Hello. I'm very much a fan of short stories and collections. Inspired by writers such as George Macdonald and Lord Dunsany, among others, I've turned toward the idea of writing a collection of short stories. I've always written in this form when not working on larger projects, so I feel that I'm strongest in short form work. However, I've heard that there isn't really a market for this type of writing anymore. I suppose my main question really pertains to themes and style. Maybe this is somewhat indulgent for a thread, but I would like to ask whether any of you, being writers yourselves, have an interest in more 'archaic', quieter, fantastical prose. The reason I ask is because I've always felt that my writing will not suit anyone. I've heard nice things about some pieces, but I don't know if I should commit to a 200-300 page short story/novella collection if there's absolutely no chance due to lack of interest from people and lack of viability as a medium from the publishing perspective. I hope this isn't the case as I'd really like to continue with my project. I've written about 215,000 words toward various projects since 2016, but in some ways I'm tired of just writing for myself. I finally want to attempt self-publishing or professional publishing, but I'm not sure my chosen project has any validity today. Should I ignore this doubt or take heed? As a kind of second part to this post to make it more general, do you ever have the feeling that writers of old had more opportunity? I feel as if Dunsany's Pegana stories would never be published today. Think of the structure of that work and its language. Am I completely wrong in saying modern writers have to confirm to some sort of style package, some preordained aesthetic, message and style, in order to achieve success? I really have no interest in this. Tough luck, perhaps, but I can't see myself ever publishing anything--even self-publishing--if no one will read the type of stories I want to write. Maybe I have a skewed view of things, but I've never really come across contemporary fiction that's even close to what I want to read. This is why 99.9% of my reading choices are old. Authors like Dunsany, Mirrleess, Macdonald, Tolkien (obscurer works such as The Silmarillion), etc. This isn't a jibe at other writers, not at all. I suspect it's more personal than anything. Edit: To add to the second part. I have somewhat of a dislike for how books are conceived in the modern age. Writing stories, for example, with regard to age ranges and the like. "YA", "gender roles", "how many MC's should it have?" The idea of someone asking whether they should embark on a story but aren't sure if they should set it in adult or in "YA" is just completely nonsensical to me. Shouldn't writing be more fluid and universal? Even more confusing is the idea of something like genre fiction vs literary fiction and this idea that the latter is an actual genre in and of itself. I don't think that when Dostoevsky wrote Crime and Punishment he was aiming for the "literary fiction" market. He wrote a compelling story and that was that. I have to say I'm not a fan of any of these categories and it somewhat boils the blood. I have this image of older writers enjoying a freed-up kind of writing. Stories were just stories. Thanks for reading this somewhat rambling post.
I don't know why people get so worked up over the idea of literary fiction. Literary fiction isn't a genre. It's the opposite of genre. Sure there is crossover, but literary fiction is more free from rules, structure and format. It's more like anything goes if you can make it work. There are certain expectations of genres that aren't there in literary fiction. And literary fiction is more character-driven than plot-driven for the most part. There is also a greater importance on language. None of this should upset any writer. We can all write whatever we want. There is really no point in getting upset over these distinctions. In fact, they are quite important when looking for the right agent and/or publisher and even finding the right readers. I think what's troubling here is your dislike of contemporary works. Have you really read enough to make this call? I ask this because I fall in love with almost every story I read. And when it comes to short stories, I know many of the publications well and continuously discover new favorite authors all the time. If you want to be a short story writer, it's as important to read what's coming out now as much as the greats from the past. And, really, there's no way you can hate them all. That's just not possible. Every year things like The Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize come out. Those are the best that have been published in the literary journals and magazines for the year. Maybe try reading those to discover new short story writers or really get a feel for the current scene. And rather than self publishing a collection, I would try to sell your stories individually first. Rights always go back to the writer after being published in a magazine or journal so you can still publish a collection down the road. But writing credits do help when it comes to being taken seriously and attracting readers. Where you publish your short stories does matter. And self publishing is not the only way to get a collection out. Publish enough short stories in good places, and you might have agents or publishers asking to work with you. This does happen all the time. And I have found it's no harder to break in at the top than the bottom. Publishing short stories is not something where you have to work your way up. Start at the top. Good stories get noticed. Good luck with everything.
Of course I knew that most 19th century authors published their work in serial format in smaller publications and they got their start and attained a not insubstantial readership. I just didn't think such formats were popular today. I considered a story collection because I imagined that since, to me, reading is a dying hobby (novels and longer non-fiction books), why would anyone read short stories in magazines of all places? Glad to know I'm wrong though. Can I ask how I might be able to judge the quality of a magazine or journal? Edit: There's also an element of just never having considered publication before. Strange to say, I've written for about 16 years and all of those have been without attempts to physically publish--even just to visit a publisher's website, whatever the scale. I think because I've never once tried to publish anything, most of my work being personal, I didn't really even appreciate there being open avenues such as short stories in magazines. I think I had the erroneous image in my head that publication revolved around larger works and required agents and significant investments in format, style, research, etc. Not that short story magazines don't, however having searched for a few of these, they do seem more attainable. By the way, not sure if I understood your first paragraph, but you have the same opinion as me. I also don't agree with the literary fiction vs genre fiction argument. I don't agree with categorisations or labels at all. As for contemporary writing, the newest work I've read was probably from the 1980s. I just don't find contemporary language and style at all appealing, nor most of the morality in such tales. I generally don't like to read about characters who use mobile phones, computers, drugs, walk urban streets, etc. It's just a personal taste. I'm sure that there are some stories more to my liking somewhere. I read modern non-fiction instead.
It can seem overwhelming when you first start looking at different publications for your shorter works. The best way to do so is to read the stories they publish. This is kind of important because even among the publications that publish literary fiction or general fiction, they each have their own flavor and style. Knowing things like this will help you submit smarter. The other thing is to read the author bios. Where else are these same authors publishing? That can help you grow your search in the right direction. Of course, there are still so many publications. A shortcut is to read things like The Pushcart Prize. These are the best short stories put out every year by all of the lit mags. And just about every university puts out a literary journal. When submitting to smaller places I feel better knowing they are part of a university. You mention fantasy. Are your stories straight fantasy or more magical realism? There are some publications where stories like this will be a no-go. I've got two magical realism short stories currently on submission. I tried the big fantasy magazines first, but I think I wasn't fantasy enough for them. One of them almost made it into a publication I've been trying to get into for years. In my rejection the ereditor said he was already regretting sending me the rejection as he wrote it. Damn! But there was no mention of the fantasy elements in my story or that something like that was the reason why I was rejected. I knew it was a bit of a gamble with this one, but it did come oh so close. Duotrope ($50 a year) is a database of all the literary journals and magazines. You can search by things like genre and pay. It gives you statistics on how long a response takes and acceptance/rejections rates. It will also tell you how many members submitted to each publication in the last 12 months. There are also interviews with editors that can really help you understand what sort of stories they want and go for. And then there is this thing where it says where other submitters also sent the same stories. On top of that it can track your submissions. It sounds like you have a good amount of stories you could start submitting and this might be very helpful for you. If a magazine has 25 duotrope user reported submissions, it's probably not as popular or reputable of a publication as the place with 500 reported submissions. Duotrope is just a sampling, but I've been using it almost since it started and find it to very useful and accurate. And this is something almost every short story writer I know uses. It used to be free, and there are some free versions floating around. But in my opinion they really don't compare and just don't have enough users to generate the same level of stats. And feel free to join us over on the rejection thread. I started that thread when I felt like I would never sell a story. I started posting my rejections, who they were from and how many days it took. When I publish I just put a But I still list every rejection just about. So, that's a long list of all the places I submit to. And others have joined in. We are primarily focused on publishing short fiction and there are a mix of genre and literary writers. Maybe we're all a bit of genre and literary, no? Also, feel free to DM me if you want some more help getting started. I have personal opinions on a lot of the places that publish short fiction and could always do a duotrope search for you. It might be free to try it for a month. If it is, you should definitely check it out. I hope some of this is helpful.
Can't say more than to extend my appreciation for this post. I may contact you in the future for some advice. It's an odd feeling to have written for so many years, but never really attempting to publish, even in short story magazines, so this is all very new and interesting. One thing that is a staple though and that I certainly knew about is the idea of becoming used to countless rejections; I'll head on over to your thread soon enough, I'm sure. Fine by me. Not sure how I've gone so long without attempting even to research publication, but maybe that's a sign that my personal writing has been fulfilling. I think it also has something to do with the fact a good chunk of my writing is a personal world-building project over a few hundred pages and I have no intention of publishing that. Intermixed with that are short stories. Most of these generally tend toward the fully fantastical or ethereal, although I've written some in a "magical realism" vein. Anyway, thanks again.
I would suggest you look here . thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com If your writing is good , and your not over ambitious over payments , you will probably find somewhere to publish your short stories. I would also suggest, you enter some of your stories into beginner competitions. You will qualify until you publish something.
Finding just somewhere to publish your short stories should not be the goal. Writing credits that no one has heard of aren't going to help you sell a collection. I would say you don't want to compete with beginners. You want to run with the big dogs. And this is all quite possible. Be as ambitious as you can be, about money, about the places you submit. Contests cost money and it can add up fast. But in a way every submission you make is sort of like a contest. You have to give them a better story than their other options. I broke in at the top. You just need a good story. Don't give your stuff away for writing credits that mean nothing or very little in the publishing world, especially if your end goal is to have your collection published. I believe you can do this. You've obviously written your fair share of short stories. See how your best ones do sending them out. The grinder is one of the free versions of duotrope, but it doesn't have the same amount of users and the stats aren't going to be as helpful. Like I said, I think you can do a free trial for a month with duotrope. I would start there.
I think what has changed (a lot) is the opportunity to publish short stories in magazines that are not devoted to short stories or niche genres. I remember back in the day when almost any leisure magazine (women's mags, men's sporting mags, teenager/children's mags) and many current-affairs magazines and general readership magazines had short stories in them. (The Saturday Evening Post, for example, launched many a writer's career.) There were usually several different stories per issue—and sometimes several different kinds of stories in the same magazine. I remember starting to read the stories, then having to deal with umpteen 'contined on page 32' kinds of directions. Many fairly famous authors were published in these magazines. While these stories were sort of directed towards the readership of that particular magazine, the subject matter was fairly diverse. Some of these stories were serialised. I remember not being allowed to cut the Betsy McCall paper dolls out of McCall's magazine till my mother had read the stories ...because inevitably several of them would 'be continued' on the reverse of the paper doll page. That magazine short story market has died back. Or, more likely, the magazines themselves are no more. There are still a few, but certainly not the same number of them. These magazines provided regular access to contemporary short stories for people who wouldn't bother buying a collection. Instead, folks bought the magazines for other reasons, but enjoyed the stories as well.
Apologize in advance for the necro. I’ve seen a lot of self-published, short e-books on Amazon. Like 20 pagers so I would classify them as “short stories.” Cost seems generally minimal. Like novels, these could be stand alones or series.
