publishing a collection
The indie option for short fiction
Discoverability tools and promotion for established writers
Career progression in short fiction
Again, you need to register online with the library.
