French began her literary career with a sentimental story, "Hugo's Waiting", printed in the Davenport Gazette in 1871. She then worked on "Communists and Capitalists, A Sketch from Life", inspired by a railroad workers' strike. The piece was published in October 1878 in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, which paid her forty-two dollars, the first money she earned from writing. At that point, French took the pseudonym “Octave Thanet.” She later claimed that she chose “Octave” because it was gender-neutral, and that she had seen the word “Thanet” written on a freight car in the Davenport yards. She published stories and essays in such national periodicals as the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Scribner’s Magazine, and Century Magazine. These were often republished in book-length collections. She also published several novels and a work about photography.