Short Story Publishing?

[breezeshadow]

Hello everyone. So I've been a writer for ages, and today, after showing one of my friends my writing and having her like it, I started to consider whether I may actually be good enough to get into publishing. There's just a few concerns about this.

First off, I don't know if I'm actually good enough. I have stuff posted on my DW (here, here, and here are the recent ones), and on my dA are edited/more complete versions of those three stories, along with other things (dA here.). But I know my friends saying I'm good enough to publish does not necessarily mean I am, and I don't want to get ahead of myself. You don't need to read every one, or any, or give any extensive critique if you don't want to; I just want to make sure I'm not jumping the gun.

Second, I am a fantasy writer. As far as I could tell, there are very few publishing venues that are interested in short stories of the fantasy variety. Does anyone here have any experience with magazines, online and off, that accept fantasy submissions? Or know of any? I could write realistic stories, but they aren't my preference.

Also any advice about this would be fantastic. I've never tried submitting anything before, so I don't really know how it goes. Thus, any comments at all would be fantastic.

Thank you! Sorry for not replying much here; don't have much time to think about DW this semester.

Comments

[prisoner_24601]

I just want to point out that it doesn't have to be entirely one or the other when it comes to e-pubbing vs. traditional publishing when it comes to short fiction - or hell, long fiction for that matter.

Unless I'm writing for a specific themed antho or something like Writers of the Future (in which case I send a story there first), what I do is make a list of pro and semi pro markets, and start submitting down the list in order of payscale, until one either bites or I'm out of markets. At that point (and I haven't reached it yet, it'll take a year or two to reach the bottom of the list), I'll probably toss it up on Amazon.

Writers can also have your short story published by an e-zine and then once the exclusive rights wear off (usually in a year) try to resell it. And then when you can't sell it anymore, put it up on Amazon.

So there's a lot of ways you can go, including mixing and matching. Also, it seems to me that the most successful people who e-pub stuff have a hell of a lot of stories that they can post. If you're just dealing with one short story, it might make sense to shop it around awhile while you write more and build up a backlist before publishing on Amazon.

[fannyfae]

My suggestion was never intended to say that you should only consider ePublishing. What I am saying is if anyone wants to write as the main means to support oneself - and many, if not most, do want to be able to do what they love, they can never forget for one instant that this is a business. Just like filmmaking and fine art, writers, filmmakers or artists who do not pay attention to the bottom line often get screwed. This is especially true now because the transmedia landscape has gotten so integrated. I see far too many writers not think about eRights, just as I have seen far too many screenwriters or filmmakers don't think past being greenlit. The results can be really heartbreaking.

My goal is and has always been for writers, artists and all creatives to have more say and control over their intellectual property. The world has fortunately changed to a degree now, where it is the creatives who will be the ones cashing in - not the agents, publishers and distributors who don't always act ethically and they certainly all too often do not have the artist's or writer's creative of financial interests at heart. They have their own percentages that they care about. That is why those three blogs are, in my opinion, very good. They don't sell get rich quick b.s. to anyone. All three are about the business and the creativity.