Publishing things
Dec. 8th, 2009 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI've been reading with some interest the recent hullaballoo on the internet about the rates magazines pay for short stories, because I've decided - now that I've reached the venerable age of twenty-one - that it's time to stop mentally murmuring, "Oh, I'd like to be a writer when I grow up...", admit to myself that despite my best efforts I am grown up, and start submitting things.
I do think the authors linked have missed one possible use for markets that pay pin money: they can act as a psychological boost for writers who still sort of think no one would want to read their work without a bribe. Hey look! This time the reader gave me cookies instead of the other way around!
(I suspect this is one of the reasons that vanity presses do such big business. The idea that I might theoretically be paid for writing feels like so much fairy dust. I'm sure to the unwary, paying publishers seems like the way the money ought to flow.)
(Incidentally, I am planning to send my stories to the places with higher pay rates first time round, but when they get rejected I'll send them lower. Eventually someone will want them. Probably.)
***
Anyway, to this end I've been looking through magazines, and I found this story that I quite like: Brass Canaries. Steampunk canaries! It's quite short and it's got a bit of a punch at the ending; I hope you give it a spin.
ETA:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
asakiyume reminded me of this story from the same magazine: Suddenly Speaking. It's - well, it's hard to describe, because it's so bizarre, but utterly satisfying. It starts with the main character suddenly discovering that he has the ability to speak Japanese, and it goes all over the place from there.
I do think the authors linked have missed one possible use for markets that pay pin money: they can act as a psychological boost for writers who still sort of think no one would want to read their work without a bribe. Hey look! This time the reader gave me cookies instead of the other way around!
(I suspect this is one of the reasons that vanity presses do such big business. The idea that I might theoretically be paid for writing feels like so much fairy dust. I'm sure to the unwary, paying publishers seems like the way the money ought to flow.)
(Incidentally, I am planning to send my stories to the places with higher pay rates first time round, but when they get rejected I'll send them lower. Eventually someone will want them. Probably.)
***
Anyway, to this end I've been looking through magazines, and I found this story that I quite like: Brass Canaries. Steampunk canaries! It's quite short and it's got a bit of a punch at the ending; I hope you give it a spin.
ETA:
asakiyume reminded me of this story from the same magazine: Suddenly Speaking. It's - well, it's hard to describe, because it's so bizarre, but utterly satisfying. It starts with the main character suddenly discovering that he has the ability to speak Japanese, and it goes all over the place from there.
