I think this is a very reasonable and fair take, Joshua. The journals and their staff are often overwhelmed, and they are competing to be heard within a glut of information available online, via streaming, etc. etc. I will say Hayden's Ferry Review is lovely to publish with and hosts contributor readings. But literary magazines are gener…
I think this is a very reasonable and fair take, Joshua. The journals and their staff are often overwhelmed, and they are competing to be heard within a glut of information available online, via streaming, etc. etc. I will say Hayden's Ferry Review is lovely to publish with and hosts contributor readings. But literary magazines are generally reaching and speaking to such tiny audiences, I'm not sure how much they can do, publicity-wise, given their small volunteer staffs, and the very noisy online world we live in, where there are so many competing demands on potential readers' attention.
"But literary magazines are generally reaching and speaking to such tiny audiences, I'm not sure how much they can do, publicity-wise, given their small volunteer staffs, and the very noisy online world we live in, where there are so many competing demands on potential readers' attention." Exactly!
Incidentally, I always liked HFR, but never made it with them :). I think this question inevitably leads back to the value proposition that Substack offers. I now have 2,000+ free subscribers, which is more than twice HFR's circulation. I still prefer the idea of someone else judging my work fit to print, but why would I keep paying HFR $3 a pop for 15-20 years (or forever) for smaller circulation? If readers are voting with their feet, and if some of them are paying me, it's hard to go back. And yet some deep part of me is still thinking that this is not how it should be. I miss that feeling of being a cool kid in someone else's pages!
In my experience, all agents that I have come across, you say the word short story and they acted like I was talking about soggy saltine crackers. They had absolutely no interest. They wanted novels. They wanted genre fiction. They wanted the stuff the market wanted to buy. Don't say the lit word too loud because they would think something was stinking in the room. I paid top dollar in conferences to hear their god-has-spoken advice and again, I would walk out of those one-on-ones angry and with a desire to do absolutely the opposite. Is there a way around the agent dilemma?
I think this is a very reasonable and fair take, Joshua. The journals and their staff are often overwhelmed, and they are competing to be heard within a glut of information available online, via streaming, etc. etc. I will say Hayden's Ferry Review is lovely to publish with and hosts contributor readings. But literary magazines are generally reaching and speaking to such tiny audiences, I'm not sure how much they can do, publicity-wise, given their small volunteer staffs, and the very noisy online world we live in, where there are so many competing demands on potential readers' attention.
"But literary magazines are generally reaching and speaking to such tiny audiences, I'm not sure how much they can do, publicity-wise, given their small volunteer staffs, and the very noisy online world we live in, where there are so many competing demands on potential readers' attention." Exactly!
Incidentally, I always liked HFR, but never made it with them :). I think this question inevitably leads back to the value proposition that Substack offers. I now have 2,000+ free subscribers, which is more than twice HFR's circulation. I still prefer the idea of someone else judging my work fit to print, but why would I keep paying HFR $3 a pop for 15-20 years (or forever) for smaller circulation? If readers are voting with their feet, and if some of them are paying me, it's hard to go back. And yet some deep part of me is still thinking that this is not how it should be. I miss that feeling of being a cool kid in someone else's pages!
I hear you! Of course we want someone else to "approve" of us enough to print our work, but a subscription base of 2,000 is nothing to sneeze at!
It seems that there are only two reasons to submit to lit mags: hope of an ego boost or being discovered by a literary agent.
In my experience, all agents that I have come across, you say the word short story and they acted like I was talking about soggy saltine crackers. They had absolutely no interest. They wanted novels. They wanted genre fiction. They wanted the stuff the market wanted to buy. Don't say the lit word too loud because they would think something was stinking in the room. I paid top dollar in conferences to hear their god-has-spoken advice and again, I would walk out of those one-on-ones angry and with a desire to do absolutely the opposite. Is there a way around the agent dilemma?
I have no experience with agents so I can't answer your question.
I will say that I avoid people who set themselves up as authorities.
Or prizes or Best American…
Hope springs eternal.
I see that you're an author @UIowaPress.
Do you live in Iowa? That's where I'm from.
I used to. I’m in central PA now.
And? What next?
No one holds a gun to an editor's head and yells, "Continue producing this literary journal ... or else!"
If fifty percent of literary zines shuttered today, no one would care.
Overwhelmed by the demands of running a zine?
Do us all a favor --- and stop.