Short Story Success
Had two of my stories accepted, one each at The Summerset Review and at FireFox News . The first is a literary short story that I think is quite fine. Not really a crime story, though I suppose there might actually be a crime in it. It's an American Abroad story, and I don't know if U.S. laws apply in that situation. The story goes live September 15th (unless I misunderstood the email) and I will surely provide the link to all and sundry.
The other story isn't quite as fine, I think, but still good and serviceable. "What service?" you might ask. Entertainment. You won't learn about the meaning of life (unless, perhaps if you've only just started yours) but you will have some fun. Not sure when that goes live, but I've been paid already, so that's nice.
There are still abotu six stories out and about looking for homes. Some will undoubtedly come back to me without success, but they'll be turned out again as soon as they do. They do me no good sitting in the computer, pouting.
All of this because...well, I like writing short stories and do it reasonably well. And... JA Konrath pointed out that selling short stories is one of the best ways to advertise your abilities. For one thing, it is cost effective. A lot of places take your submission via email which even saves on postage.
For another thing it puts more people in your corner. The editors and readers of a new forum may actually be interested enough to look up other things you've done, find your website (a lot of venues add a brief bio with web link) maybe look up one of your books.
The new people in your corner may even be people who will never have heard of you otherwise. For instance, these two stories are outside of themystery genre and to be published outside the normal venues you might look for my work. I don't know how many people read these two e-zines, but it's quite possible that many of their readers are not normally mystery readers...but if they like my stuff, they might make an exception.
Also, if you have a series like I do, then you can introduce readers to series characters this way. My story in the October AHMM is probably the best way for people to enter my series.
Lastly, you even have the chance of being paid. Both of these sales are for cash money. Not much, mind you, but it's still something to put in the plus column.
The other story isn't quite as fine, I think, but still good and serviceable. "What service?" you might ask. Entertainment. You won't learn about the meaning of life (unless, perhaps if you've only just started yours) but you will have some fun. Not sure when that goes live, but I've been paid already, so that's nice.
There are still abotu six stories out and about looking for homes. Some will undoubtedly come back to me without success, but they'll be turned out again as soon as they do. They do me no good sitting in the computer, pouting.
All of this because...well, I like writing short stories and do it reasonably well. And... JA Konrath pointed out that selling short stories is one of the best ways to advertise your abilities. For one thing, it is cost effective. A lot of places take your submission via email which even saves on postage.
For another thing it puts more people in your corner. The editors and readers of a new forum may actually be interested enough to look up other things you've done, find your website (a lot of venues add a brief bio with web link) maybe look up one of your books.
The new people in your corner may even be people who will never have heard of you otherwise. For instance, these two stories are outside of themystery genre and to be published outside the normal venues you might look for my work. I don't know how many people read these two e-zines, but it's quite possible that many of their readers are not normally mystery readers...but if they like my stuff, they might make an exception.
Also, if you have a series like I do, then you can introduce readers to series characters this way. My story in the October AHMM is probably the best way for people to enter my series.
Lastly, you even have the chance of being paid. Both of these sales are for cash money. Not much, mind you, but it's still something to put in the plus column.
posted by Steven at
11:16 PM
2 Comments:
Good news, Steven. You put us all to shame with your output. Except for that guy that does a hundred books a year.
Congrats Steven on the success, as well as branching out into the other fields. Its always good to stretch our wings.
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