April 20, 2020 admin

Well, writer’s block can hit you at any time, and it ran me over like a MAC truck this week. This #publishpath entry should have been about reviewing my written cover letter and the problems most people have when sending their short fiction out for the first time. But between a family emergency and dealing with the issues surrounding the quarantine, I find myself still working on that cover letter 30 minutes before my deadline. I’m going to have to leave the house for some essential errands, and I know I’ll be away from my computer all day today. So…

April 13, 2020 admin

I’m feeling pretty confident right now! I know where I’m sending my work, when I’m sending my work, and I’ve got detailed instructions on how to get the manuscript from Point A to Point B. Now all I have to do is figure out what I’m going to say to each publisher when I query my short story. Wait… what am I going to say to those publishers? Is querying for short fiction more difficult than querying for novels? Or agents? I know how things used to work back in the day, but have they changed in 2020? Well, after…

April 6, 2020 admin

When you’re querying your short fiction you’re going to get rejected. A lot. Stephen King once famously mounted a railroad spike on his childhood bedroom wall when he started submitting short stories as a teen. Each rejection letter King received got impaled on the spike. After a while, the weight of the paper was so heavy it started to warp the railroad-grade iron. You’re going to have to assume that no one is going to immediately declare your work a masterpiece, and buy it off of you for one million dollars. Which means, even from the start, you’ll need to…

March 30, 2020 admin

I’m continuing my quest to find a publication that might actually welcome the submission of my 6000 word horror/literary short story. Let’s see how the next batch will hold up. The Iowa Review – https://iowareview.org/ What type of fiction do they normally publish? – No clue, paywallDo they publish authors who write like me? – No clue, paywall. Is there any reason why they might not publish my current story? – Unless you’re submitting for a contest, you can only send in your work in September, October, and November. None of the current prizes are accepting work anytime soon, and don’t…