How precious is that feeling when a publisher accepts your story? How gratifying is it when an editor feels your story is so good that they want to pay you? How exciting is it seeing your story in print and knowing so many people are going to read it? EXTREMELY!
I (and I am sure there are many others) am painfully aware that the supply of stories exceeds the demand. Unless you’ve been living under a rock on a planet in a galaxy far, far away you would have noticed that the short story market is dwindling. We’ve lost far too many markets. It is disheartening as competition to get published becomes fiercer than it has ever been. What to do?
Persevere - Improve your skills. Read, read, read, write, write, write and read and write some more. It’s time to raise that proverbial bar. Don’t be disheartened or panic; polish your story until it shines. Set yourself a goal to be one of those writers that other writers envy.
Be Proactive – If we, our family, friends, acquaintances and neighbours write into magazines showing an interest in reading short stories this will bring back the demand for the short story.
We can hope, wish and some may even pray for the short story market to improve, or we can do something about it – at the least we have to try.
Meanwhile… keep on writing and never ever give up!
Trying again
ReplyDeletePlease visit the Woman magazine Facebook page and write a 'we want fiction' comment on the wall
https://www.facebook.com/womanmagazine
Oh, wow! My comment appeared! When you get sent to google account to sign in, unclick stay signed in and then, it seems, the comment is accepted!
ReplyDeletePerhaps if all short-story writers (and their families and friends) wrote to all relevant magazines asking for more fiction, editors might take some notice, do you think?
ReplyDeleteOr is it a case of 'pigs might fly'?
Pat - I've avoided facebook so far. Do you have to sign up to be able to leave a message?
It's a real shame so many magazines are dropping fiction. It does save me money though as I don't buy those without a short story.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think so, Gail.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really active on facebook or twitter. Only signed up because my 'then' agent asked me to. But it does come in handy at times like this.
Thank you for that info Pat. Definitely will be leaving comment on facebook. We can only try Gail (tho i do know what u mean). I'm going to write to the mags that have dropped fiction. Even if they do nothing, at least I know I tried. And Patsy, thanks for leaving a comment - good to see you are looking on the bright side! x thanks again all of you for leaving comments.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone list the mags that have dropped fiction? This seems all part of an effort to keep us subdued, unintelligent, concerned only with appearance, unliberated. I am serious about that.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to ask women to demand to be treated seriously, and to have their work -- outside of the house and bedroom -- be taken seriously. In many ways, we are moving backwards in terms of cultivating feminist values. There's a general assumption in the culture that we have achieved our ends. We have not. We definitely have not, although there are men and women and organizations out there that would have us stay in our place, neat, demure and silent forever.
Hello Arya - I have some links on my post Bring Back The Short Story. The Woman's Day link is for US, but Australia and NZ Woman's Day can also be found on Facebook pages. There are also several UK mags who have dropped fiction (Woman, Best, TAB) - go check out womagwriter's blog they may have more to add to that list. The link is on the right of my blog. What we are trying to do is let the magazines know there is an interest for fiction to be included in their magazines. Thank you for your support.
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