Should You Try Publishing a Novel Excerpt?
by Mary Kole | Former literary agent, now a freelance editor, writing teacher, and IP/story developer for major publishers and creators.
Are you considering publishing a novel excerpt on a blog, on your website, or in a literary magazine to try and get agent and publisher interest in your manuscript? A Good Story Learning member recently asked whether this was a good strategy, not only to build up publishing credits but to catch a gatekeeper’s eye. This was the inquiry:
I'm curious about submitting a novel excerpt from an as-yet unpublished novel for a literary magazine. My worry is that if the novel excerpt is accepted, the larger manuscript may become unsellable to publishers. To make it work better as a stand-alone piece, I've made some edits, but I'm unsure whether the changes are enough or even matter. What do you think?
Publishing a Novel Excerpt
First, let’s address the potential fallacy that a novel excerpt is easy to publish. It has to be a good excerpt that can stand alone as a short story or article for a blog or literary magazine to pay much attention. (You have zero barrier to entry when putting it up on your own author website, of course.) Blogs and magazines aren’t going to take kindly to being “used” as a teaser or showcase if the novel excerpt itself doesn’t offer a lot of value to their readership.
Trying to publish a novel excerpt is still trying to get published, which can be tough. So it’s not like this strategy of submitting a novel excerpt around is without its own potential obstacles. (There’s also the time involved in researching markets for the novel excerpt, which could be energy that you spend toward writing the novel itself.)
You also need to be coming at this strategy from the right frame of mind. After we probed a bit, it turned out that our question asker felt disheartened that her novel wasn't garnering any attention from agents. In the midst of her exasperation, she wondered: "What else can I do to get noticed?" That's when the literary magazine idea struck her. Though it sounds promising in theory, is it the right way to go?
Is The Novel Excerpt The Most Direct Route to Publication?
If I was being blunt, I’d ask: Why? What's the point? Chances are very, very, very slim that this method will help draw attention to your work or that an agent or other gatekeeper will even see it. This route sounds strategic but also has the potential to turn into a long and winding road that takes you farther from your goal, not closer.
If your aim is to get a novel published, it's more effective to invest your time in crafting a top-notch novel and pursuing the traditional route of submitting it to agents. (Or cutting to the chase and self-publishing directly to market.)
Nonetheless, if you wish to take a detour and attempt to place a novel excerpt, you could look into submitting an excerpt of your novel to a reputable literary magazine. This may involve getting familiar with the submission process, immersing yourself in the world of literary magazines, and so on.
Writing credits may be important to build a name for yourself as a writer, yet they are not the ultimate deciding factor when a literary agent or publisher considers your work. Agents and literary magazine editors may seem to be intertwined but this isn’t the case. You'd imagine they would be linked in some way and sometimes they are, but agents have an abundance of material to get through, and, realistically, they are probably not combing niche literary magazines for potential clients. (Unless you somehow end up published in The New Yorker as a “stepping stone,” which would be incredibly rare. Getting into The New Yorker is a lifelong pursuit, in and of itself, for some writers.)
Even then, an agent may not see that publishing credit and imagine you as a novelist—they might see you as a short story or magazine writer. And if they don’t necessarily love the novel the writer is submitting (even if they enjoyed the novel excerpt), that impressive credit might not be meaningful. Your hard work for those unrelated publishing credit may yield very little reward toward your primary goal.
The Market for a Novel Excerpt
When it comes to lit mags, the demand for unpublished novel excerpts is much less compared to standalone articles, short stories, and poems. Unless a magazine contracts you to turn the excerpt into a serial series, it is highly unlikely that a single novel excerpt (even if it’s shaped well, per the above, and stands alone) would be considered desirable. Additionally, it could be difficult to find a publisher willing to print it, as it has already been released to the public.
Some publishers might be stubborn and reject your entire project since you’ve already used some rights by publishing a novel excerpt (dealing with a book rejection?). Though you’ve only exploited first print or first serial rights to a very small percentage of the work, publishers can be very finicky about certain things.
Finally, it’d behoove you to also consider the revision process. If your novel is not yet done, you might wake up one day and realize that it needs another revision pass (or two). But you’ve already published a novel excerpt. Now you see that it wasn’t your best work … and it’s out there.
Itching to make progress in your writing career? Take the more direct route and focus on writing a great novel, drafting a successful query, researching agents and, if you have enough free time, pitching a novel excerpt to literary journals. But that avenue should come last, if at all, compared to the more direct approach.
Elevate Your Storytelling
Wherever you are in your writing journey—from an initial outline to a draft to pitching your project—the experienced team at Good Story Editing can take your work to the next level.