So I busted my hump and wrote a first draft of 50k words for NaNoWriMo this year and as much as I know it may be too early to revise my first draft as of now, I am antsy and have started working on developing my next idea. I guess my question is in the mean time would it be beneficial to write a few short stories and try farming them out just to get my name out there? And subsequently, would publishing short stories to online magazines for free help or hurt? At this point I believe if I am trying to set myself up for a publishing prospect, it might be beneficial to just get a few published stories under my belt regardless of earnings. Am I wrong? I feel anyone can get published as long as they have a good well written story, and I would hate to waste time writing short stories when I could be working on my next real project while my first draft marinates....
I went to a writers conference and there was a panel of agents and that very question was asked. The unanimous answer was, it's not going to hurt, but it's not going to help either. It might be impressive if it's one of the well known places. I think they mentioned "Asminof" but I don't know what that is. I think maybe science fiction magazine? Anyway, they said that might make them give your submission an extra second or two, but the best thing you can do is start your next novel.
isaac asimov was one of the most respected sci-fi writers... he wrote both short stories and novels... there may be a magazine named after him... there are many threads on the site devoted to the writing short stories vs novels question... i suggest you check them out before going further in yet another, as you will find varying opinions on the subject have already been offered over and over again here...
