Another one down, but not out

I read on Apex magazines blog this morning that Jason Sizemore and crew are putting the magazine on hiatus for a while. How long they are not sure. I am saddened to see a quality professional market do this, even if it is temporary. I hate to say this but we are running out of professional markets to submit our stories to and in them we are competing with the established writers. The semi-pro markets are looking to be the new pro markets. I hope this economic turn-around happens sooner than later. I know people are pinching pennies, but this is ridiculous. I think we are down to *counting on fingers* 7 or eight pro markets (strickly pro not a set fee that could take a longer work down to semi-pro) in the horror genre and in the science fiction genre we have 15 markets listed under duotrope that are not flash only. For horror writers I find this alarming. Many of those markets only accept a few pieces a year and many of those markets are the same for both genres. There is some pretty stiff competition for these markets.

I don't envy the publishers at this point. It is tough. I understand that. Even a free online magazine has a hard time, with quality pieces, gaining an audience that is anything other than other writers. I don't know what to do about that. I am always suggesting stories for my non-writer friends and they seem to enjoy them, but they don't seek them out on their own.

Still, I consider what I do to be necessary for myself. Even when I was working full time and didn't have time to write stories, in full anyway, I would jot down ideas on scraps of paper and sneak into the office in the middle of the night to get a few paragraphs down every once in a while. I even kept a notebook when I worked so I could tap that spot in my brain after I ate, while I waited for the others to get back from whatever cafe or gas station they were eating at.

I would write if I wasn't published and I would seek out new stories and new authors until I die. Just the way I am wired I guess.

By the way, Editors that I have stories out to, you still have 15 hours to get that rejection or acceptance (even a hold) to me to be included in the end of month blog that I will post tomorrow. Hurry, this offer won't last.