I agree that the market has shrunk the size of stories accepted. At Sunspot Lit, we feel that it's a detriment to allowing creative voices the full range of expression. We therefore accept and publish longform works of fiction and nonfiction. Some of the most powerful works we've received have run long. We're dedicated to hearing every voice...and we support those voices that need room to work with nuances.
Single-story chapbooks, independently published if necessary? Financed by subscription? Could be fun. And if nobody else is reading, networks of writers could exchange them like trading cards, or as mail art. A kind of samizdat, maybe with the option of buying a link to an e-book/PDF. Good times!
Over the past few years my associate editor Rebecca and I started to notice that most of the stories we accepted were about 8-10 pages long (your average size-12 font double-spaced page). So we note that on our submission guidelines—this is the "sweet spot" for us. However, we have taken 25 page stories, give or take. When I read those stories, I didn't notice that 25 pages just flew by. Most of the time, the longer stories don't keep my attention. I don't think I have a short attention span, I get through novels just fine.
I think Nathaniel's advice on cutting down is really good. It's important to keep your audience in mind as well, because even though you may be enjoying yourself writing, and loving these amazing words you've strung together into this amazing sentence which is then hard for you to cut (I get it! This happens to me too!) your audience may not need that information or care about it. I notice there's a lot of backstory happening and telling rather than showing. Often none of this is needed (we don't need all the mundane details of Bob's morning before the comet hits and the aliens spill out into the field).
If your story has what it needs, if you've introduced a conflict and you toss out tiny hooks along the way to keep the reader interested and moving forward, and you're not settling into boring backstory that should only exist in your notes (hey, I think I better stop and explain all of Bob's life and how he ended up living where the comet hits so I can lose my reader's attention) your longer story is going to be okay and you can roll with it. But don't submit it to places if it doesn't fit the guidelines. 👽
I prefer to write short pieces. They zing back just as quickly as longer ones. Sometimes I will get a comment from the "rejector" with a hint that I did not "develop" the story more. In my case, it's "damned if you do...."
I LIKE long stories, which is probably why I write them. And yes, by writing them I wrote myself out of the market, so to speak. But I'm taking all those long stories and cutting them into sections so that they're 2-2,500 words, and putting them up on my Substack page https://benwoestenburg.substack.com
When I stumbled onto this site, I stumbled into a dream. I don't have a lot of followers, (I just started in June) but I have 3 Paid subscribers. I don't care if I ever get published in a magazine, on line in in print. I plan to make this my new home.
I think this is fine and there is no doubt that cutting is one of the best ways to edit. There is nothing like having a word limit imposed on you — like for book reviews, for example — to disciplline you in the art of cutting. And yet. There are magazines that DO publish longer stories. Southern Review is one.
I wonder if this trend of shorter stories (less than 3,000 words) holds true for publishers of collected short stories. I haven't researched this, but wonder what the relationship is between shorter online stories appearing in literary journals vs. published collections.
There are markets for longer fiction in genre, including some pretty high-paying markets such as Tordotcom. One of the big flash fiction markets in SFF just shut down. What may be true for litfic markets is not necessarily the case across the board.
I agree that the market has shrunk the size of stories accepted. At Sunspot Lit, we feel that it's a detriment to allowing creative voices the full range of expression. We therefore accept and publish longform works of fiction and nonfiction. Some of the most powerful works we've received have run long. We're dedicated to hearing every voice...and we support those voices that need room to work with nuances.
Single-story chapbooks, independently published if necessary? Financed by subscription? Could be fun. And if nobody else is reading, networks of writers could exchange them like trading cards, or as mail art. A kind of samizdat, maybe with the option of buying a link to an e-book/PDF. Good times!
Over the past few years my associate editor Rebecca and I started to notice that most of the stories we accepted were about 8-10 pages long (your average size-12 font double-spaced page). So we note that on our submission guidelines—this is the "sweet spot" for us. However, we have taken 25 page stories, give or take. When I read those stories, I didn't notice that 25 pages just flew by. Most of the time, the longer stories don't keep my attention. I don't think I have a short attention span, I get through novels just fine.
I think Nathaniel's advice on cutting down is really good. It's important to keep your audience in mind as well, because even though you may be enjoying yourself writing, and loving these amazing words you've strung together into this amazing sentence which is then hard for you to cut (I get it! This happens to me too!) your audience may not need that information or care about it. I notice there's a lot of backstory happening and telling rather than showing. Often none of this is needed (we don't need all the mundane details of Bob's morning before the comet hits and the aliens spill out into the field).
If your story has what it needs, if you've introduced a conflict and you toss out tiny hooks along the way to keep the reader interested and moving forward, and you're not settling into boring backstory that should only exist in your notes (hey, I think I better stop and explain all of Bob's life and how he ended up living where the comet hits so I can lose my reader's attention) your longer story is going to be okay and you can roll with it. But don't submit it to places if it doesn't fit the guidelines. 👽
Thanks for this post.
I prefer to write short pieces. They zing back just as quickly as longer ones. Sometimes I will get a comment from the "rejector" with a hint that I did not "develop" the story more. In my case, it's "damned if you do...."
I LIKE long stories, which is probably why I write them. And yes, by writing them I wrote myself out of the market, so to speak. But I'm taking all those long stories and cutting them into sections so that they're 2-2,500 words, and putting them up on my Substack page https://benwoestenburg.substack.com
When I stumbled onto this site, I stumbled into a dream. I don't have a lot of followers, (I just started in June) but I have 3 Paid subscribers. I don't care if I ever get published in a magazine, on line in in print. I plan to make this my new home.
I think this is fine and there is no doubt that cutting is one of the best ways to edit. There is nothing like having a word limit imposed on you — like for book reviews, for example — to disciplline you in the art of cutting. And yet. There are magazines that DO publish longer stories. Southern Review is one.
I wonder if this trend of shorter stories (less than 3,000 words) holds true for publishers of collected short stories. I haven't researched this, but wonder what the relationship is between shorter online stories appearing in literary journals vs. published collections.
There are markets for longer fiction in genre, including some pretty high-paying markets such as Tordotcom. One of the big flash fiction markets in SFF just shut down. What may be true for litfic markets is not necessarily the case across the board.
very helpful ideas. thank you for posting.