Face it: The paying short fiction market is dead

There are actually many more than ten magazines who pay for fiction - and pay reasonable rates. I'd be interested to know where you got that number because there are many, many more.

Making a living selling ONLY short fiction would indeed be difficult - and always has been.

Clips of short fiction, however, can help fiction writers find an agent for their novel as well.

What's it called? Glimmer Train? There's lots of short fiction markets!

abominationerupts said:

You need an agent to get published by The New Yorker.

Click to expand...

Uh, I don't think you do.

I second the duotrope.com recommendation. Duotrope and Writer's Market gave me enough contemporary fiction markets to keep me busy for quite some time!

The New Yorker still accepts unsolicited fiction MS. So will Harper's.

So does this mean my checks will bounce?

I think it’s more accurate to say that the number of markets that pay well have diminished. Back in the early days you could reasonably expect to make a living by publishing regularly in the short story market because there were nationally circulated weekly and monthly magazines that would pay top dollar for printed entertainment, plus a whole slew of other, though lesser-paying, markets. Then along came T.V., and the top dollars went to T.V. writers, not short story writers. So goes the Kurt Vonnegut theory of how things went downhill…

My own experience is that the few top-tier magazines will pay in the low thousands of dollars for a story, they are very competitive, and almost no one who isn’t already a published author, and a known one at that, will get a story in those markets. It happens, but it’s rare.

The next tier down from those very few markets is slightly larger, but the pay cut is huge. Instead of a few thousand dollars, they offer a few hundred.

The next tier down from there is a populous region in which the pay cut is again huge -- a few tens of dollars are offered.

Next, there are token-payment markets, followed by no-payment markets.

With each step down the ladder you take, the smaller the market and the correspondingly smaller number of readers who will see your work.

But, as others have said, the number of paying markets, collectively, is much more than ten.

P.S. If I took the John McDonald approach and dumped stories after ten rejections, I’d still be unpublished.

You’re right about having fun and making money, though. If you don’t do the former you likely won’t achieve the latter, on any scale.

There are paying internet markets, too. Maybe not huge payments, but payments nonetheless.

And neither the New Yorker, Harper's nor the Atlantic Monthly require an agent.

There's ton of paying magazines, really. Maybe you have to search a bit better nowadays, but they're still out there.

You need to check your facts a little better before you declare paying short fiction a dead field.

It's not dead. Not any more than the novel is a dead storytelling form. The reason people assume they're dead is, they don't make as much noise as TV/movies/music do.

Heck, my local Barnes & Noble sells more than ten magazines.

There are far more paying markets than that; Suberranean, for one, there are also fantasy mags, and British and Canadian mags. And the online mags are more and more becoming paying markets.

I've got more than 10 individual guidelines bookmarked for just science fiction and fantasy magazines. This excludes the databases that specialize in those areas.

*ahem*

I mean....Yeah! The market's dead! You may as well all give up and NOT SUBMIT TO ANYONE! Honest! Go write a novel and don't send out ANY short stories! Good idea!

*heh heh heh......*

I agree with what everyone else said. I surely hope it's not dead because I've got several short stories I'm shopping around right now.

Jadezuki said:

Same here. In fact, it was way easier to find magazines to submit to that "fit" my sf pieces than to find even ONE that fits, say, the short story I've got in the women's section of syw right now (OT: if anyone has any ideas what genre that could be, let me know).

Click to expand...

Jadezuki, I believe it's women's fiction, but finding a mag to accept that is hard. I think if you look for one that accepts mainstream or contemporary, you'll probably be fine.

PeeDee said:

*ahem*

I mean....Yeah! The market's dead! You may as well all give up and NOT SUBMIT TO ANYONE! Honest! Go write a novel and don't send out ANY short stories! Good idea!

*heh heh heh......*

Click to expand...

You're such an altruist!

*wonders if today really is Pete's birthday*

Markets

There are actually well over 2,000 markets for short stories that pay something. Most pay very little, but there are still some high-paying markets out there.

The genre market isn't as large as it once was, but if you write SF or Fantasy, you can still find well over 100 markets that pay something.

The truth is that genre markets for short stories never did do very well. Even in the best of times, markets died about as fast as they were born. It's just that so many more were born that you always had a place to submit. But outside of the mystery market, which has largely dried up, there are still plenty of paying markets for short stories.

And you haven't begun to do your homework. There are plenty of markets. You need to do a bit more hunting.

MidnightMuse said:

You're such an altruist!

*wonders if today really is Pete's birthday*

Click to expand...

Aye, laddy, it is. I am older today than I was yesterday.

It's lassie (not the dog, though) and Happy Birthday to ya,

"Fantasy and Science Fiction, Analogue, Isaac Asimov's followed by nothing."

Less, perhaps, but not nothing. For a start the UK continues, despite reports to the contrary, to exist (Interzone, Third Alternative).

Jamesaritchie said:

The truth is that genre markets for short stories never did do very well. Even in the best of times, markets died about as fast as they were born.

Click to expand...

As an example, Philip K. Dick wrote gazoogles of short stories for pulp mags early in his career. And damnear starved.

There are indeed lots of markets out there still.

It's just none of them want what I write.

caw

MidnightMuse said:

It's lassie (not the dog, though) and Happy Birthday to ya,

Click to expand...

*cough* I knew you were a girl already. It's just what I get for writing posts while I'm at work.

At http://www.sfwa.org/org/qualify.htm SFWA lists 14 sf/f markets on their list of "qualifying professional venues" belonging to what was called the "second tier" in an above post (paying hundreds but not thousands for a short piece) while mentioning about 10 additional markets as occasional publishers of fantasy at professional pay rates, some in the so-called "first tier" (paying thousands for a short piece). This list excludes non-English venues, any markets less than a couple years old even if they pay well, and of course the many choices that don't do sf/f. No, it's not a list of thousands offering a professional pay rate; but it's more than ten per story at least.

Sure, the short fiction market isn't what it used to be. The Vonnegut theory is reasonable: average people used to get their short fiction in print, but now they get it on TV, leaving the surviving short fiction for the smaller markets of bookworms and hobbyists. My guess -- just a reasonable guess -- is that the percentage of junky fiction at the height of the popularity of fiction mags might have been similar to the amount of junk on TV now, when TV is in its own true "golden age" of more cinema-quality productions than ever, mixed in among the greatest quantity of cheap and stupid shows ever available. By and large, only the best stuff will be remembered in forty years, and people will look back and remark on how great TV got to be around now with little awareness that "Fear Factor" or "American Idol" ever existed. Conversely, only the "best stuff" makes it to print now in the top magazines, and plenty more of the "best stuff" must find its home among the semi-pros where only mediocre fiction would have appeared decades ago.

Now, I wonder what will transpire to make short fiction ride its next big wave? The popularity of fiction never waned, as we see from novel publishing; it just doesn't sell as well in the large glossy magazines as it used to. It stands to reason that the short form will always offer the conveniences of time and immediate gratification; it's just a question of the format catching up with the culture again. I think improvements in electronics might do the trick over time. Most of us don't prefer reading from screens, but I sure as hell prefer reading short fiction from a screen over long fiction -- it's a better fit all right. New e-book technologies are diminishing the difference in "feel" between portable screens and hardbound books. Also, audio books have yet to drop to reasonable prices but once they do (again the new paradigms of iPods etc. at work) all these people I know who would like to listen to them during their commutes to work but can't afford them will finally be able to enjoy them regularly, and again I suspect in many cases the short format will be more appreciated than ever. Sure, it's not the printed page, but it's exposure and putting short stories back into the pop culture. Am I being too optimistic?

I do truly think that the internet will be the next big format for short fiction, and we'll see a boom of it in a year or so. I think it's the next change, like going from pulps to glossy was.

I don't think we're quite there yet, but I think we're close enough to warrent paying attention.

It's tough, but...

we do have an excellent list of market lists and markets stickied at the top of this forum board.

Yes, there aren't as many paying markets but there are enough to pay the rent. Go do some market research work and don't forget that most magazines have a website.

PeeDee, I think there will be a huge demand for stories to listen to. Audio markets are increasing and those little 'two shorts in a booklet' that's small enough to tuck into a pocket and read on the bus or during lunch are looking good.

The UK has launched a great Save the Short Story scheme with an annual prize of a staggering amount and many newspapers are promoting short stories, though not by buying them!!!!
I don't think that many online zines have got their act together. They need to be looking at this dreaded pod cast business I am just trying to get my head around, as well as producing a quality readable print-off version at a button's click. Very few are doing this. Tomorrow's readers will be more listener than reader and short stories will be 'in' again.
That company which sells stories and news to mobile 'phone users is doing well too.

Short shorts and flash may be the way to go and I think we need to learn to write across the genres and write mainstream as well. There will always be a reasonably well paid literary market for short stories and it might be well to hone those skills too.