20th publication

I was happy to be informed yesterday that the 20th printed story of mine will be circulated in a periodical next month

Still no news on the book deal front, but by now this (i think) will be somewhat easy to secure due to the relatively better position i now am in.

Maybe there can be some discussion on short story printing, although i mostly meant the thread as a sort of celebration.

GOOD JOB.

NOW DO ONE IN ENGLISH

Keep working at it.

Thanks

Not much to work on, in reality. I can create new stories easily by now and they are better than the last ones by and large. I suppose i keep some balance by not presenting more horrible images and plots than might be pleasant to read, and keep one's distance...

Hm, i just got an email from the editor of a mag i never had been published in although i had sent them two other stories in the past.
He said that my story is "possibly too allegorical and so there is no clear axis. It will not be published".

I thought this was a bit too ludicrous as a reply, as if i was asking for money or some favor :/ So i replied that i wish a good continuation (for the mag) and i will not be sending anything else.

I guess some editors are creeps :/

Funny thing is that the same story was accepted a couple of days ago from some other mag. So i suppose if he had accepted it too, i would have had to sent something else instead.

Something like a month and a week later, i now have 22 publications (but still no book deal).

It is ok, obviously it gets easier to get more work published once you have work published all around (11 different magazines in total).

Waiting for a reply for a collection of stories. I suppose that (unless all collapses here) in half a year i probably will have a book out (i hope).

The crisis at least made some readers more willing to read bleaker stuff, and more complicated. Of course the book market is still dominated by romance novels (like i suppose in most countries).

Btw, some days ago i sent one of my stories, translated by myself, to an english periodical. I am almost certain they will not publish it, cause i suck at translating to english (moreso in lit pieces).

If the market wants Romance novels why not give it a try?

Kyriakos said:

Hm, i just got an email from the editor of a mag i never had been published in although i had sent them two other stories in the past.
He said that my story is "possibly too allegorical and so there is no clear axis. It will not be published".

I thought this was a bit too ludicrous as a reply, as if i was asking for money or some favor :/ So i replied that i wish a good continuation (for the mag) and i will not be sending anything else.

I guess some editors are creeps :/

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The thing is, by sending him a story, you were asking for money. You were basically saying, "Here is a story; will you please publish it (and pay me for it)?"

The editor did you the favor of explaining why he wasn't going to publish it. From what I've read about the publishing industry, a lot of editors don't bother doing that; you just get a bare rejection slip and never know the reason why. Instead of snarking at him, you should have dropped a note to say thank you (for having explained why) and not burned your bridges with that magazine (and possibly others; you think editors don't talk about authors? Or that maybe this guy might end up working for some other magazine you want to sell stories to and he might remember your attitude?). It's possible that you might have been able to have a conversation with him and he'd have explained what you could do to improve your chances of getting published with that magazine.

Kyriakos said:

The crisis at least made some readers more willing to read bleaker stuff, and more complicated. Of course the book market is still dominated by romance novels (like i suppose in most countries).

Btw, some days ago i sent one of my stories, translated by myself, to an english periodical. I am almost certain they will not publish it, cause i suck at translating to english (moreso in lit pieces).

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You seem to have little trouble writing in English most of the time (going by the overall content of your CFC posts); do you write in Greek and run it through a translator, or do you write directly in English?

It might be worth your while to find a reputable translating service if you want to sell to English-language magazines.

As for romance... well, one of my college profs sold a Harlequin romance once. He said it wasn't that hard once he had the formula figured out. You'd have to use a female pseudonym, though, since not a lot of romance novels tend to get sold with men's names as the authors.

This is glorious Greece, and literary periodicals by now do not normally pay you for stories. They used to in the past (up to a couple of decades ago). Only publishers pay for books, and periodicals in the case the writer is very famous, or if he is a member of their staff. So he was just being a creep and in no way was i in his debt

As for him being able to harm my career? Not really, he is insignificant despite the periodical being one of the larger ones. And even in the unlikely event he is connected to some publishing house, i could not care less for such intrigues cause my work is worth being published so it is not my fault if someone spitefully fights it (not meaning his own magazine here, obviously, cause anyone is free to publish what they want anyway).

So you're getting published in magazines that charge money for people to read them, yet you're not getting paid for your part in that?

If these are pro magazines (as in professional, for-profit publications), is the only reason you're submitting stories is so you can build up a publication history in hopes of them being collected into an anthology that will pay?

'Cause otherwise I just can't fathom it. I've been published but not paid - but that's because they were fan publications (various Star Trek fanzines and some Doctor Who material to the British Television & Film Society magazine). Due to copyright rules, I couldn't have been paid in cash for any of that. But at least I got a contributor's copy out of the deal.

If you're doing this as a hobby, then feel free to disregard my advice and comments. But if you want to be a paid writer, you should probably work at getting published by the people who actually pay writers instead of taking their work and giving nothing back.

Valka D'Ur said:

So you're getting published in magazines that charge money for people to read them, yet you're not getting paid for your part in that?

If these are pro magazines (as in professional, for-profit publications), is the only reason you're submitting stories is so you can build up a publication history in hopes of them being collected into an anthology that will pay?

'Cause otherwise I just can't fathom it. I've been published but not paid - but that's because they were fan publications (various Star Trek fanzines and some Doctor Who material to the British Television & Film Society magazine). Due to copyright rules, I couldn't have been paid in cash for any of that. But at least I got a contributor's copy out of the deal.

If you're doing this as a hobby, then feel free to disregard my advice and comments. But if you want to be a paid writer, you should probably work at getting published by the people who actually pay writers instead of taking their work and giving nothing back.

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Well, by now, in little over two years (October 2011) i have 22 printed published stories in 11 different magazines. Only 5 of those 22 stories were in free-press magazines (ie lit magazines which are not sold, but are for free). The other 17 are in magazines which cost up to 12 euros per issue... (the average price being 9-10 euros).
You are right to suppose that i am accepting this due to wanting to further build-up my publication history as well as make my own name as a writer more known. Ultimately there has to be a book for this to expand, although i am pretty sure that it is quite rare for one to have as many publications in so little time without being a known name before. In the end i am very happy with the development of my own work, which keeps getting better. I assume there will be a book deal soon. This is not a hobby, but i don't write so as to get money either; i write cause i view literature as a very important work.
I hope i will manage to get a decent salary-like pay once the book deal happens, so that i can focus even more on my writing. I don't aspire for huge cash rewards from writing books.

I wish you luck, and much patience. Some people get book deals fairly soon, but others have to wait decades. Take Isaac Asimov, for example - one of the best-known science fiction authors of the 20th century. He started out writing short stories for the pulp magazines back in the 1930s. It wasn't until many years later - well after his first book - that he even dared to consider quitting his "day job" as a chemistry teacher to write full-time. And even then he didn't just write stories. He wrote articles, chapters for technical books, and just about anything else that came along.

The day did finally come when he could decide to write something and be completely confident that it would sell. But that took decades, and he collected a lot of rejection slips along the way.

Valka D'Ur said:

I wish you luck, and much patience. Some people get book deals fairly soon, but others have to wait decades. Take Isaac Asimov, for example - one of the best-known science fiction authors of the 20th century. He started out writing short stories for the pulp magazines back in the 1930s. It wasn't until many years later - well after his first book - that he even dared to consider quitting his "day job" as a chemistry teacher to write full-time. And even then he didn't just write stories. He wrote articles, chapters for technical books, and just about anything else that came along.

The day did finally come when he could decide to write something and be completely confident that it would sell. But that took decades, and he collected a lot of rejection slips along the way.

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Thank you

Valka D'Ur said:

I wish you luck, and much patience. Some people get book deals fairly soon, but others have to wait decades. Take Isaac Asimov, for example - one of the best-known science fiction authors of the 20th century. He started out writing short stories for the pulp magazines back in the 1930s. It wasn't until many years later - well after his first book - that he even dared to consider quitting his "day job" as a chemistry teacher to write full-time. And even then he didn't just write stories. He wrote articles, chapters for technical books, and just about anything else that came along.

The day did finally come when he could decide to write something and be completely confident that it would sell. But that took decades, and he collected a lot of rejection slips along the way.

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While this is true, I believe the more appropriate science-fiction writer in this situation is L. Ron Hubbard. He successfully published around 30 books and believed he lived in the fantasy world he wrote about.

Moderator Action: Infracted for flaming - please leave the personal attacks out of it.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

^ :yawn:, just keep to your lawn m8.

Kyriakos said:

Hm, i just got an email from the editor of a mag i never had been published in although i had sent them two other stories in the past.
He said that my story is "possibly too allegorical and so there is no clear axis. It will not be published".

I thought this was a bit too ludicrous as a reply, as if i was asking for money or some favor :/ So i replied that i wish a good continuation (for the mag) and i will not be sending anything else.

I guess some editors are creeps :/

Click to expand...

As described, he's critiquing your story as essentially being unclear or pointless and therefore unfit for publication in the periodical because it doesn't meet their standards. So you're calling him a creep?

Super-pro.

Kyriakos said:

^ :yawn:, just keep to your lawn m8.

Click to expand...

To whom is this directed?

Right

I suppose the thread can move on if people post about published literature or along those lines. I suspect it will happen, cause i am sooo optimistic.

Okay, so you don't want helpful advice, suggestions, or anything else unless it comes with a pat on the back?

Uh, what? Do i want helpful advice about getting more publications? Not really, why does this surprise you? It is not the OP either so as i said, get back to topic if you must carry on. As for pat in the back ( ), maybe recall your own round and arabian number of printed works before trying to be dismissive.