As many of you know, I’ve been querying agents unsuccessfully for over a year now. And according to Google, the likeliest explanation is this:

“Agents consider a short story collection a gamble primarily because they are historically difficult to sell. Unlike novels, collections lack a sustained narrative and rely entirely on the author’s track record for commercial viability.”

Interesting. However, a debut author presenting a single novel for the first time is not a gamble at all? When I first began querying in April of 2025, I was initially proposing my entire three-volume collection of short stories, which is a total of 18 stories, and with a word count of 100,000 per book. That’s a whole lot of original material for anyone to turn their nose up to. And yet, everyone turned their noses up anyway. I ended up asking my peers where I might be going wrong in my approach, and they told me that no agent would ever accept a three-book deal from a debut author. And when I say ‘debut,’ I’m not even including my previously self-published books. But since I began querying, I’ve unexpectedly added an additional three novels to that proposal as the ideas just keep flowing, which now makes the entire package a tempting, whopping six-book deal. I’ve decided I’m going to mention this in my last few remaining queries before I finally throw in the towel on agents altogether and try a different approach. 

My next idea was to go directly to independent publishers myself and offer my book deal personally. However, this could end up being disastrous, because, here’s the catch that I found online:

“A word of warning: if you submit your work to a publisher and are rejected, you cannot resubmit it later through an agent. Agents do not handle work that has been ‘shopped around’.”

Marvelous! So, if that goes wrong, it could mean that I will never get this collection published at all. Ever! And all because of what a tremendous gamble this would be? And when exactly did a collection of short stories become a gamble anyway? The whole reason I’m approaching my career this way is because my favorite author, Clive Barker, had begun his career with a three-volume collection of short stories called “Books of Blood.” This book collection spawned an additional three books that are also considered part of that collection: “In the Flesh,” “The Inhuman Condition,” and “Cabal.” Sound familiar? It should, because that’s exactly what I’m attempting to do right now. And not only were his books not considered a gamble at the time, but every single movie and TV show that was based on Clive’s work has all come from his “Books of Blood” collection. All except for “Hellraiser,” which was written, produced and directed by Clive himself, most likely on the money he earned from his debut books. You know, the books that, by today’s standards, won’t make any money. Brilliant, right? So why wouldn’t I try the same approach? 

But in the last year, things have gotten a little desperate for me and my wife. We lost our food stamps, because trump doesn’t believe that disabled people should be allowed food, and I’ve been surviving on no more than one meal a day. Our rent has gone up $200 in the last few years because of the tanked economy. Plus our cat passed away, and she was actually the biggest and most important part of my life. She’s literally all that kept me going. So, if my six-book deal doesn’t attract an agent soon, my only remaining option is this:

I’m going to have to put the entire project aside and travel seven books into the future to pen the book that I was planning to write after this collection gets published. That’s right, I’m going to have to write a novel prematurely just so I can get an agent sooner and finally get my career started. As for my very unattractive six-book deal, hopefully it will start to look a little more appealing once that novel gets published. 

Whenever I do get these books published—or just one book, or literally ANY book—I can then go back to eating again. We can move to a less stressful place. And I can finally get more cats, which is something that has been so desperate a need that it’s become detrimental to my health. Basically, every single thing that needs to be done in my life is all hanging in the balance of someone, anyone, choosing to give me a chance and say “yes.” 

While I’m on this subject, I guess I should mention that any excerpts and intros I have featured on this blog are not the final edits, just in case that’s factoring into the all-too-popular decision, “You’re not a good fit for me at this time.” 

—Author, James Francis