I have seen other authors (Miranda July for ex.) publish short stories in literary magazines and these short stories were part of published novels. I was guessing the short stories came before the novel. ? I was wondering whether it would be a good idea to submit a chapter of my manuscript to a literary magazine. Publishers generally want exclusive rights to the work, right? But would most publishers mind if an excerpt were previously published in a magazine? Would all? I thought maybe some authors published a piece of their novels in magazines beforehand to gain a reputation/prestige before getting picked up by a publisher. But if that's not the case, I don't want to toss my novel in the trash by only getting a piece of it into a magazine. Advise. Plz & thx.
Authors who publish part of a larger work in a magazine are usually well-known and have an established audience. Yes, there may be a few cases where a new writer publishes a story or excerpt and later uses it as part of a novel, but that's very rare. Also, keep in mind that a single chapter isn't going to read like a short story since the pacing of novels and stories is very different. Chances are that a single chapter will end in a cliffhanger and/or without leaving the reader satisfied. A publisher is going to take all this into account when accepting or rejecting an excerpt from a new writer. My advice is to write and submit a story that isn't part of any larger work.
That's not really true - a new writer certainly isn't going to publish an excerpt in The Atlantic or The New Yorker, but there are definitely literary magazines that would accept such an excerpt.
I'm sure there are a few magazines out there that do accept excerpts, but those are rare. If it's obvious that the submitted short story is part of another, larger work, chances are it's going to be rejected for the reasons I mentioned in my previous post.
Miranda July has never written a novel, so that's not a good example. I've never read an excerpt by an author whose novel wasn't already eagerly anticipated. It definitely isn't gonna happen for a first-time writer. Stick to submitting short stories, and when you're Haruki Murakami-famous, try then.
"Yes, there may be a few cases where a new writer publishes a story or excerpt and later uses it as part of a novel, but that's very rare." Why is it rare? "I've never read an excerpt by an author whose novel wasn't already eagerly anticipated." I actually meant I'd submit a short story to a literary magazine, and was wondering if it would boost my chances of later publication of the larger work (you don't have to be famous to do that -- not even Haruki Marakami famous, whoever that is). Also, the excerpt I could submit definitely can stand on its own as a short story. And Miranda July had a collection of short stories published in a book, not a novel -- my bad. I've been thinking of just submitting a separate short story to a literary magazine. Haven't got the right one yet. Thanks for the help, everyone.
Just compare the first chapter of any novel to a short story and you'll see the difference. Chapters tend not to read like stories, which is why a publisher will probably not take a novel excerpt from an unknown writer.
