 Short Stories: June 14, 2006 Issue [#1063] |
  Short Stories
This week: Edited by: Vivian  
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1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions
Once we have written, proofread, edited, revised, and polished our stories to perfection or close to it, what do we do with the final product? Are we content to file it in our ports on W.Com and go on to something else?
This month I will give a list of possible markets for short stories as well as discussing the fate of the short story. The list doesn’t include every magazine that publishes short stories, although the list has become shorter over the years. I am just giving a partial list, a starting point and encouragement for writers to keep writing stories.
Next’s week’s editor will be Leger~ 
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Does the Fate of Short Stories Include Life or Death?
In years past many major magazines published at least one short story in each issue. Redbook not only had a couple of short stories but also a novella. As late as 1986, most short story writers, who wrote well enough to be published, had ample markets for their work. No longer can writers find as many possibilities. Year by year the markets vanished.
The Atlantic Monthly announced last April that it would no longer include short stories. This magazine had published short stories since it was founded in 1857, including work by authors such as Mark Twain, Henry James, and Ernest Hemingway (Tom Connor, Writer's Digest, June 2006, page 24).
The loss of short stories accepted in The Atlantic Monthly and in other magazines and the magazines which have ceased to exit, many feel that the short story is extinct or on its way.
Although this form of writing may not be as easily found or markets available, short stories won't disappear in the near future, and probably not ever. Editors of publications that use short fiction and those that hold short story contests state the quality of submissions is extremely high.
Some points to bring your stories to the top of the pile of submissions include the following:
1. Write a good story that catches the readers attention immediately and keeps it throughout with preferably no errors.
2. Be sure you are familiar with the writing accepted by a publication. If a magazine publishes family-oriented stories, submitting a story about alternate lifestyles won't be accepted.
3. Follow submission guidelines to the letter. If you don't understand why the editor expects certain word limits or margins, don't question, follow the instructions.
The competition may be tougher, but opportunities do exist. A writer has to learn to read, learn, write, submit, accept rejection, check and improve, and submit again.
The following list is in no particular order. Some were in the top fifty of magazines that wanted short stories found in the June, 2001 Writers Digest. Others I found in Writers’ Market online or through my own research.
Please check the web sites given for submission guidelines. A repeated suggestion: Be sure to follow the guidelines completely, and don’t change anything.
The Atlantic Monthly: http://www.theatlantic.com
Zoetrope: All-Story: http://www.all-story.com
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (includes a link to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine): http://www.themysteryplace.com
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction : http://www.fsfmag.com
Paris Review : http://www.parisreview.com
Analog Science Fiction and Fact : http://www.analogsf.com
The Urbanite: Surreal & Lively & Bizarre : http://theurbanite.tripod.com
The Vincent Brothers Review : http://theveincentbrothersreview.org/subscriptions.htm
This one I’m not sure about since they said they would be unavailable until January 2005. It is after 2005, I think. One of their editors says, “The most common flaw in the stories we receive is that they are boring. Even many of the quite competently written stories we see are just plan boring and nonengaging.”
Web del Sol : http://www.webdelsol.com
Yankee Magazine : http://www.newengland.com/about/index.,php
ByLine : http://www.bylinemag.com
Beginnings Magazine : http://www.scbeginnings.com/guidelines.htm This magazine publishes stories, etc. from beginners only.
Boulevard : http://www.richardburgin.com/boulevard.htm
Mystery Magazine : http://www.mysterymag.com
Strand Magazine: http://www.strandmag.com This is a mystery magazine
Glimmer Train Stories : http://www.glimmertrain.com
The Barcelona Review : http://www.barcelonareview.com According to an editor, “Our bias is toward cutting-edge fiction with a contemporary feel, writing marked by a strong sense of imaginative distinction and something else.” However, no one anywhere can define “something else.”
ZYZZYVA: http://www.zyzzyva.org
Standard : http://www.nazarene.org Use search: submission guidelines
Agni Magazine : http://www.agrimagazine.org
Prairie Schooner : http://www.unledu/schooner/psmail.htm
Esquire: http://www.esquire.com
email: esquire@hearst.com Submissions: send complete ms by mail.
Esquire
1790 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
I hope at least one of these magazines will be a springboard to your story or stories being published. I have my eye on a couple of them.
Here are two of my stories that have been published:
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A Few Words from Our Readers
I enjoy hearing from people who read and then comment on what I write. Sometimes they send accolades; sometimes, questions; sometimes, arguments. All comments help others and me to understand more.
alissaameth
Excellent newsletter!
I have a question: Could you give a few examples of "cringe words"? I think I know what you mean by the term, but I'm not one hundred percent sure I know what you are talking about.
Thanks!
--Alissa
Cringe words may be words dealing with certain illnesses or medical procedures or body functions. They might also be out-dated words that are no longer in vogue. Cringe words may be misused words or incorrectly used words.
A few examples include such things as revenue enhancement for tax, humdinger (of course having a character use words like that is fine if it goes with his personality), using affect when effect is correct, to die for. Then any misuse of a word or phrase causes readers to cringe.
jaya h 
Very good issue, with lot of instructions to keep it in mind.
Thank you,
Jaya H.
PlannerDan
Another outstanding newsletter, Vivian. I am embarrassed at how many of these I use. It is of little comfort to see the same misuse of language in popular, published works. I am convinced seeing it in print does not give us license to ignore writing well. You have pointed out again I have a long way to go. Thanks for the inspiration.
Thanks, jaya h and PlannerDan
schipperke
Dear Viv,
The phrases I hear in the news that make me cringe are, "She went missing" or "He's gone missing". They sound wrong to me. How should reporters speak about missing people?
They are missing; she is missing; he is missing. He's gone missing is really he is gone missing - a double cringe.
daycare
I'll have to add this one to my favorites Viv. It will be most helpful. I appreciate you highlighting my story. Wendie
Brians Next Novel Almost Done!
Thanks for including my novel excerpt in your last NL! How kind of you! Also, thanks for the subject matter of your NL, as I found it to be both a good refresher course for me (who v. whom still gets me sometimes!) as well as a boost of confidence (I am not the only one who knows how to spell "all right" correctly).
Wendie and Brian, you are both welcome. I'm glad you found the newsletter helpful, too.
scribbler
A really great and informative newsletter but sometimes confusing to skim. You had to read in depth.
Yes, that issue wasn't one to skim. I guess if you want newsletters to skim, you might want to skip mine. The teacher in me keeps breaking out of the closet and taking over the keyboard. *sigh*
Brother Don
I have already indicated my feelings about this issue to you, Vivian, but I wanted to respond to this newsletter to reaffirm my support of any writer or author who encourages correct usage of our language. I may make mistakes of my own, but I do try to correct them when I realize that they are there. Too many people simply accept poor grammar as being an unimportant issue.
Donald Brown
Thanks, Don. I remember when we used to discuss such things long, long ago in high school. We both realized that we made mistakes, then, too, but wondered at those who didn't seem to care how poor their grammar was.
Come Fly with Me--Kiter
I appreciated you discourse on word usage. You described the uses of affect and effect, but you failed to include the use of affect as used in describing mental status. I agree that it is a peculiar instance, but it distrubs me when I see it misused. Affect is synonomous with emotion, e.g., "The patient exhibited a flat affect."
Good letter. But lots of recommended reading.
In your example you use affect as noun. In my research, affect as an emotional or mental status is used as a verb, which I said it was. "The patient affected a flat reaction." The only noun usage given in the dictionary for affect is as a synonym for effect, but as being used very seldom. The dictionary, any more, shows affect and effect as synonymous.
jeaninetb
It was really an eye opener. Some things like affect and effect i didn't know where like that. Very interesting to set straight simple things people have forgotten in the English language.
I try to help people improve their writing, and that includes some of the oddities of the language. Let's face it, English has its traps for all of us.
Until next month, write your stories with excitment, imagination, and good grammar.
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