On the purpose of literary magazines
I've been looking at calls for submissions for literary magazines, and something occurred to me.
If you were a writer back in the first half of 20th century, submitting your work to literary magazines was a no-brainier. There was no guarantee that they'll accept it, but if they do, you'll get your work out there and, just as importantly, you'll get paid. While, yes, a lot of them didn't pay that much, it helped to put food on the table and pay rent.
Throughout the later half of the 20th century, fiction magazines of all stripes started lose popularity. A lot of magazines closed, and earning the living from the ones that remained was a lot harder. By the time I started looking for magazines to submit stories to, most of them either paid very little or paid in copies of the issue where your work was published. And the situation has only been getting worse since. A lot of magazines that offered what was, at best, token payment, are not even offering complimentary copies anymore.
Which begs the question - why would you ever want to submit to a literary magazine?
Before the Internet, if you didn't have your work published in some paper form, it might as well be hidden in your desk. But these days, if you want to share your work, you can simply put it up online. It's the big reason why I started putting Urbis Arcana stories on this LJ - I was bursting with ideas and I wanted a quick, easy way to put my work out there and get feedback. If I ever wanted to publish it, Livejournal has the ever-lovely Friends Lock feature.
If I submit it to a literary magazine, sure, more people would read it. But I'm not sure if it's that many more. I mean, let's face it - a lot of literary magazines have fairly small circulation. If I want to submit to them, I would need a little more incentive than that.
With print magazines, at least, you would be able to have a tangible object that you can give to people and say: "look, I was published." There is definitely something to that. And I've known people who submitted to non-paying print magazines just for that reason. But after your articles have been published in newspapers for two years, the allure of seeing your work published in something, however small the circulation may be, fades.
But there is another incentive. Chicago is home to several print literary magazines, and most of them don't pay. If I submit to them, I could at least say I'm contributing to Chicago literary scene. I know that those magazines get stocked in a lot of Chicago independent bookstores, so I know people in the area, at least, would read it. Besides - I like many of them.
Outside Chicago... I might consider submitting to a non-paying magazine if they have an interesting theme, something that either speaks to me or challenges me. Otherwise... might as well keep it close to home.
And then, there are online literary magazines. If with print magazines, you have a package you can hold and keep, online magazines don't even offer you that. They just put your stuff online, give you something you can link to... Which I can already do on my LJ. Under those circumstances, payment becomes the only incentive.
I would make an exception if, say, made_of_fail_pc wants to start publishing stories online, or if 79semifinalist wants to put together an online magazine, or if randirogue wants to put together an online magazine. I would definitely submit to that. When rowandoll did a contest looking for stories for The Burnham Society, I did try to submit something (only to miss the deadline). I those case, I know I'd be dealing with friends and people I know. And I like contributing to creative endeavors of friends and people I know.
Even with the Chicago-based online magazines like Knee Jerk, I'm not sure there's a point. I mean, yes, I could say I'm contributing to the literary scene, but online, the geographical distinctions are much less important. When it comes down to it, it's still just a place to link to.
(The more magazine-style Kindle/Nook/etc-formatted collections are a different story. They are things you can give (in a manner of speaking), things that aren't automatically visible to the public. If some Chicago-based publisher decides to put of those out, I would consider submitting).
I get wanting to get published somewhere, anywhere. I felt this way a few years ago. But I do think there has to be some value to publishing beyond exposure. It could be sentimental, it could be monetary, could be some combination of both... But in an age where anyone can put up anything online and it can potentially been seen by thousands of people, a mere possibility of exposure isn't enough.
If you were a writer back in the first half of 20th century, submitting your work to literary magazines was a no-brainier. There was no guarantee that they'll accept it, but if they do, you'll get your work out there and, just as importantly, you'll get paid. While, yes, a lot of them didn't pay that much, it helped to put food on the table and pay rent.
Throughout the later half of the 20th century, fiction magazines of all stripes started lose popularity. A lot of magazines closed, and earning the living from the ones that remained was a lot harder. By the time I started looking for magazines to submit stories to, most of them either paid very little or paid in copies of the issue where your work was published. And the situation has only been getting worse since. A lot of magazines that offered what was, at best, token payment, are not even offering complimentary copies anymore.
Which begs the question - why would you ever want to submit to a literary magazine?
Before the Internet, if you didn't have your work published in some paper form, it might as well be hidden in your desk. But these days, if you want to share your work, you can simply put it up online. It's the big reason why I started putting Urbis Arcana stories on this LJ - I was bursting with ideas and I wanted a quick, easy way to put my work out there and get feedback. If I ever wanted to publish it, Livejournal has the ever-lovely Friends Lock feature.
If I submit it to a literary magazine, sure, more people would read it. But I'm not sure if it's that many more. I mean, let's face it - a lot of literary magazines have fairly small circulation. If I want to submit to them, I would need a little more incentive than that.
With print magazines, at least, you would be able to have a tangible object that you can give to people and say: "look, I was published." There is definitely something to that. And I've known people who submitted to non-paying print magazines just for that reason. But after your articles have been published in newspapers for two years, the allure of seeing your work published in something, however small the circulation may be, fades.
But there is another incentive. Chicago is home to several print literary magazines, and most of them don't pay. If I submit to them, I could at least say I'm contributing to Chicago literary scene. I know that those magazines get stocked in a lot of Chicago independent bookstores, so I know people in the area, at least, would read it. Besides - I like many of them.
Outside Chicago... I might consider submitting to a non-paying magazine if they have an interesting theme, something that either speaks to me or challenges me. Otherwise... might as well keep it close to home.
And then, there are online literary magazines. If with print magazines, you have a package you can hold and keep, online magazines don't even offer you that. They just put your stuff online, give you something you can link to... Which I can already do on my LJ. Under those circumstances, payment becomes the only incentive.
I would make an exception if, say, made_of_fail_pc wants to start publishing stories online, or if 79semifinalist wants to put together an online magazine, or if randirogue wants to put together an online magazine. I would definitely submit to that. When rowandoll did a contest looking for stories for The Burnham Society, I did try to submit something (only to miss the deadline). I those case, I know I'd be dealing with friends and people I know. And I like contributing to creative endeavors of friends and people I know.
Even with the Chicago-based online magazines like Knee Jerk, I'm not sure there's a point. I mean, yes, I could say I'm contributing to the literary scene, but online, the geographical distinctions are much less important. When it comes down to it, it's still just a place to link to.
(The more magazine-style Kindle/Nook/etc-formatted collections are a different story. They are things you can give (in a manner of speaking), things that aren't automatically visible to the public. If some Chicago-based publisher decides to put of those out, I would consider submitting).
I get wanting to get published somewhere, anywhere. I felt this way a few years ago. But I do think there has to be some value to publishing beyond exposure. It could be sentimental, it could be monetary, could be some combination of both... But in an age where anyone can put up anything online and it can potentially been seen by thousands of people, a mere possibility of exposure isn't enough.