You may remember me recommending Doug Smith’s awesome resource for writers, his Foreign Market List. His previous class on rights and reprints was terrific and I’ve asked him to do a series of workshops, Playing the Short Game, aimed at people interested in selling short stories, novelettes, and novellas.
August 25 1-3 PM Pacific time: Session 1: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction
A wealth of courses and books exist to teach you how to write stories. But what happens when you’ve finished writing? Do you know how to sell what you’ve written?
Based on the popular writer’s guide, Playing the Short Game: 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
September 22, 1-3 PM Pacific time: Session 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
November 3, 1-3 PM Pacific time: Session 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 explains 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
I recommend Doug’s classes for the business side of things and the Rambo Academy is offering a special deal on them: $39 each, all three for $99.
For Patreon supporters and former students, that’s $29 each, all three for $79. 3 Plunkett scholarships are available in each.
Classes are taught online and require reliable Internet connection, although in the past participants have logged on from coffee shops, cafes, and even an airplane; a webcam is suggested but not required. They are recorded for the benefit of class members only.
To register for this class, send an emailwith the following details:
- Which class or classes and the dates you would like to register
- Whether you would prefer to pay via Paypal, Venmo, or some other means.
- Whether or not you are a former student or Patreon supporter
- How you heard about Cat’s classes
You will be invoiced when the class slot is reserved.
Free scholarships: If you cannot afford a class but really want to take one, apply for a Plunkett Scholarship. Each class has three slots reserved for such students, and the sole criteria is only that you can’t currently afford the class. To apply for a Plunkett, which covers the entire cost, mail me and tell me why you want to take the class in 100 words or less. QUILTBAG and PoC candidates are especially encouraged to apply. The Plunkett Scholarships are named for Edward Plunkett, who wrote as Lord Dunsany. Scholarships are given out on a rolling basis; I suggest getting them in sooner rather than later. You may apply for multiple classes.
