Author Journeys: Publishing short stories with Isabella Hunter

Welcome to Author Journeys, an interview series focused on overcoming rejection and other struggles in order to get published, self-publish, or secure literary representation. If you’ve ever felt held back, lost, or stressed out by the path to publication, this series is here to inspire and motivate you, no matter the route you want to take. I’ll be interviewing a range of authors, from self-publishing authors to traditionally published and agented.

Interview with Isabella Hunter on writing and publishing short stories

Today I’m welcoming Isabella Hunter, a published author of short stories. Her work has appeared in various horror and fantasy anthologies, including several Iron Faerie Publishing compilations, Kristell Ink’s The Book of Demons, and CultureCult Press’s Creep: An Anthology of Horror Stories. She is currently working on a full-length novel.

You can find a full list of Isabella’s published work on her website.

Welcome, Isabella! Could you tell us a little bit about how you got into writing and publishing short stories, and how your first publication came about?

At university, I did short story writing, and it really gelled with me. For my dissertation, I ended up doing a collection of short stories – some under 1k and some 1–4k words – rather than a longer single piece.

When I left university, I tried sending these short pieces out to magazines, and just got hit by rejection after rejection. It came to the point where I was ready to shelve them as unmarketable.

AJ Dalton, my old university lecturer, reached out to me in September 2016, asking if I’d be interested in putting together a story for his anthology, The Book of Dragons. He wanted me to create a new story similar to my dissertation pieces but about dragons – I was stoked. I practically ripped his arm off at the offer.

I was really pleased to get my first publication (I cried reading the proof document). From there, I focused on anthologies rather than magazines. I’ve since published all the shorts from my dissertation that I previously believed were unmarketable. Sometimes, I feel that had I not got that first publication through AJ Dalton, I might never have been accepted by anyone else. I still have imposter syndrome. I think it’s something a lot of writers struggle with, and I hope with more publications it’ll fade for me, but only time will tell.

Did studying creative writing at university help you to prepare for the challenges of writing and publishing?

It taught me a lot about writing and putting pen to paper. It really helped me refine my craft, ready for publishing.

However, the information we got on publishing was relegated to a one-hour lecture that explored one particular lecturer’s experience with publishing. It didn’t go into the different ways you can publish, how to get an agent, or the ever-evolving world of things like Pitch Wars. The university could do with expanding the scope of what the course covers to include things like writing author bios, cover letters, and even Twitter pitches.

There are so many new ways into publishing, and it can be hard to find what suits you best and also to avoid pitfalls and traps, such as vanity presses disguised as genuine publishers.

Some writing advice suggests that short stories are a good way of practicing the craft before tackling a novel. What’s your take on that?

I’ve been trying to finish my novel, The Blood Moon Heir, since 2018. It has been a slog. Short stories and novels are two completely different beasts. While short stories can help with certain aspects of novel-writing, only diving into a novel will really enlighten you as to what that entails.

Plotting a novel is completely different to a short. I normally write a few bullet points for a short. With my novel, I have timelines coming out my ears and multiple POVs.

Shorts teach you to be concise. Every sentence needs to be important and meaningful. Writing shorts has helped me delve into genre writing without dedicating myself to a 70k+ word novel. I wouldn’t say short stories are some secret key to writing a five-star novel, but they’re good to practice specific aspects in a concise manner.

For example, I found the romance in my novel, The Blood Moon Heir, lacking, so I started writing romance shorts. Since then, while editing my novel, I’ve really made the romance more impactful.

How do you deal with and overcome rejection?

I still cry at rejections, I won’t lie. If I really wanted to nail a brief and I get a rejection, especially if I wrote the story specifically for the submission call, I’ll be a bit despondent for a while.

I don’t think getting upset at rejections is a bad thing, as long as you don’t start throwing hands with the place or person who rejected you. I give myself some time to mope, complain to my partners generally, then realise that there are more places. Just because one place rejected you doesn’t mean there won’t be more.

I’m brushing the dust off the queer Medusa romance I wrote several years ago because I’ve found another submission call that it’s perfect for. Even if you’ve been rejected loads of times, you don’t know when you might find a home for a story. Keep them around and work on other stuff. Submit them when the opportunity arises.

Are there any particular difficulties you face when writing and publishing short stories?

I quickly discovered that writing specific stories for a submission brief yields better results than sending stories you had lying around that vaguely fit the brief.

This does mean suddenly having to shake up my writing plans if I have to fit a 5k-word story in by the end of the month, but I also have another submission call I wanted to do by the 10th.

If you don’t land the gig you were aiming and writing for, it can be harder to get that story accepted by other places – places it wasn’t written for. It’s not impossible to get it published if you don’t get that one, though. Keep an eye out for more submission opportunities. There are loads of Facebook groups for submission calls. Follow presses you like on social media to keep up to date on new calls.

You’re very open about being a queer author and the difficulties queer authors face, such as being forced to come out to make stories “legitimate”. Do you have any advice for queer writers who may come up against similar issues?

I struggled a lot, wondering if I was “queer” enough to be writing sapphic romances, or whether I could really write male/male romances, being a cisgender bisexual woman.

A lot of writers struggle with being “enough”, forgetting that it’s all a spectrum. There will always be someone who will criticise you regardless of what you do. As long as you do what you can to make sure you aren’t writing something harmful, that’s the important thing.

I’d always recommend sensitivity readers relevant to what you’re writing, and take on board any feedback you get. Even if you’re not out, going through sensitivity readers will help you to know that you haven’t done things wrong with your writing. Then if you do get criticism it’ll be easier to brush off.

No one has the right to know your sexuality regardless of what you’ve written. There is a big pushback against the discourse that only openly queer writers can write queer experiences. Find the right crowd and they will have your back. If all else fails, the mute button is your friend.

What’s your favourite piece of writing advice?

My favourite writing advice came from my dissertation tutor who said, “It’s better to have a buffet you can pick your favourite parts from than an empty plate.”

Essentially, you can’t edit what you haven’t written. It has got me through a lot of dry patches when writing my novel. I doubt I’d have ever finished it if I didn’t repeat that to myself when I struggled to put pen to paper.

Your work is heavily influenced by folklore and myth. What’s your favourite folk tale?

That’s such a big question. I love all folklore and myths, especially Japanese, Greek, Egyptian, and local British folklore. If I had to say one as my favourite it’d have to be Orpheus and Eurydice. I love things a little bitter and just knowing that if Orpheus hadn’t looked back he’d be together with Eurydice makes my heart ache in the best way.

What’s next in the works for you?

I have two queer romances on submission right now. I’m hoping to hear back on them soon. I’m working with AJ Dalton on The Book of The Dead, due out in the late summer of 2022. That piece is exploring a less popular yurei.

I’m hoping to have The Blood Moon Heir ready for beta readers in the next few months. In the meantime, I’ll crack on getting a first draft of my virgin-meets-succubus romance, Contract For Your Heart, sorted.

Huge thanks to Isabella Hunter for being on the blog to chat about publishing short stories and all things writing! If you have any further questions for Isabella, or want to share your own experiences of the short story market, drop them in the comments!

Thanks again to Isabella Hunter for stopping by the blog!