{"id":479,"date":"2008-06-12T14:58:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-12T14:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/on-sales-versus-publications\/"},"modified":"2008-06-12T14:58:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-12T14:58:00","slug":"on-sales-versus-publications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/on-sales-versus-publications\/","title":{"rendered":"On sales versus publications"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was updating my website today, and it finally occurred to me that the casual site visitor might be put off by the fact that I refer to poetry and fiction sales rather than poetry and fiction publications.<\/p>\n

“Whoa,” he or she might think. “This Lucy person is all money-focused. She’s all commercial<\/i>. Ew. Doesn’t she care about art<\/i>?”<\/p>\n

Because I have a mortgage and other bills due every month and Bad Things Will Happen if those don’t get paid, and because I am not a trust-fund baby, yes, money is on my mind pretty regularly. But I expect I’m not any more money-focused than most of you reading this.<\/p>\n

If I really cared about money above all else, I’d have gone into real estate or stock trading. I surely wouldn’t be spending time writing poetry.<\/p>\n

Like it or not, those of us who work in the arts in the U.S. have to deal with a capitalist system that doesn’t cut us any slack if we’ve worked very, very hard on our craft all month and yet don’t have any money. And the no-money situation is a pretty common one for fiction writers who don’t have family supporting them.<\/p>\n

It’s hard for a beginning writer to sell a story or poem. If you haven’t tried it before, you may have no clue exactly how hard it can be. It can even be pretty hard to give<\/i> your stuff away to a nonpaying lit magazine.<\/p>\n

Making a sale is essentially hearing an editor say, “I like this so much I’m picking it as better than 100 other things I got this month, and<\/i> I’m going to make space for it in the publication I’ve staked my reputation to, and<\/i> I’m going to give you money out of my own pocket.”<\/p>\n

In other words, a sale means a whole lot of editorial approval.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, writers’ organizations like SFWA<\/a> and HWA<\/a> define a writer’s professional status by the quantity and quality of sales he or she makes. And the IRS surely demands that I keep track of individual sales; those sales define me as a “real” writer in the government’s eyes rather than a hobbyist.<\/p>\n

So if those groups are gonna define my status as a writer by my sales, I might as well too, right?<\/p>\n

“But what about Art?” I hear some of you cry. “Where’s the art in all this pursuit of filthy lucre?”<\/p>\n

I care deeply about art. But I don’t get to decide if any of my writing is artistic. Art is what happens in the reader’s mind, if it happens at all. It’s subjective, and I don’t get to control it.<\/p>\n

What I do<\/i> get to control is craft. Good craft often translates into good art. And I work as hard as I can to produce well-crafted writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was updating my website today, and it finally occurred to me that the casual site visitor might be put off by the fact that […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8qT6f-7J","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":716,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/writing-query-letters-for-fiction-or-poetry-markets\/","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":0},"title":"Writing query letters for fiction or poetry markets","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"May 17, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing a query letter for fiction or poetry is a bit different from writing a query letter for a nonfiction piece. Short Fiction and Poetry In the case of short stories or poetry, you in general won't be writing many query letters; editors may be mildly annoyed at getting a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "writing"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"letter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/letter.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/letter.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/letter.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/letter.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/letter.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15472,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/halloween-horror-fest\/","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":1},"title":"Halloween Horror Fest at The Book Loft","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"October 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Please join me and authors S. Alessandro Martinez, Maxwell I. Gold, Jason A. Wyckoff, and Matt Betts at The Book Loft of German Village on Tuesday, October 28, 2025 at 6:00pm. The Book Loft is an amazing independent bookstore located at 631 S 3rd St, Columbus, OH 43206. The event\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Writing Advice"","block_context":{"text":"Writing Advice","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/writing-advice\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/halloweenhorrorfest.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/halloweenhorrorfest.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/halloweenhorrorfest.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/halloweenhorrorfest.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/halloweenhorrorfest.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8134,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/recent-poetry-publications\/","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":2},"title":"Recent Poetry Publications","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"October 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, my work was published in two new poetry anthologies: Writing Poetry in the Dark from Raw Dog Screaming Press, and Poetry Showcase Vol. IX from the Horror Writers Association. Writing Poetry in the Dark was edited by Stephanie M. Wytovich and includes my article \u201cA Slippery World: Writing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "poetry"","block_context":{"text":"poetry","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/poetry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Poetry book covers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/poetrypost.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/poetrypost.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/poetrypost.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/poetrypost.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/poetrypost.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/poetrypost.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1482,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/whats-a-collection\/","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":3},"title":"What’s a Collection?","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"July 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In publishing, a collection is a book of short pieces (stories, essays, or poetry) all written by the same author or co-authors. Contrast this with an anthology, which is a book of short stories (or, less often, essays or poetry) written by different authors. A collection is usually a substantial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "editing"","block_context":{"text":"editing","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/editing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/11222401_10153774451281789_1341538619508807463_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/11222401_10153774451281789_1341538619508807463_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/11222401_10153774451281789_1341538619508807463_n.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/11222401_10153774451281789_1341538619508807463_n.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":478,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/advice-fiction-writers\/","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":4},"title":"Advice to beginning fiction writers","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"June 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone who sets out to become a writer wants to be seen as a \"real\" writer, not a wanna-be or never-gonna-be. It's basic human nature to crave acceptance, status and respect. And even the crustiest, most jaded authors -- despite their protestations to the contrary -- are human beings who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "writing"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14902,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/columbus-book-festival\/","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":5},"title":"Columbus Book Festival","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"July 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"This coming weekend on Saturday July 12 and Sunday July 13, you can find me in the Ohio Horror Writers Association tent in Topiary Park for the Columbus Book Festival. 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