Interview with Bailey Shoemaker Richards

I met Bailey Shoemaker Richards in the wonderful world of Twitter. She was looking for writers to contribute to her new literary magazine and I jumped on board. It’s been a great experience for me. I love the publication, and I’m printed alongside many wonderful and talented writers. Below Bailey talks about publishing, editing, the journal and the hurdles she deals with in the world of self-publishing. She also shares hints for writers who are just trying to break into the short story market.

The 2nd Issue of Leaves and Flowers just came out (and includes a short story by yours truly!). It’s a great up-and-coming publication, and I always suggest that writers have several published works when approaching publishing houses and agents, it really helps your credibility.

I’ll post the next issue’s prompt right here on this blog when Bailey has it ready.

Also, don’t forget that Casz’s Martius Catalyst started today! If you missed her interview two weeks ago, here’s a link!

[Renda Dodge] So, what is “Leaves and Flowers”?

[Bailey Shoemaker Richards] Leaves & Flowers is a small literary journal. I like to think it’s unique in that it’s prompt based rather than theme based or open to any submission. What that means is that for each issue, anyone who is interested in writing something has to get in touch with me or read the Leaves & Flowers blog to find out what the prompt is before they can send something in.

[BSR] I initially started Leaves & Flowers for a class project on literary editing at Ohio University -each student had to create, find submissions for, edit and publish a literary journal by the end of the quarter. I had no idea how to go about finding people to write for me, so I just started throwing out questions and requests on Twitter, Facebook and to anyone I could get in touch with who wrote. Once I really got into working on the first issue, there was always this little voice in the back of my head going, “You’re not going to be able to let this go -it won’t be just this issue.” And it wasn’t.

[BSR] I was in Power of the Pen on both 7th and 8th grade -it’s a writing competition in Ohio. Each grade gets 3 prompts in 3 rounds to write off of, and each round is 40 minutes long. I loved writing that way. I thought it was fascinating to see how many different stories people can write even when you give them the same ideas to start with. I am still involved with Power of the Pen as an assistant to the Regional Coordinator, and I really love the idea behind the program. I needed a hook for Leaves & Flowers to really set it apart from simply being another literary journal, and I wondered if the prompted writing would work as well with adult and professional writers as it does with middle school writers -and it definitely does.

I come up with all of the prompts on my own, and I go through about 2 dozen ideas for each issue before I find one that I like.

[BSR] Writing the prompts -that’s one of the trickiest things. I want to find a prompt that is general enough that any writer can find something to say, but I don’t want to make it so specific that it prevents people from bringing their own ideas to the table. Additionally, getting the word out to find writers and artists in time for the publication is also a little tricky. I’m a busy person, and I know writers are busy too, so it can be hard to find that opening to really get a lot of people interested.

[BSR] I find them primarily through word of mouth on Twitter. People will send the prompt out once they hear about it, they’ll give it to their writers’ groups. I try to get in touch with people I know at OU who write as well, but Twitter has definitely been the best avenue for finding people who are interested in Leaves & Flowers and are willing to put in the time it takes to write something.

[BSR] I am -I’ve written several unpublished (and unpolished) novels, I had a personal essay published in The North Central Review, I blog and I write for Demand Studios and Suite101 to pay the bills. I’m a creative writing major at Ohio University, so I am definitely involved in the writing here as well.

[BSR] It’s a lot of me pulling my hair out and hurling awful words around my dorm room (sorry, neighbors!). I rarely get any pieces that require substantial work, but formatting a document to publish on CreateSpace is an immense source of frustration for me.  I try to be really meticulous about my editing process. I separate the submissions into two main categories: those that need read and those that are being published. Once they get into the “Publishing” folder, I break them down into broader categories (prose, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, etc.) and edit them individually. If I see any changes that I think I need the author’s feedback on, I send an edited copy to the author and ask if the changes I made are okay with them. Once I have all of my pieces edited and approved by the writers, I start playing around with the format and the order. That’s the longest part of the process -I like to put pieces in an order that showcases each individual author while providing a good segue through the entire journal. I go through probably 15 different layouts for the journal before I start seeing something I like.

[BSR] I have only had to reject a few pieces, and it was really hard for me to do. I actually called my boyfriend because I was so upset -he is very good at getting me to calm down. It’s hard to tell an author that their piece just doesn’t fit! I’ve been on both sides of that coin now, and it sucks for everyone. I always try to give concrete reasons for a rejection (i.e. the writing didn’t fit the prompt), as well as pointing out what I did like about the piece. I’ve never actually read a piece and said, “Oh, I really don’t like that writing” -I’ve been very lucky that way. Usually when I have to reject something, it’s because the writing didn’t match the prompt well enough to be included.

[BSR] Submit, submit submit. Find a place that’s open for submissions, make sure your piece fits the type of writing they’re looking for, and send it in. Send your writing out to anyone you might think would be willing to read it, because otherwise, no one will. No one is going to come looking for your writing -you have to send it out to them. Also, read constantly. Reading is the best way to improve your own writing, because it gives you a chance to read something that has been polished, revised and published by professionals or people with plenty of experience in the field. Always read your rejection letters -form rejections might not be helpful, but sometimes there will be very insightful information in them. Look at smaller, rather than larger, publishing houses. I’m hardly a publishing “house,” but I’m a really small publisher, and I can tell you that it’s much easier to give lots of feedback to people because I work with such a small number of writers.

Right now I’m reading “The Greatest Show on Earth” by Richard Dawkins -it’s a great read. He’s a very good writer, which is not always the case with scientists. I grew up devouring sci-fi and fantasy every chance I could get. I still do, but I’ve definitely broadened my horizons. I love biology books and philosophy in particular, but I am also a huge fan of anything that doesn’t suck (my motto is if it doesn’t suck, I’ll read it -doesn’t matter what it is). I am incapable of entering a bookstore without making a purchase.

[RD] I really enjoyed this interview, Bailey has a unique insight to the world of publishing and writing. She’s all over the web, and you can find her in the various places below.

Twitter – @the_author

Leaves & Flowers Issue 1
https://www.createspace.com/3408437

Leaves & Flowers Issue 2
https://www.createspace.com/3446308

Leaves & Flowers Blog
http://leavesandflowersjournal.blogspot.com/

Suite101
http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/baileyshoe

Demand Studios
http://www.demandstudios.com/Profile.mvc/Member_b5ee61bb_baileys

Cleveland Literature Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/x-13594-Cleveland-Literature-Examiner

Bailey’s personal blog:
http://baileythebookworm-readingcorner.blogspot.com/

Helium.com
http://www.helium.com/users/387709