2015 was the beginning of quite a few things: moving to LA, getting two rat terrier pups, driving on the highway for the first time... So naturally, I wasn't very productive in my writing, though at the same time, I've taken a step back from short story telling. Why? Well, the SFF short story market kinda sucks.
There's been a huge rise in not-editors, who I've dubbed as "story acquisitioners" because all they do is acquire stories; they don't edit, they don't show an interest in helping authors, they're just there because they think they can make a quick buck by buying stories cheap and reselling them.
Also, would it kill editors to send an email/put up a notice saying their market has closed, or that there's been delays in publication? This one boggles my mind. Communication is so easy these days, and yet still so hard for some it seems. This leads to me having to checks websites and social media to try and determine what's happened, which is futile because nothing gets updated, before sending a query letter. Sometimes my query is answered, sometimes not.
Sometimes I get a rejected query letter!
I attribute this all to a lack of respect for writers. Despite putting our trust and stories into these people's hands, we still get shit on. There was a story publication I specifically didn't mention on my blog for this reason. The publisher was two weeks late on payment and gave a very poor excuse, as well as out right lying on the Kickstarter for the anthology, claiming authors would not be paid if stretch goals weren't met. Err, no. The contract says differently.
Then you got rejections like this:
Unfortunately, it's not quite right for me. I liked the sense of detail
and mood I felt in the opening situation, but I didn't also get as much
hint or feel for [redacted]'s situation as a character as I needed there
in order for her to seize me; her hopes or fears or drive or stakes in
this story situation of her feeling grumpy about the lazy guards and
skillfully interdicting the assassin and hatching the scheme to use the
assassin to deceive the enemy; who she was and why she was doing these
things.
If anyone were to actually follow this "advise", the intro to their story would be a clunky, info-dumpy slog. You shouldn't have to explain right off the bat your character's motivations; such things come later as the story naturally unfolds, and often you
want readers asking who? what? because it means they'll keep reading to find out.
Worst part is, this "advise" came from a SFWA market, so you
know some writers (who don't know better) will take this seriously. For me, I exclaimed to Rez: "I quit!" --though not a 100% true, I haven't shown as much interest in short stories. I have, however, been working on my novel, which so far consists of an intro and a dozen or so random scenes. No idea who will publish it, but that hasn't stopped me.
Then there's the current trends of publishing the author first and the story second.
I feared as much when this first started with the
Destroy! anthology series. Though now I'm viewing the trend as a cash cow for publishers rather than genuine interest to promote anyone who isn't white, male, and straight. But like all trends, they end sooner or later, and
CG might be the first. In CG writer guidelines:
Crossed Genres strongly encourages submissions from writers who identify as people of color, women, members of the QUILTBAG community, and others who are under-represented in SFF. It is our desire and intent to have diverse representation amongst our contributors and within our content.
Yet publishing/promoting anyone who wasn't white/male/straight didn't seem to help. Like the
Destroy! series, they had a successful Kickstarter, but within a year lost 90% of their subscribers, which screams "you're doing it wrong!" And I'm not surprised because only the clinically insane would go out of their way to read stories by a certain subset of the population. The average reader (and likely the ones with money) just want an entertaining story.
My biggest issue with these types anthologies and magazines is how they peg writers into one role. Women authors can only write female characters with feminist themes; gay authors can only write gay characters dealing with issues of sexuality; black authors can only write black characters and race issues, and so on...
And if you're a straight white male, then you can only write the above!
That's not diversity; that's write by the numbers.
But again, this is all about appearances, what looks good to those who care more about the author than the actual story. Thus the SFF short story market becomes smaller and much less interesting.
If I were to give any sort of unprofessional advice to writers these days, I'd say you're better off bundling your short stories into a collection and self-publish. It may not carry the same prestige, but at least you won't get shit on yourself.
