Short Work That Leads to Longer Work...
A Few Examples; Maybe You Have More to Add to the List?
Hey there,
We were talking briefly in workshop last night about short publications—essays, stories, poems—that have become part of longer work, in spirit or directly, and perhaps—only perhaps— helped land book deals, build careers. It would be an overreach for me to say the work in question definitely landed the book deal, unless the author has already written as much. Each one of these writers can tell their own story about the road to publication with far more detail and nuance than I will. Here are just a few pieces that stand out to me today, from my particular corner of the reading universe. I’ve been reading Maggie Smith’s latest, and that book has influenced this list, it’s true. On another day, this list might look very different.
If you’re writing, of course write what calls to you, what you want to write, what you want to read. There’s no quick formula to publishing deals, only writing and reading and thinking, along with craft and practice and perhaps acquired skills over time. (I believe writing can be taught, absolutely.)
Still, we can consider a possible trajectory, watching cool authors build careers, seeing where they’ve placed terrific work, reading what’s out there.
Off the top of my head, in no particular order:
Lauren Hough has written about how this essay, “I Was a Cable Guy; I Saw The Worst of America,” in the Huffington post went viral, and later became part of the wonderful essay collection Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing.
Cheryl Strayed had an amazing essay in The Sun, “The Love of My Life”. To read it was to be pulled into an intimate conversation with a warm, electrifying voice. The essay was selected for Best American Essays. Soon after she published first a novel, Torch, then her knockout memoir of course, Wild…and so much more…whew! Superstar!
Stephanie Land had this piece in the Guardian, and this one in Vox, before her breakout memoir, Maid was published, now a terrific Netflix series as well. Rocking it!
Maggie Smith went viral with her poem, “Good Bones.” She’s written about that experience, as well as been interviewed about it many places. Her latest memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, is titled after the final line from the poem, drawing the two together.
Chuck Palahniuk first published a story version of what would later become Fight Club, a compressed heart-of-the-work piece, in Story magazine. We were so impressed! Then he busted out, for real…
Kristen Roupenian (whom I don’t know at all…only by work and her fast-paced literary fame) placed a story, “Cat Person” in the New Yorker. The story went viral and kicked up a lot of literary dust, lit conversations…then she reportedly received a $1.2 million dollar two-book deal. Yowza! The first of those two books is out. I haven’t yet read it.
Personally, I loved having a piece in The Sun, which became part of The Stud Book. I was happy to have a fine deal, at the time.
Some have launched book deals and other things from a single Modern Love piece. Ah, the life! Ha! (Mine is here.)
What else? Who else?
There are many more!
Do you have an idea for a short, compressed essay, story or poem, that speaks to the longer writing you’re working on?
How are you?
xo
This one I quite like. J. G. Ballard’s “Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan”, which later became part of his larger work, ‘The Atrocity Exhibition’, was first published in pamphlet form. The way it’s written is in the style of a scientific paper, and I believe some people took it seriously. Regardless, some people definitely weren’t fond of it, taking it seriously or not. One bookseller distributing the pamphlets got charged with obscenity, and the first American releases of ‘The Atrocity Exhibition’ were destroyed before release.
I’m in kind of the opposite situation from what you propose. My Substack, Mama Ephemera’s Muddy Feet, is a series of short, linked, somewhat lyric essays at the intersection of personal essay, science/nature, and poetry/literature. I’m still finding my beat, if I can call it that, but I’ve just started reading a book published in Wales, “Birdsplaining” by Jasmine Donahaye, that I hope will serve as a sort of model. As a long-time poet (one book published, one making the rounds), I’m finding prose to be more fun than I thought writing could be!