Oh,
The Changes I’ve Seen
When
I was first published in 1968, publishing was a thriving business. The thriving
remains the same but the changes astound me. I didn’t realize how many there
were until I began to look at this. Now I was seriously writing long before I
was published. I spent several years studying the short story before I put down
much more than ideas. I’d been a reader all my life and writing seemed to be
the next extension. I’ve seen many changes in the publishing of fiction. I no
longer write short stories, though I do some novellas. Most of my writing is in
genre fiction. So settle back and let’s look at some of the changes I’ve seen.
The Writing
Not
only has my writing changed but so has that of other writers. When I began this
adventure, I realized I was a minimalist. But more on that later. Here are some
of the things I’ve noticed.
Books
became shorter. When I first began with a novel most books ran at least 80,000
to 120,000 words. For a time that prevailed and those lengthy descriptions of
people, places and things went on for paragraphs and sometimes pages. Now we
try to make a few words do the work of many.
The
passive voice wasn’t frowned on. When I look at my first short stories and saw
the amount a passive voice, I wanted to go back and rewrite them. Now the
active voice is the way to go and we’re not telling stories, we’re showing
them.
Now
the next big change I’ve noticed is with dialogue tags. “said she,” used to be
the way dialogue was tagged. Asked John. Rather that she said or Jon asked.
Then there was this tag. “said she while she walked across the room to close
the window and cut the draft.” We now shorten these kind of phrases and clauses
a lot.
Content
In the past 50 years, the content of stories
has changed, especially in the romance field where most of my books are set.
In
1972 when my first romance novel sold, there were romances out there but the
content has changed with time. Romance was often entwined with a mystery or an
inspirational message. Books we might have considered romances today were more
in the main stream manner. Nurse-doctor romances were there and that’s where I
began. Being a nurse gave me an insight into the medical world. There were many
differences from the romances written today.
The
internal conflict was more important than the romance. Body parts were avoided,
except for lips and mouth. Romance seemed to focus from the neck up. Anything
else was taboo. One of my published romances out in 1983 had all mention to
breasts removed. But times were changing. Sex was perhaps hinted at but the
couple seldom reached the bedroom door. The proposal and the kiss came near the
end of the book. There was usually a triangle with either the nasty sexy female
opponent or the heroine having to choose between two men who were either both
great guys or ones not so great. Macho men came a bit later.
There
are probably other trophes out there but most of the romances were sweet.
Publishers
When
I published my first short story, there were many magazines for short stories.
I’m sure I sent the first one I wrote to about twenty or more magazines before someone bought the
rights to publish. Then magazines began to disappear. Some were large magazines
like The Saturday Evening Post and others were smaller. I even sold two stories
to magazines that ended publication before the stories saw print. I was able to
keep the money they paid. I used to buy The Writer’s Handbook every year for the
listing on publishers. 1983 is the last one I remember buying, probably because
I went back to work as a nurse for a few years.
What
I’m going to give you a summary of the markets for each kind of story and then
the publishers for that year.
Short Story Markets 1983
Science Fiction
and Fantasy 13 magazines
Detective and
Mystery 10 magazines
Romance and
Confession 9 magazines
Fiction there were
6 pages of listings
Children 34
magazines
YA there were
three pages of listings
Book Publishers
Hardcover Publishers
there were 10 pages of listings
Paperback
Publishers 2 pages of listings
Romance Publishers
14 Publishers
There
were also self published manuscripts that were mostly chap books of poetry.
And
there were always Vanity publishers
Changes Continue
From
the 1980s through the 1990s publishers consolidated and merged leaving fewer
places for an author to sell books to a publisher without an agent. These
mergers are still happening.
Then
came electronic publishing. I was early in publishing this way and the number
of small publishers expanded and contracted daily. During those years, I sold
well though at first the books arrived on floppy discs. Those were exciting and
some unpleasant days. Being part of something new was fun. Having friends who
were or were not published making snide and hurtful remarks wasn’t fun but I
endured. I endured so well that many of my fellow romance authors who were the
most vocal against me are now published electronically.
An
ereader arrived and that boosted sales. Then Kindle and other devices that were
slimmer and lighter came and selling ebooks became the thing.
Lately,
audio books have taken off. Self-publishing is popular. Reading books on one’s
phone is now a trend. Who knows what will come next and I hope I’m around to see
the next great leap.
