subscribing to literary journals

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Jamesaritchie

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White Fungus--what a great name! :)

The university literary journal I interned with had pre-solicited all of its stories, except for one slot left open for slush-extraction, and that one went on to be short-listed in Best American Short Stories.

To be sure, the best stories are the ones published. It's hard to compete with the Rick Basses and Lee Abbotts and Richard Fords of the world. They're at the top because they belong there, and if I had a lit mag to run, I'd be courting them, too, for one of their stories.

Sorry to have sounded so jaded, gettingby. Gee, I thought I'd gotten over that... :)

Even genre magazines publish mostly established writers, often solicit those stories, and many issues don't even have a new writer on board. The simple fact is that established writers are also almost always the best writers, that's how they became established writers, and in order to find a slot in any good magazine, you have to write better than one of those established writers.

This is why I find it sad that many writers think they have to sell short stories before they can sell a novel. Ah, if only it were that easy.
 

Wandererer

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The reason I don't subscribe to journals is I write and read mostly nonfiction. I can't get very excited about spending my money on journals where the ratio is 10 or more to 1 fiction to nonfiction.
 

Anna Spargo-Ryan

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I subscribe to a few Australian lit journals: Meanjin, Going Down Swinging, Kill Your Darlings and Dumbo Feather.

I also subscribe to the New Yorker, because damned if the fiction they run isn't just to die for.
 

gettingby

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The reason I don't subscribe to journals is I write and read mostly nonfiction. I can't get very excited about spending my money on journals where the ratio is 10 or more to 1 fiction to nonfiction.

I think your ratio is a little off there. I guess it could depend on the journal, but a lot of what I'm seeing is a pretty even split, sometimes even more nonfiction than fiction. Anyway, literary journals are a great market for nonfiction. I think it might be worth taking a second look at them.
 
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