What is up with bit writers proclaiming themselves to be more successful than they actually are?

The Datlow anthologies sell well, so that's a good thing, but being in one isn't going to guarantee broad name recognition or any novel sales, in my view. I've read plenty of anthologies and I can't remember many of the authors in them even when I liked all the stories. He's had two Nebula nominations and one Hugo nomination. All for short stories. Even though these are good things to have in the SF/F community, I don't think having any of these things for short stories is going to translate into success in selling novels. I just don't see the correlation there. I don't think a short story career necessarily translates into name recognition and novel sales. I'm not sure most novelists can afford to quit their day jobs, and people selling in the short fiction markets probably have less name recognition than that.

 

My apologies. I just don’t know how the writing world works. I appreciate you informing on such details.

 

No worries. It's an interesting discussion. In SF/F, at least, I think name recognition generally follows successful novels. You might be known within SF/F circles for publishing well-regarded short stories, but to the general SF/F reader who might be surfing Amazon for a novel to read you're probably still an unknown. I've actually heard of Shunn, probably because I read a lot in the short story realm, but I've never purchased a book by him.

 

I think @Seven Crowns is at the front of the line for the payouts

 

I disdain anyone who participates for such base motives as money.

Me, I do it for the drugs and women.

 

A true man of taste and class

 

Because it sells copies and attracts attention. You'll find people scamming the system all the time, just so they can get that "best-seller" label and then they milk it as hard as they can. None of that actually matters. You are only as good as your readers think that you are. You are only as successful as the number of copies you sell. Most of these people are scammers and liars. They're trying to be something that they are not. Really, who the hell cares?

 

There is a rather pretentious writer up here in Scotland who fancies himself all that and even named himself after the singer Madonna. Strikes me more of a try hard than fraud. A lot of people puff up their CV. It's the writers equivalent of a model taking a selfie of her good side.

 

"Fake it till you make it" (apparently Silicon Valley favorite motto has conquered the world).

 

No one here has ever embellished their CV/resumé?

 

I am speculating here, but the way I understand it is that while the short story form is gaining more wide recognition in the last 15-20 years, an author still needs a collection of those published into a book to get name recognition. Besides SF/F, in all literature there are a very few short story authors who got recognized at a major level, like Alice Munro, And of all the short story published throughout the decades I only know of a few who became really popular, like Jackson's The Lottery. Do you agree?

 

Oh, for the 1950s, the golden age of short stories again. Mind you, I wasn't there the first time round.

You'd think, in an age of short attention spans, they'd be quite popular. Maybe that only applies to stories of 250 characters or less.

 

I should have put "Olympian" on my resume...as i made it to the Junior Olympics in 8th grade. failed miserably at the national level, but at least i qualified to get there!

 

I don't think being nominated for a nebula award is as big a deal as people here think it is. Sure, it's nice, an honor to be nominated, the short rib at the banquet was pretty good and all that, but it doesn't have the same effect on your career as *winning.*

 

question!

@Seven Crowns , what is/what makes a "shut-out" exactly? I have a sense of what it is from context, and I saw the word in other places, but I don't know the exact definition for publishing. thanks in advance.

 

Ellen Datlow is a legend, and deservedly so. I would love to work with her but I don't think I write the kind of thing she vibes with.

 

@Seven Crowns - thanks for the explanation! yes, I meant "shout-out" although I had the meaning of "shut-out" wrong all the same.

Success is built one step at a time, so congrats for having been mentioned and having a story published in the anthology.

wait, why were they deleting your posts on another site??

 

I love not knowing what my friends here think about politics. It's my anti-Facebook.

 

Amazon does provide a 'look inside' option for most of the books they sell. That's where to go to make up your mind about buying a book or not. Of course it's best if you find it on an actual shelf in a bookstore, and can thumb through the actual book, but barring that, being able to read a few pages lets you know if you're going to be comfortable with that writer's style. I use that to determine whether or not to buy a book, no matter what the cover blurb and author kudos tell me.