Wednesday, June 24, 2015

I’ve got a challenge for you. We're branching out. Let's make a storm.


"What's the matter?  You don't have enough rain to make up a storm? " -- Elliot Moss  https://soundcloud.com/elliotmoss/slip

There is life after you get your rejection letter from WW.  Yes, I know, they pay well.  Almost the best in the fiction story publishing market.  But let's face it, folks, they only pick two a week.  Tons of great stories get the Big R.  Stories that could be pitched and sold to other magazines.

So I’ve decided that each week on Tuesday or Wednesday I’ll pick one market that buys short fiction (generally under 2000 words, but not always) and I’ll give you the lowdown on submitting.  And not just for you-solve-its but all kinds of markets including romances, mysteries, sci-fi, Christian, and children's stories.  Magazines from all over the world that publish in English.

Take the information, unearth one of your rejected stories and tweak it, change it, revamp it… or heck, just throw it out and start new… but submit something to the new market each week

What have you got to lose?  (Most markets take on-line submissions.)  

I will not include markets that don't pay.  Not even the ones that give you a free copy of the magazine.  Or ones that promise your name will be seen by a kajillion people.  We want dead presidents. 

On Fridays I’ll still post my take on each week’s Woman's World mini-mystery.  I’ve been asked to continue; encouraged by a few, and threatened by one.  And I do get a kick out of shredding the tales that are truly awful; the stories that are so terrible they make you cringe.

The URL for my blog will remain the same for the time being (http://wwmysterystory.blogspot.com/) but the name on the banner has changed to: Short Fiction. Write it. Sell it.

“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.’ — Ray Bradbury

8 comments:

Chris said...

A girl after my own heart. If WW don't want it, try somewhere else. Looking forward to seeing the first of these new postings, Jody.

Jody E. Lebel said...

@ Chris. You already know about most of these markets either from my original list I sent you or Hope's newsletter, or from your own store of information, but hopefully there will be a couple new ones for you. Even some of the old ones might give inspiration to submit. This'll be fun. :)

Suzanne said...

I love this idea, Jody. I'm particularly interested in the short paying romance markets.

Tamara said...

Mr. Bradbury has not seen my collection :)
I think this will be a worthwhile venture.

Your suggestion is working, Jody. I used Firefox.

Jody E. Lebel said...

@ Suzzanne,
Any particular genre?

Jody E. Lebel said...

@Tamara... good to see you :)

Jody E. Lebel said...

@Tamara... ps I got your story. I put it aside. I want to read it when I've got some time, and a cup of coffee in my hand. Do you want feedback or no?

Tamara said...

Oh sure, if you feel like it -- don't want to make work, though. I'd be interested to know what you think of it.