A friend who knows a thing or two about it advised that I don’t post my short stories here on the blog, especially considering the novel coming out soon and yada. Suggested I start submitting again to the markets. Probably good advice. It’s something I actually gave a lot of thought to, awhile ago, back when I was writing more short stories than I am now and not really making much headway selling any. I’d sort of had enough-- I love writing stories, love it on a deep, primal level, but trying to find homes for them was disheartening and occasionally infuriating. I mean, I placed a few, here and there, but the hassle, geez. Every mag on line or in print has its own very particular set of standards for submission, some of them quite exacting, and the thing is, the thing is, see… when you go to all that trouble to re-format, change the double-spacing to 1 and a half spacing, pull in all the paragraph indentations, etc, etc… and then get the story bounced after waiting nine months… that’s the kinda stuff that just drives me nuts, dig? Or on the rare occasions you’d sell one, the monetary reward is, honestly, not even worth mentioning.
I’m not saying those magazines aren’t justified in having submission guidelines, don’t get me wrong. I’m just saying, it’s time I could have been writing something, you know?
So the decision I made about it at the time was, fuck it. I like writing stories. I don’t like trying to sell them. And if I miss out on a chance to earn a sawbuck or two, big freakin’ deal.
But this friend, this guy who knows what he’s talking about, says, “Exposure. Book coming out soon, you could use the exposure.”
And yeah, he’s right.
So after careful consideration, I’ve decided to NOT post short stories here anymore. There are some great markets these days for the kinda stuff I write, so why not? The exposure, even if it’s minimal, could very well be worth whatever small hassle is involved.
Now, if I wind up having no luck in the markets, I may very well change my mind again. I tend to do that sort of thing. Regardless, you can expect more stories from me, wherever they may appear…
I'm right there with ya. It's too bad there isn't some accepted standard for short story formatting, so you could do it once and forget about it.
ReplyDeleteI try to tell myself I'm helping my cause when I sit there doing all that re-formatting, that I'm jumping ahead of all those stories that might be better than mine but whose authors forgot to use *** between scene breaks...mwahahaaa...
Or maybe I just have too much time on my hands...
I think that's good advice, Heath. Sometimes I am tempted to do this, but I know it probably looks like I couldn't get anyone else to take it when I do.
ReplyDeleteThere is that, too, Patti-- giving the impression that the story isn't good enough to be published elsewhere. Not exactly a good incentive to read it!
ReplyDelete