How I Write: Querying a Short Story Collection

Spoiler alert this is not a how I got my agent post. As of this writing, my collection is still out on query with only one response that was a very nice rejection and agents replying that they’ve received it. Publishing is hard and more and more writers are submitting to traditional publishing as the people in traditional publishing are becoming more and more over taxed and underpaid—so querying is hard on both sides. I don’t expect to hear much back before the fall.

What this post is, is like a lot of my How I Write posts. It is about my experience going through a process and sharing it with others so they can use it in their own careers.

Compiling a Short Story Collection for Querying

While considering and compiling my collection, I searched out resources and information online, in craft books (both in my personal library and my local), and with publishing professionals I know, but I did not come up with much besides: “short story collections are hard to query.” A lot of places, including teachers at my MFA program, recommend not to query a short story collection or not to do it unless you’ve:

Published in big name publications
Been in or recommended for Best of collections
Won a major award

I mark some of these with several of my stories in bigger name publications, winning the Hugo for my work with Strange Horizons, and my Ignyte noms for my writing. So, I figured I had enough of what it took to send my work out there.

I do have some experience compiling a collection. Over five years ago, I self-published a short story collection, Plagued Company and Other Stories, that was a really great experience. It has all my early stories that I had published at that time and several from my August short story daily writing challenge.

The process of preparing and working on this collection has been completely different than that one. That is because I knew I was going to self-publish Plagued Company and Other Stories. With this collection, I knew I wanted to try and get it published by a traditional or small press. The idea came to me before grad school, but I spent a fair amount of time during grad school working on the stories and getting them critiqued and workshopped.

I originally compiled the collection during my first year at grad school. The first draft of it was just under 100,000 words and had all the stories I had published over the past 5 years and a few that have not been published. My plan, at the time, was to send it out to short story collection contests. Then during a meeting with my teacher she said that I should submit to agents first and then contests because landing an agent would be more beneficial to my career than landing a contest win.

Plus, agents are made to get authors money and opportunities that contests can’t.

She also suggested I query her agent—which I absolutely did, more on that later in the post. I was surprised to hear that querying agents first would be better than submitting to contests, but then I heard it repeated from all the teachers I spoke to about having a collection ready to submit. They all said to start with agents and write the query with a note about having a novel in progress. It would make the stories more appealing. Additionally, my fiction advisor said, if the novel and stories somehow connect or communicate similar craft or theme topics even better. He also went further and said to go absolutely crazy on the edit of the collection.

Even if I think that I’ve edited the pieces to their final form, edit them again. Read them again. Send them out to publications again if they aren’t published. Have people give critiques on them. Edit them even more.

I am always cautious of over editing a piece to the point where the original energy and creativity is zapped from it. But I did go back through the collection and ended up taking out some stories that I thought weren’t up to snuff. I thought I was ready to submit at that point, but then I shared my thoughts, some stories, and plans with my thesis teacher and got even better advice.

She told me that in her experience as an editor, reader, and author, the most successful short story queriers and published short story collections are those that are done around a theme or focus. Plain old collections with a compilation of a writer’s work are only really intriguing or sellable for authors who already have a large following or a lot of stories in print.

This was the bit of advice that halted me in my tracks and made me rethink everything.

Editing the Stories in the Collection

After having my teacher tell me that themed short story collections had better success, I had to take an honest look at my collection and admit that there was no theme. It was just a collection of stories from my previous years that I couldn’t sell. I reworked the collections stories, taking some out, bringing in others.

Over the course of two months, the collection took six different forms. I started editing pieces and then abandoned them when I realized that the story needed more work. None of the combinations felt right. I didn’t want to rewrite all my stories to force them into an idea or theme. I also didn’t want to rework a bunch of rough stories that could, maybe fit and pull away my creativity attention from my novel that was to be my thesis.

I edited so much that I started feeling like I digging myself into a hole. Still, I kept going. The only way to figure out my collection was to work on it. I read short story collections and resources on compiling collections. But what really helped me figure out how to assemble the collection was rearranging it a bunch and thinking deeply about the stories and what they were doing. One exercise that I received from a fellow grad student who heard it from a teacher at Bennington that was really helpful was breaking down each story into the data that made it up.

The advice was to take note cards (I used Scrivener’s note cards) and write out the story’s title on one side. On the other side of the card, write out the tense, perspective, genre, theme, vibe, and other information that makes the story what it is. Then do that with each story in the collection, using the cards as a way of arranging and thinking about the stories in the collection as more than just a collection of stories but a compilation. The technique was compared to building a set list for a show. The exact advice I was given:

Think a lot about the order of the stories. It can be helpful to make a notecard for each one, noting the POV, the verb tense, the subject, the historical period if relevant, the tone (humorous, dark, serious, etc.), the length, and anything else that seems important. As you work to arrange them you can think about what stories might lead into other ones, what you want to separate (for instance, maybe you don’t want three 1^st person stories in a row), and what the overall arc of the collection might be in meaning or tone or theme. You should also think about which stories you consider to be your strongest or weakest.

I did this and looked at the data of my stories. I don’t remember the specific click that made it happen, but I remember when it happened and how. I was at the library with another Bennington student doing a study session. Before diving into Scrivener to mess around more with my cards and the arrangement of the collection, I took a step back and journaled. I just wanted to give myself space to think on the page about the collection, my intentions, and how this collection represents my style and work. Not just over the past few years but reaching out into the future.

I wrote several pages in my journal and while writing, the theme of the collection came out of me. It was so hot and fast that I stopped writing and went back to my Scrievener draft. I rearranged the collection again, taking out some stories, and adding others back in. Now, I had a title that gave me chills and a flow that I could communicate in a way that felt elating.

Building an Agent List for a Short Story Collection

Once I had a draft of the collection that felt good, I read through the collection and thought over it some more. While thinking and reading, I also began building my agent collection.

If you’ve never queried before, the biggest piece of advice is always to build a big list of agents to query. Have it in tiers so that you’re submitting out queries over the course of several months, first to your top agents and then to the other agents who fit your criteria but may not be the best fit. Essentially, people say to treat it like a numbers game where you’re submitting out between 50 and 100 queries over a year.

Trouble with short story collections is that very few agents want them. They are notoriously hard to sell and often don’t bring in as much money for an agent as a novel. There are also less publishers for them to submit to.

To build my list, I started by looking at all the agents that were currently open to short story collections. I then culled that list by checking to see what other genres the agent represented. I wanted to make sure that any agent I queried for my short story collection also represented the other genres I write in. This ensures that I won’t have to switch agents when it is time to submit my novel.

I’m a career author, so I also want to make sure that the agents I query are agents who I can be with for the next 3+ years of my career. An agent who works with me because they believe in my writing and want to help me reach my career goals and readers.

I was only able to find 6 agents who met those criteria. 6 is a really small list. Almost impossibly small. My odds of failure are higher. I could buff up my list to 50 if I wanted, but the 6 agents I added to my query list on Query Tracker are all agents I want to work with and that I could work with.

I didn’t want to fluff my list out just because. I wanted to do what I love to do, which is working with intention and thoughtfulness. So, even though my list was small, it was still a list that I believed in and where getting a yes or even a thoughtful no, would mean more to me than getting any agent.

Writing a Query Letter for a Short Story Collection

Once I had my agent list, I began compiling my query package materials:

Query letter
Synopsis
Sample pages

The query letter and synopsis were the hardest to write. Mainly because I have never written a query letter or synopsis for a short story collection. This meant I needed to do a bit of research and searching online to find examples of short story collection query letters and synopsis. Here are those resources:

A big part of why I wanted to write this blog post was because there wasn’t a lot of information out there on querying a short story collection. I wanted to write a post that would make someone else’s short story collection querying research a bit easier. If this post is helpful, I’d love to know!

What I read essentially said to frame it like a regular query but tease some of the stories and give a specific theme of the collection that answers why these stories now and why me to write them. My grad school teachers, however, told me to include something that the resources didn’t. They each told me to mention the novel that I was working on. The idea is that while short story collections aren’t all that appetizing to agents, if there is a novel attached, then it makes it so that the collection is an introduction to the author and their style before the release of the novel.

Here is the generic query letter that I wrote based on all the advice and resources:

Dear [agent]

A folk tale about murdered and missing women that weaves through the bowels of the United States. A dialogue driven story of haunted houses tormenting the unhoused. A character trying to convince himself and others that everything is absolutely fine except for the sound of that chainsaw. How I Creak for You and Other Stories You Don’t Want Me to Tell is a horror and dark fantasy collection that grapples with living in America.

The 10 stories that make up How I Creak for You and Other Stories You Don’t Want Me To Tell are a combination of published and unpublished horror and dark fantasy stories. The stories that have been published have gone on to be reviewed in Locust, Amazing Stories, and been nominated for an Ignyte Award and on Nebula recommended lists. How I Creak for You and Other Stories You Don’t Want Me To Tell is a great introduction to my style of evocative, strange, and propulsive thematic writing that is expanded on in my current novel in progress, [redacted].

I’m Aigner Loren Wilson, an Ignyte Award nominated writer, Otherwise Fellowship honors list author, and Hugo Award winning editor for my work with Strange Horizons. I grew up in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, did my undergraduate studies in creative writing at The Evergreen State College, and am inches away from an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. I’ve worked as a professional writer and editor for the past 10 or so years with publications like Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, Nightlight: A Black Horror Podcast, and Apparition Literary Magazine. My work has been published in Writer’s Digest, Vice, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Reactor Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, The Writer Magazine, and many more.

Writing a Synopsis for a Short Story Collection

Once I finished writing my query, editing the collection, and gathering my agent list, I went through each of the agents’ submission processes and wishlists to see if there was any particular format they preferred, any additional materials they requested, or what I should highlight in particular about the collection and stories.

Not all agents, but some, had small blurbs of particular stories or narratives they were interested in from writers. One even noted that any United States based authors querying their UK agency should have a good reason of doing so and state it in their query. Those tidbits helped me craft specifics in my query for each agent that made the different queries feel more personalized. I also was able to compile the sample pages for each since some only asked for the first few pages while some agents asked for 2-3 chapters.

All of that was pretty easy to compile and put together as part of my query package. What did cause me a bit of pause and took about a week or two to work out was writing the synopsis of the collection. I’ve written synopsises for the books I’ve queried and while they are always a bit difficult and helpful, they contain one story and not multiples. I searched out some resources and came up with 0.

What I ended up doing was just trying to think about what an agent would want in a synopsis for a collection. They would want an expanded take on the idea or themes behind the collection, why these stories in this order, and what each story is doing. So I wrote my synopsis like that, but then I realized that doing all of that in one made the synopsis really long because I wrote out each stories plot and themes.

Agents are slammed with so many queries on top of the mountain of work they are already doing for their list of clients so they tend to prefer query materials to get to the point. They also want to know an author can explain their work in a way that is interesting, focused, and succinct. So I cut down my 1,000+ synopsis to just over 300 words still trying to give the agents a look at what the collection has to offer.

Here is the synopsis I sent out to agents:

How I Creak for You and Other Stories You Don’t Want Me to Tell is a collection of previously published and unpublished dark fantasy and horror stories centered around United States mythos, collective trauma, and history. The collection opens with stories centered around slavery, murdered and missing women, houselessness, and the perils of ambition without fear before moving to stories of internalized homophobia, exploitation, teen suicide clusters, and feminine rage. The collection ends on a note of breaking free from these societal shackles to find our own ways into the future for ourselves and others.

Among the stories in the collection is the Ignyte Award nominated dark fantasy novelette ‘To Carve Home in Your Bones.’ The story focuses on a high school swimming team that shipwrecks on an island in a world where monsters rupture from your skin when you feel fear and are injured. The girls on the team are forced to save each other and themselves while accepting their fate. Written and published before the hit TV show Yellowjackets, ‘To Carve Home in Your Bones’ has been compared to Alien, Lost, and Lord of the Flies. ‘Unwanteds’ is a scifi horror tells the story of a group of houseless people getting a chance of a lifetime before finding out the dark truth of their new opportunity. The titular piece ‘How I Creak for You’ is a horror story told from the perspective of a smart house home to a serial killer who has just caught his latest victim. The piece has been called “the strangest, creepiest … and most violent” by the author Gabino Iglesias.

Together, the 10 stories tell the narrative of our modern lives in a state of constant terror and fear. What these stories do not do, however, is leave the reader hopeless. Nestled throughout the collection are glimmers of hope, characters taking their fear and living with it, and the belief that we do not have to be the things we have been conditioned to believe we are.

Sending Out Query Letters for a Short Story Collection

Once I finished all of that, I put everything a way, unintentionally, for about two weeks, maybe a month. I was working on this short story collection while finishing up grad school, writing my thesis, and finishing my novel. So, my brain was scattered.

It wasn’t until a weekly check-in with my craft, career, and studies did I remember that I had finished with all the materials I needed to start querying. That felt big and scary, so I put it off for another week. Then I had a free morning and did another check-in with where I was and what needed to get done. The short story collection was the only project that was ready to be completed and checked off as done.

I forget what I said to myself that morning that made me get over my fear of sending out the query, but it was something like, “You can sit on this forever and rework everything to death or you can send it off and see what happens. You have the power and ability to send out queries to agents today, right now, so do it.”

And so I did. I spent about 2 hours sending out 5 queries (one agent is closed so I am waiting till he reopens). After the first query, things sorta flowed smoothly and the anxious feelings subsided. By the third query, I was feeling good. So, good, I decided to take some more advice from my fiction advisor:

The people I know who ended up getting published after grad school were the ones who worked for it by being a bit annoying but giving into unabashed self-promotion. Reach out to faculty, past students, current students, and use all the relationships you’ve made at Bennington to get your work out there and to land you work.

I reached out to one of my teacher’s who said that I should query her agent and let her know that I did sent a query out. I also asked her to put in a good word for me. It did not lead to an acceptance, but it did lead to a thoughtful rejection that came at a time that was very helpful for my novel and thesis edits. I also drafted a bunch of emails to Bennington alum, faculty, and students asking for their help connecting me with agents and editors. I’ll spend some of my final residency networking to help forge those crucial industry connections before I am done and add some more emails to the list of people to ask for help.

What to Do After Querying

Since the querying is all done and I am just waiting to hear back, I’ve been doing absolutely nothing and just sitting anxiously starring at my inbox.

Just kidding.

I’ve been working steadily on other projects and keeping busy. Primarily, I’ve been focused on my grad studies and finishing my thesis. That I also submitted recently, but I’ll talk more about that in my final MFA Journey post.

Once all my queries have been responded to and no one picks it up, I’ll send it out to contests in 2027. If it does not land publication that way, I will go the route of self-publishing again. This time, I may even do a full self-pub work push for it like getting a cover artist, copy editor, dev editor, and making it a physical copy instead of just an e-reader. That takes a lot of work and is something that if I went that route, I’d want to dedicate quite a bit of time to promo and marketing.

That’s all for the future, though. As for now, I just have to keep writing.

If you’re new to the website, consider subscribing to stay up to date with all my posts. I’m Aigner! A Hugo award winning editor and Ignyte Award nominated writer of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and all things weird. You can check out all my stories here. I normally post once or twice a month on this blog, and it’s always about writing and my author career. Subscribe to stay inspired and in the know.

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