ineldorado
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Restoring Fiction Magazines (And why they are having troubles)
- Thread starter ineldorado
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Stewart
Active Member
Aw! This would have been a good discussion with respect to how the short story has basically died in the UK save for some obscure publications you'll probably only find from browsing the lists in The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook.
It should be restored; I don't see why the Sunday broadsheets - at least - can't do a short story or two every week.
It should be restored; I don't see why the Sunday broadsheets - at least - can't do a short story or two every week.
ineldorado
New Member
Sorry about that. I can't remember everything I wrote before but you probably know the story without my reciting it.
If it makes you feel any better, things are no different in the U.S. I saw some numbers in Locus a few years back that listed the paid circulations for SF, fantasy and horror magazines. Almost without exception, they showed decline throughout the 90s. I expect that that decline is mirrored in other venues for the short story.
I don't think that only one thing is responsible. Partly, trends in literary style that worked (partly) for novels tended to militate against the traditional virtues of the short story. Partly, the story was killed by generalized literary pretentiousness and confusion (i.e. both the realists and the Bloomsbury axis seem to have been much too clever to read Oliver Onions or, say, Jack London. Woolfe's comments on Wells or Eliot's verdict on Poe.).
As for the papers doing short stories, I wouldn't hold my breath. They hardly want to do reviews anymore and there's really not much point in looking for coverage of books in papers if you've got access to the internet. If the story comes back, it might have to happen there.
If it makes you feel any better, things are no different in the U.S. I saw some numbers in Locus a few years back that listed the paid circulations for SF, fantasy and horror magazines. Almost without exception, they showed decline throughout the 90s. I expect that that decline is mirrored in other venues for the short story.
I don't think that only one thing is responsible. Partly, trends in literary style that worked (partly) for novels tended to militate against the traditional virtues of the short story. Partly, the story was killed by generalized literary pretentiousness and confusion (i.e. both the realists and the Bloomsbury axis seem to have been much too clever to read Oliver Onions or, say, Jack London. Woolfe's comments on Wells or Eliot's verdict on Poe.).
As for the papers doing short stories, I wouldn't hold my breath. They hardly want to do reviews anymore and there's really not much point in looking for coverage of books in papers if you've got access to the internet. If the story comes back, it might have to happen there.
Ah yes. The days are gone when a short story in a national mag would land an author mega-bucks. Kurt Vonnegut talks about these golden days often with spite (well, what doesn't he talk about with spite?). His first published story, sometime around 1950, earned him $5000. That's a happy spasm inducing wage for 1950! He blames TV for the downfall of the short story mag. Of course TV is blamed for most things these days, but he probably has a point here. I've always wondered about radio also. I'm sure a lot of people put down the mags and listened to storys instead of reading them. Oh well. The churning of time. Books killed the storyteller, radio killed books, and TV is still hacking away at radio.
I guess I don't really agree. There are a BUNCH of short story venues in the U.S. and more e-zines and small press print mags all the time. The thing I've noticed is that they've gone more to genre publications. All horror, or all romance, or all drama. But you're right that the pay has gone down. I quickly learned that I could make more from non-fiction feature articles than short stories. But that doesn't mean the opportunities aren't out there, and any publication credit (especially in a regional or national literary magazine) can still help finding a book publisher.