 And Now...How? Say you’ve committed to writing for publication, chosen your market, ordered sample magazines, and studied their writing. You’ve opened yourself to critique, taken advice, and locked in for the long haul. You suspect you won’t get published right away, but you’re committed. You’ve got a plan, made crucial decisions concerning your schedule and personal habits, have clear focus on what you want to write, and an idea where to submit. So now, you ask …how? Let’s assume you dabble in short fiction—although as I’ve said, these steps can be adapted to different genres and markets, although publication for novels, non-fiction books, children’s illustrated books or poetry chapbooks follow slightly paths. In any case – where to start? Well, you need to determine the genre. Let’s say, (showing no personal preference), you’ve decided on horror/dark speculative fiction. You could type “horror fiction/dark fiction magazines” into Google, and come up with hundreds of results. Herein lies an important question, immediately: where do you ultimately want to go? Potential Destinations
First of all, there are many different payment scales, but rather than use labels like “token payment”, “non-payment”, “contributor copy payment”, “semi-pro” and so on, let’s break it into four categories: - “4theluv”, non-payment, non-exposure: these journals are run by folks with little publishing experience or background, featuring little exposure. Often, these are online “ezines”, and the only contributor copy you receive is a .pdf. Anthologies printed through Lulu.com often – but not always – fall into this category.
- “token payments”: magazines and ezines that offer flat payment for fiction, ($5, $10, $25), or offer payment per word – say, .005 cents – but still have a payment plateau.
- “semi-pro and above”: magazines that offer at least .01 - .02 a word and don’t have payment cap but rather a word count cap, or anthologies that offer at least $60 - $80 per story.
- Reputable magazines and anthologies, regardless of payment: Certain magazines are run by knowledgeable people, featuring well written material, that simply can’t pay every contributor in cash, and usually pay with contributor copies, or feature cash-prize contests. These magazines often have decent circulation and are well regarded. Their claim of “exposure” and “publication credit” actually holds merit.
Relief and Coach’s Midnight Diner fall into this category, (again, no bias), as do most college literary magazines – depending on the size of the college, and the nature of the publication. Last year, I was a reader for my grad school’s literary magazine, The Harpur Palate , which pays contributor copies, but has received critical acclaim, and holds several notable, well-paying contests. A note: most college literary magazines don’t accept genre fiction, and those that do usually gear towards fantasy and science fiction. A good example is The Fairy Tale Review, a co-publication of The University of Alabama Press. One genre magazine that’s fairly reputable and only pays in contributor copies is The Ghost Story Society’s All Hallows magazine, which I find interesting, because the website itself isn’t that impressive. However, I’ve heard many good things from notable writers. Also, Morpheus Tales, a new magazine in the UK, has featured many interesting writers who’ve done well, and Fear and Trembling Magazine – though only offering token payment – shares the corner market on Christian horror with Coach’s Midnight Diner. Why cover this first? Honestly, because I wish someone had done the same for me three years ago. If you’re choosing this route to publication, consider your list of credits as a writing resume. Even though the quality of your writing and story, the needs of a publisher, your professionalism, and God’s Will are the ultimate factors determining publishing success, there’s much to be said for “reputation by association”. Who you hang out with, associate with – who you’re published by and with – can make an impact. I’ve seen lots of opinions, blogs, and rants on this topic – some of them pretty scathing, almost demeaning. A very good blog about this topic posted recently by Christian Horror Writer, (note: not writer of Christian Horror), Maurice Broaddus addresses this issue with candor. Here’s my take: in the beginning, I don’t think it matters. During college, when you’re working for pennies in the dinning hall or at the supermarket, you’re not worried about your resume. You’re learning good work ethic, timeliness, responsibility, and earning enough to scrape by. As you start to send fiction into the market, I think it’s the same way. Hitting a few “4theluv” markets in the beginning is more for your benefit. It boosts morale; you put process into effect, and refine it. At some point, however, an important question needs to be asked: where do you want this to ultimately go? Why Are You Doing This Again?
If you’re writing for your own enjoyment, (which we all do to some extent), and have no career plans for writing, you can do what you like. However, if you’re interested in a career, you need to look closely at where you’re submitting work, analyzing the quality of their format, their writers, their circulation, and their pay scales. If you’re in this bracket, the following three are huge priorities: - You want to gain some “street cred”
- You want to gain some fans
- You want to get paid
For the most part, you won’t obtain these by submitting to “4theluv” and “token payment” publications. Honestly, I am extracting myself from #1 and #2, and applying myself to #3 and #4 (though you should break these rules as you see fit) Say you submit a few older stories to ezines, simply to have links to stories from your website that browsers can read in a mouse click. Feel free. Say a close associate who runs a token payment anthology solicits a story, and you have no previous writing conflicts – why not? Be careful, though, and I write this warning as someone who, again, wishes I’d been counseled this from the very beginning. So now – all that stuff is out of the way. You’ve finished your first story, typed ‘The End’, proof-read it to death, and learned how to recognize different types of publications. So where do you find them? And how do you approach them? Tune in next week to find out.
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