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I fail to understand why writers send their stories off for possible publication without checking out the magazine in which they hope their short stories will appear. I edit and publish a short story magazine entitled Libbon for which I receive a large number of potential inclusions. Yet the circulation of the magazine does not reflect this. The magazine could be printed on low quality toilet tissue for all the writers are aware but they would love their masterpieces to appear inside without perusing a single issue.
Libbon is non profit making and I have funded the loss in order to print 4 issues, all of which have been well received by those who do purchase it. Unfortunately the likelyhood of issue 5 seeing light of day is poor unless sales pick up. Sales only via www.libbon.co.uk
it's a common fault, unfortunately. As editor I know well this tendency of 'writers'. We produce books, erotic books. Without checking that out, a lady sent me a five page story Iof Wight (where we are - she was on the mainland) she simply could not understand that I did not leap on the story and publish it, even though a) it was appalling and b) we have no outlet for stories of any kind, let alone ones featuring a dragon. She said her writitng group told her to send it ... Our word limit is 40,000, so what do I do with a 120,000 word (non erotic) thriller set in Hong Kong but return it?
I have to say the only people who send me the right material are subscribers to my quarterly spiritualist magazine, there the poems and inspirational writing does actually match editorial requirements, but they are subscribers, not writers. It's a shame that so many wannabees don't check something out first. Just this afternoon I had a query about sending me (admittedly erotic) short stories but we have no outlet for short stories at all, we do not produce a magazine from this business, but she was sure I wanted to read her contributions. I wish you success in boosting your magazine.
Fortunately most of us here know you need to study the target market, but unfortunately there are a lot of wanna-be writers who don't have the faintest idea and think all they have to do is send their story in and it will be published.
As Secretary of our local writers club, I sometimes get phone calls from 'writers' who want to know why their stories haven't been snapped up (in the guise of being interested in the club) and when you ask them for details it always turns out that they have no idea of proper layout, sae's and covering letters, let alone whether the story is suitable for the magazine.
One woman rung me up THREE times in the course of six months and each time I gave her the same advice- I think she expected me to say something different to her if she rang me up again a couple of months later.
Finally she stopped ringing, so hopefully some editor will be grateful.
Comments
Libbon is non profit making and I have funded the loss in order to print 4 issues, all of which have been well received by those who do purchase it. Unfortunately the likelyhood of issue 5 seeing light of day is poor unless sales pick up. Sales only via www.libbon.co.uk
I have to say the only people who send me the right material are subscribers to my quarterly spiritualist magazine, there the poems and inspirational writing does actually match editorial requirements, but they are subscribers, not writers. It's a shame that so many wannabees don't check something out first. Just this afternoon I had a query about sending me (admittedly erotic) short stories but we have no outlet for short stories at all, we do not produce a magazine from this business, but she was sure I wanted to read her contributions. I wish you success in boosting your magazine.
As Secretary of our local writers club, I sometimes get phone calls from 'writers' who want to know why their stories haven't been snapped up (in the guise of being interested in the club) and when you ask them for details it always turns out that they have no idea of proper layout, sae's and covering letters, let alone whether the story is suitable for the magazine.
One woman rung me up THREE times in the course of six months and each time I gave her the same advice- I think she expected me to say something different to her if she rang me up again a couple of months later.
Finally she stopped ringing, so hopefully some editor will be grateful.