I like the advice and then I don't. Creating content doesn't mean taking ownership of your platform.It's not like you show up on social media and suddenly an audience appears. It takes a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of patience, it is essentially the same concept of writing short stories while you wait. Getting published in lit magazines is super tough, and I totally agree that we should't wait for the so called "gatekeepers" to validate our work. But creating brainrot content is not the solution in my opinion and it can be extremely distracting. So the point is, do you create something of value whether is a short story or blog post even if nobody will ever read it, or do you waste your time chasing engagement on social media?I don't have an answer, but like probably most writers I keep the unrealistic hope that having a good story to share will be enough.
I hear everything you're saying. For my own writing journey, I was a widely published short story writer, and I only wrote short stories for the sake of getting attention from industry stakeholders for my novel. When I queried agents in 2019, most of the agents who requested my full manuscript recognized me from Twitter, none of them mentioned my short stories. In 2023, I received six solicitations from editors at major publishers based on my Twitter presence. Now that I've sold a book to a Big 5 publisher, I can confidently say (at least for my own journey) that my short stories did not help me sell my novel, but my social media presence on Substack and Twitter (when it was still Twitter) did. Everyone's journey is different, and at the end of the day, the writing adjacent thing we do as writers needs to fill our creative wells—not drain them. For me, short stories are draining, but I genuinely enjoy creating content. My biggest takeaway from this conversation with Sanibel is that it's in a writer's best interest to build an audience for themselves outside of the book itself. Short stories and content creation are just two paths for finding that audience. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Look forward to reading To Have and To Have More. That being said, I think there’s a value in short story writing — even if you get rejected from every literary magazine possible and no one but you reads it. I’m someone who struggles with finishing longer form projects like novels. Writing and finishing short stories gives me greater confidence as a writer and helps me develop my creative voice in a lower stakes way versus writing a novel.
I think a lot of folks writing novels would benefit from learning to write in a concise way that short stories demand, because they really teach you the value of every sentence and every word (similar to poetry.)
My prose writing definitely improved after taking poetry classes! I think if a writer gets value out of writing short stories, they should absolutely spend their time writing short stories. For me, my short stories were widely published when I was querying and on submission for my novel, but I can confidently say without a doubt my social media presence helped me sell my debut novel more than my short fiction publications. I don’t get a lot of joy out of writing short stories, so my time is better spent on something that fills my creative well like content creation for Substack. I wish I derived more creative fulfillment from short stories!
I second this: getting good at content development is a fundamentally different task that builds your marketing chops but does zippo for your understanding of how to grow a character and move a story with action and desire. Growing one’s writing skills feeds the soul in many ways. Your point that both craft and content are necessary in today’s content economy is true. I recommend getting a job that pays in the digital economy so you can “ learn while you earn” (what I did back in the day) and then apply your content and marketing strategy knowledge to your own writing. Marketing supports good writing but it doesn’t make it better.
Love the idea of learning while you earn! In terms of craft, for my own writing journey, writing short fiction has helped my line level writing find more concision, but it didn’t help me structure my novel or learn how to develop a character arc over the course of a long-form narrative. That said, I wish my creative writing programs taught more craft in terms of novel writing. My programs focused a lot more on the craft of short story writing, which didn’t translate 1 to 1 for my novel writing process.
Difficult... substack feels even more oversaturated then Instagram at the moment. I genuinely have no idea how anyone manages to get any sort of audience nowadays. I started my substack with that as part of my goal (although I did just also want to get into writing regularly and have a place to collect things that I learnt) - but people just have too many newsletter subs now. Realistically, people are only going to manage about 5 max if they're actually reading what's being sent...
Yeah, content creation in general is a separate skill that needs to be learned. Content creation for audience growth specifically is a whole other skill set. Whether a writer is writing short stories or creating content, none of it is easy. But time is finite, and at this stage in my writing life focusing on content creation is more productive for my goals than writing short stories. So much of the writing life is figuring out what writing adjacent activities fill our creative wells and how we can prioritize those activities in our daily lives.
This is such a good interview! I love how honest Sanibel is. I proceeded to watch tons of her TikTok videos after reading this.
My dilemma, which we talked about in Hype House and you had great feedback on, is what to do with my limited time while I'm in the writing phase. For example, let's say I have four free hours this week for writing. Do I spend them working on a Substack post, which can take that many hours, or do I spend them writing my manuscript? Then once I sell the book, or once I'm waiting to hear back from my agent on it, get my Substack back up and running? Or do both? I wonder what Sanibel would suggest. I'm guessing somewhere in the middle of the road.
I love this reframe though, thank you. It takes the pressure off the "need" for short stories!
Time management for the writing life is hard! We talked about it a lot in class, but I’ll leave my two cents here in case anyone else finds it helpful. For me, I’m trying to treat my novel writing like a business. My book is the core product of my business, so the writing always, always comes first. But as things stand right now, it’s kind of possible to launch a fiction career without a platform from the start, though that might very well change sooner than we’d all like. I’d be curious to hear how early career nonfiction writers are balancing building a platform with the writing itself.
Thank you for this Kat! I love this interview and Sanibel's honest advice. Social media changes the publishing game drastically. I actually ended up taking an alternative route and decided to self-publish after hearing from agents and publishers that my writing, pitch, and voice were great, but my platform wasn't large enough to sell my book to the masses. Then I realized, hey might as well build my community and sell direct. :)
Thank you so much for another great interview! Sanibel has some great insights. I definitely agree that publishing short stories doesn’t correlate to getting a book deal, though, in my experience, having prior pub credits has been helpful in signing an agent. I also personally really enjoy writing short stories and while the money in it isn’t great, it’s still something (especially contests!) But I think the advice to forgo putting all your efforts into short stories if you don’t enjoy it is good advice. I hate creating social media content (besides Substack) so I have hard time devoting my limited time to it when I’d rather be writing 😅. I do know authors who have signed book deals without a huge social media presence, but I also know the market is getting more and more competitive.
All great points! When I was querying, I was a widely published short story writer, but the agents who requested my full manuscript recognized me from my Twitter presence, so my short story publication track record didn’t help me stand out as much as my social media platform did. In general, I’ve personally received more literary opportunities from my social media presence than I have from my short story publications. But it’s important to note that for my own writing life, I don’t derive a lot of joy from writing short stories. Creating content for Substack—on the other hand—fills my creative well, so content creation is the best use of my writing adjacent time. As writers, I feel like our biggest job is to figure out what refills our writing energy, what drains it, and how we can minimize and prioritize those activities. Thanks for reading!
Yes! I love the wording of finding what drains and refills our creative energy. It’s amazing, also, to hear how everyone’s route to success is a little bit different. Thanks for creating these engaging conversations on here!
All I heard in my MFA program was to write short stories! I do feel like it’s outdated advice — don’t more people read substack than legacy lit mags anyways?
I agree! I wish my MFA program had a social media component. My Twitter (before it collapsed) presence opened more literary opportunities for me than my short story publications.
What a wake-up call! Am knee-deep in a novel (draft 7 currently in front of beta readers), and beginning to lose steam on how to ready it for agents and or publishers. This post gave me specific ideas on what I might do right now. I worry about sharing excerpts (giving it away) but I can see the benefit of using them as teasers for the final project.
My advice—take what’s useful; leave what’s not—is to avoid posting actual excerpts from the novel you hope to traditionally publish. I think it’s easier to build an audience by creating content about things that are thematically related to the novel’s subject matter. If you’re interested in this, definitely check out Sanibel’s Nantucket series linked in the post! She talks about her novel’s setting (Nantucket) and how it relates to issues of class and privilege and then plugs her book at the end of the videos. Her content is not about the book’s story, it’s about the book’s themes and explains why people interested in the video’s content would be interested in her novel. Congrats on all the progress you’ve made on your book. Excited for what’s ahead for you!
Kat, Sanibel, this was an excellent read! I have so many thoughts on traditional MFA advice -- and I 100% agree that if writing novels is the goal, a writer's time is better spent cultivating their own audience online. I wonder if MFA programs will start to offer this sort of component too -- it'd be useful.
I did the first year of my MFA program at the University of San Francisco and our professional development professor made us create Twitter accounts, follow industry professionals, and post at least twice a week to give us some social media skills if we choose to use them. This was 2017, so I think our professor was way ahead of the curve. I finished my degree at the University of South Florida and we didn’t discuss social media or content creation at all. I think all MFA programs today should have at least one course where students learn content creation skills so that they have them in their toolbox if they choose to use them. But MFA programs and academia in general are unfortunately very slow to adopt new methods, techniques, and belief systems.
Since I have a book under contract with a publisher, I am not allowed to enter into a new contract until after my first book is on the shelves. This is stipulated in my contract. I don’t have an exact pub date yet, but it seems like my novel’s hardcover release will be delayed to 2027 and the paperback may come out in 2028. If I submit my second book in 2027 after my debut is released and my publisher chooses not to publish this second book, I could be on sub for a year, that puts us in 2028. If I go into contract in 2028, I will have 1-2 years to work on developmental edits with my editor. That puts us in 2029/2030. If my publisher does choose to publish my second book, the timeline could be shorter and the book could come out in 2029, but that’s still four years from now. Publishing is very slow and almost completely out of the writer’s control, so I just have to go with the flow.
Oh gosh! Yes, I knew it was slow, but I didn't realize the extent of it. I was thinking my book would definitely be published before 2030 if I'm ready to query next year, but maybe not?? This sucks. Thanks for sharing all the details!
Ok, shifting the ancillary focus from writing short stories to writing "content" is so interesting and such a valuable reframe. And definitely going to need to remember to write content ideas down as I'm working on my adult novel.
The suggestion to jot down content ideas as your working is so useful. I'm starting another revision of my second book, and this exercise has made me feel like I have more control over this process that is 99.99% out of my hands, which is nice. I'm so pro-content as an ancillary focus that I strongly believe an MFA's professional development class should have a content creation unit to teach the skills so that writers have them in their toolbox if they choose to use them. When I was at the University of San Francisco, our prof dev professor made everyone create a Twitter account and post twice a week as part of the course, I truly believe she had the right idea that building a presence on social media can give a writer recognition in the industry that short story publications (nowadays at least) might not.
Honestly, I think you might be right. And there's still a whole range within that too. Content can be quick brain rot but it can also be incredibly well researched and well written video essays. Whatever is most appealing to the writer. But they've gotta have the skills to do it.
100%. I stumbled into this strategy because I happen to enjoy creating content, but I wish I was explicitly told to consider it earlier in my writing life.
wow, I love this idea of jotting down marketing ideas as they come to you instead of waiting til everything is done. Not sure if I can get my brain to multitask like that, but will try!
I had a similar thought! I recently started a revision of my second novel. It's not under contract so the soonest it could come out (if I am very, very lucky that is) is five years from now, but I've been jotting down content ideas as I work to try out Sanibel's strategy. It'll be interesting to see how this helps me market the book if I'm able to sell it.
I like the advice and then I don't. Creating content doesn't mean taking ownership of your platform.It's not like you show up on social media and suddenly an audience appears. It takes a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of patience, it is essentially the same concept of writing short stories while you wait. Getting published in lit magazines is super tough, and I totally agree that we should't wait for the so called "gatekeepers" to validate our work. But creating brainrot content is not the solution in my opinion and it can be extremely distracting. So the point is, do you create something of value whether is a short story or blog post even if nobody will ever read it, or do you waste your time chasing engagement on social media?I don't have an answer, but like probably most writers I keep the unrealistic hope that having a good story to share will be enough.
I hear everything you're saying. For my own writing journey, I was a widely published short story writer, and I only wrote short stories for the sake of getting attention from industry stakeholders for my novel. When I queried agents in 2019, most of the agents who requested my full manuscript recognized me from Twitter, none of them mentioned my short stories. In 2023, I received six solicitations from editors at major publishers based on my Twitter presence. Now that I've sold a book to a Big 5 publisher, I can confidently say (at least for my own journey) that my short stories did not help me sell my novel, but my social media presence on Substack and Twitter (when it was still Twitter) did. Everyone's journey is different, and at the end of the day, the writing adjacent thing we do as writers needs to fill our creative wells—not drain them. For me, short stories are draining, but I genuinely enjoy creating content. My biggest takeaway from this conversation with Sanibel is that it's in a writer's best interest to build an audience for themselves outside of the book itself. Short stories and content creation are just two paths for finding that audience. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Look forward to reading To Have and To Have More. That being said, I think there’s a value in short story writing — even if you get rejected from every literary magazine possible and no one but you reads it. I’m someone who struggles with finishing longer form projects like novels. Writing and finishing short stories gives me greater confidence as a writer and helps me develop my creative voice in a lower stakes way versus writing a novel.
I think a lot of folks writing novels would benefit from learning to write in a concise way that short stories demand, because they really teach you the value of every sentence and every word (similar to poetry.)
My prose writing definitely improved after taking poetry classes! I think if a writer gets value out of writing short stories, they should absolutely spend their time writing short stories. For me, my short stories were widely published when I was querying and on submission for my novel, but I can confidently say without a doubt my social media presence helped me sell my debut novel more than my short fiction publications. I don’t get a lot of joy out of writing short stories, so my time is better spent on something that fills my creative well like content creation for Substack. I wish I derived more creative fulfillment from short stories!
I second this: getting good at content development is a fundamentally different task that builds your marketing chops but does zippo for your understanding of how to grow a character and move a story with action and desire. Growing one’s writing skills feeds the soul in many ways. Your point that both craft and content are necessary in today’s content economy is true. I recommend getting a job that pays in the digital economy so you can “ learn while you earn” (what I did back in the day) and then apply your content and marketing strategy knowledge to your own writing. Marketing supports good writing but it doesn’t make it better.
Love the idea of learning while you earn! In terms of craft, for my own writing journey, writing short fiction has helped my line level writing find more concision, but it didn’t help me structure my novel or learn how to develop a character arc over the course of a long-form narrative. That said, I wish my creative writing programs taught more craft in terms of novel writing. My programs focused a lot more on the craft of short story writing, which didn’t translate 1 to 1 for my novel writing process.
Difficult... substack feels even more oversaturated then Instagram at the moment. I genuinely have no idea how anyone manages to get any sort of audience nowadays. I started my substack with that as part of my goal (although I did just also want to get into writing regularly and have a place to collect things that I learnt) - but people just have too many newsletter subs now. Realistically, people are only going to manage about 5 max if they're actually reading what's being sent...
Yeah, content creation in general is a separate skill that needs to be learned. Content creation for audience growth specifically is a whole other skill set. Whether a writer is writing short stories or creating content, none of it is easy. But time is finite, and at this stage in my writing life focusing on content creation is more productive for my goals than writing short stories. So much of the writing life is figuring out what writing adjacent activities fill our creative wells and how we can prioritize those activities in our daily lives.
I actually read this whole thing twice. It’s money.
Sanibel is so generous with her advice. Thanks for reading!
This is such a good interview! I love how honest Sanibel is. I proceeded to watch tons of her TikTok videos after reading this.
My dilemma, which we talked about in Hype House and you had great feedback on, is what to do with my limited time while I'm in the writing phase. For example, let's say I have four free hours this week for writing. Do I spend them working on a Substack post, which can take that many hours, or do I spend them writing my manuscript? Then once I sell the book, or once I'm waiting to hear back from my agent on it, get my Substack back up and running? Or do both? I wonder what Sanibel would suggest. I'm guessing somewhere in the middle of the road.
I love this reframe though, thank you. It takes the pressure off the "need" for short stories!
Time management for the writing life is hard! We talked about it a lot in class, but I’ll leave my two cents here in case anyone else finds it helpful. For me, I’m trying to treat my novel writing like a business. My book is the core product of my business, so the writing always, always comes first. But as things stand right now, it’s kind of possible to launch a fiction career without a platform from the start, though that might very well change sooner than we’d all like. I’d be curious to hear how early career nonfiction writers are balancing building a platform with the writing itself.
Thanks for reading!
Thank you for this Kat! I love this interview and Sanibel's honest advice. Social media changes the publishing game drastically. I actually ended up taking an alternative route and decided to self-publish after hearing from agents and publishers that my writing, pitch, and voice were great, but my platform wasn't large enough to sell my book to the masses. Then I realized, hey might as well build my community and sell direct. :)
This is such a great way to pivot in the current landscape. Thanks for reading!
Thank you so much for another great interview! Sanibel has some great insights. I definitely agree that publishing short stories doesn’t correlate to getting a book deal, though, in my experience, having prior pub credits has been helpful in signing an agent. I also personally really enjoy writing short stories and while the money in it isn’t great, it’s still something (especially contests!) But I think the advice to forgo putting all your efforts into short stories if you don’t enjoy it is good advice. I hate creating social media content (besides Substack) so I have hard time devoting my limited time to it when I’d rather be writing 😅. I do know authors who have signed book deals without a huge social media presence, but I also know the market is getting more and more competitive.
All great points! When I was querying, I was a widely published short story writer, but the agents who requested my full manuscript recognized me from my Twitter presence, so my short story publication track record didn’t help me stand out as much as my social media platform did. In general, I’ve personally received more literary opportunities from my social media presence than I have from my short story publications. But it’s important to note that for my own writing life, I don’t derive a lot of joy from writing short stories. Creating content for Substack—on the other hand—fills my creative well, so content creation is the best use of my writing adjacent time. As writers, I feel like our biggest job is to figure out what refills our writing energy, what drains it, and how we can minimize and prioritize those activities. Thanks for reading!
Yes! I love the wording of finding what drains and refills our creative energy. It’s amazing, also, to hear how everyone’s route to success is a little bit different. Thanks for creating these engaging conversations on here!
All I heard in my MFA program was to write short stories! I do feel like it’s outdated advice — don’t more people read substack than legacy lit mags anyways?
I agree! I wish my MFA program had a social media component. My Twitter (before it collapsed) presence opened more literary opportunities for me than my short story publications.
What a wake-up call! Am knee-deep in a novel (draft 7 currently in front of beta readers), and beginning to lose steam on how to ready it for agents and or publishers. This post gave me specific ideas on what I might do right now. I worry about sharing excerpts (giving it away) but I can see the benefit of using them as teasers for the final project.
My advice—take what’s useful; leave what’s not—is to avoid posting actual excerpts from the novel you hope to traditionally publish. I think it’s easier to build an audience by creating content about things that are thematically related to the novel’s subject matter. If you’re interested in this, definitely check out Sanibel’s Nantucket series linked in the post! She talks about her novel’s setting (Nantucket) and how it relates to issues of class and privilege and then plugs her book at the end of the videos. Her content is not about the book’s story, it’s about the book’s themes and explains why people interested in the video’s content would be interested in her novel. Congrats on all the progress you’ve made on your book. Excited for what’s ahead for you!
You know, Kat, that is probably good advice. I’d be afraid of someone lifting the actual material.
I’ll try to think of thematic ways to tease and drum up interest in the book.
Glad I saw this comment! I almost gave something away!
Kat, Sanibel, this was an excellent read! I have so many thoughts on traditional MFA advice -- and I 100% agree that if writing novels is the goal, a writer's time is better spent cultivating their own audience online. I wonder if MFA programs will start to offer this sort of component too -- it'd be useful.
I did the first year of my MFA program at the University of San Francisco and our professional development professor made us create Twitter accounts, follow industry professionals, and post at least twice a week to give us some social media skills if we choose to use them. This was 2017, so I think our professor was way ahead of the curve. I finished my degree at the University of South Florida and we didn’t discuss social media or content creation at all. I think all MFA programs today should have at least one course where students learn content creation skills so that they have them in their toolbox if they choose to use them. But MFA programs and academia in general are unfortunately very slow to adopt new methods, techniques, and belief systems.
Thanks for reading!
Where do you get the number five years from as the soonest your book could come out? That seems so far from now!
Since I have a book under contract with a publisher, I am not allowed to enter into a new contract until after my first book is on the shelves. This is stipulated in my contract. I don’t have an exact pub date yet, but it seems like my novel’s hardcover release will be delayed to 2027 and the paperback may come out in 2028. If I submit my second book in 2027 after my debut is released and my publisher chooses not to publish this second book, I could be on sub for a year, that puts us in 2028. If I go into contract in 2028, I will have 1-2 years to work on developmental edits with my editor. That puts us in 2029/2030. If my publisher does choose to publish my second book, the timeline could be shorter and the book could come out in 2029, but that’s still four years from now. Publishing is very slow and almost completely out of the writer’s control, so I just have to go with the flow.
Oh gosh! Yes, I knew it was slow, but I didn't realize the extent of it. I was thinking my book would definitely be published before 2030 if I'm ready to query next year, but maybe not?? This sucks. Thanks for sharing all the details!
Long wait times aside, I’m rooting for you and your book!
Thanks, Kat!
Ok, shifting the ancillary focus from writing short stories to writing "content" is so interesting and such a valuable reframe. And definitely going to need to remember to write content ideas down as I'm working on my adult novel.
The suggestion to jot down content ideas as your working is so useful. I'm starting another revision of my second book, and this exercise has made me feel like I have more control over this process that is 99.99% out of my hands, which is nice. I'm so pro-content as an ancillary focus that I strongly believe an MFA's professional development class should have a content creation unit to teach the skills so that writers have them in their toolbox if they choose to use them. When I was at the University of San Francisco, our prof dev professor made everyone create a Twitter account and post twice a week as part of the course, I truly believe she had the right idea that building a presence on social media can give a writer recognition in the industry that short story publications (nowadays at least) might not.
Honestly, I think you might be right. And there's still a whole range within that too. Content can be quick brain rot but it can also be incredibly well researched and well written video essays. Whatever is most appealing to the writer. But they've gotta have the skills to do it.
So good. I learned all this as a self help writer starting 34 years ago — and it’s made all the difference. 🥰
100%. I stumbled into this strategy because I happen to enjoy creating content, but I wish I was explicitly told to consider it earlier in my writing life.
For me it was a process — took years to fully internalized. I encapsulated it by saying “I choose me.”
wow, I love this idea of jotting down marketing ideas as they come to you instead of waiting til everything is done. Not sure if I can get my brain to multitask like that, but will try!
I had a similar thought! I recently started a revision of my second novel. It's not under contract so the soonest it could come out (if I am very, very lucky that is) is five years from now, but I've been jotting down content ideas as I work to try out Sanibel's strategy. It'll be interesting to see how this helps me market the book if I'm able to sell it.