{"id":573,"date":"2018-01-29T20:22:49","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T01:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/dremadeoraich\/?p=573"},"modified":"2018-01-29T20:22:49","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T01:22:49","slug":"going-it-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2018\/01\/29\/going-it-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Going It Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Old assumptions no longer work. Maybe they never did.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t just go for novels, either. I\u2019ve heard other writers talk about saving up their short stories for self-published collections, instead of parading them past innumerable magazine or other periodical markets. I can understand why; I\u2019m finding it hard to get the attention of an editor. Writers are told space is at a premium in these publications and only the best make it into their pages. Okay. As someone who used to publish a magazine, I understand that. But despite the usually excellent content of my regular magazines\u2014 Analog<\/a>, Ploughshares<\/a>, Glimmer Train<\/a>, a few others\u2014an occasional story appears therein that makes me shake my head and wonder how the writer got it past the zine\u2019s staff. Granted, one person\u2019s riveting tale is another person\u2019s sleep aid. But seriously, some were truly awful. I found myself thinking, \u201cThere\u2019s an hour I can never get back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years ago, I saw a movie by the name of Ator (1982). The best thing about this flick was its service in later years as a low-end yardstick to describe just how bad a movie could be. I walked out at the \u201cDon\u2019t touch the drape\u201d mark. If you\u2019ve seen it, that\u2019ll give you an idea of how much I endured before calling it quits. Imagine my surprise to learn in recent years that the producer made two more of these awful films, each of which received lower ratings that the first one. Yet production companies spent money<\/em> to produce each one, and movie houses actually showed them. It boggles the mind. I\u2019m sure there are much better scripts just waiting for notice, but how is the writer to get past the gates?<\/p>\n

Now of course I think my own stories are good, the ones that have been workshopped, and are \u201cfinished\u201d anyway. Yet I have not found a good home for them. Maybe it\u2019s just that the individual stories haven\u2019t landed in front of the right editor at the right magazine yet. Or maybe they just didn\u2019t fit the issue that editor was filling at the time s\/he read my work. One editor I have known for years produces a seasonal print magazine. I sent her one of my stories and she loved it, praised it and wants to run it, but she said up front that it deserved a paying market, so I pulled it back and am shopping it around. Another of my stories she also liked, but said it didn\u2019t fit their format (I kinda knew that, but asked anyway). Everything I\u2019ve read or been told in workshops and by published writers confirms the idea that it isn\u2019t me; it\u2019s the glutted market. Still, I sometimes think I just want to put a story online and charge 99 cents for it, and see what happens.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m ready to self-publish just yet. I\u2019m considering it, but there\u2019s so much to keep up with! The term \u201cself-publish\u201d covers so many options available to writers these days, I don\u2019t even know where to begin. I do know I\u2019ve heard tales of success and of horror when it comes to this road, so if I decide to take that leap, I\u2019ll need to do some serious homework.<\/p>\n

Do you have experience with self-publishing? What route did you take? Were you happy with the result?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"