Printed in magazines- which is better?

[Kyriakos]

I could have posted this in the ask a published author thread, but i did not want to bump my own post there.

It is a fairly straightforward question, which i am thinking of these days:

Which of the two seems to be better in your view (if we are talking about a hypothetical, impossible case of all the magazines being of the same worth, and the works being equally populous in both cases) :

-To have works published in a single magazine

-To have works published in many magazines

The backdrop to my question is the realization of the second periodical publishing my work,and a possible third one to follow.
But i am not sure if scattering it around is the best strategy.
Granted, each periodical has its own audience, history, prestige and importance, but it seems hard to have work published month after month in a sole one. So i guess i have to go the route of presenting stories in many.

 

[mayor]

It wholly depends on the quality of those magazines and not only compared to each other. If the quality of the many magazines is relatively low compared to other magazines in the same region it would be better to have works published in only a single magazine.
If the magazines have a relatively high quality the works published in many magazines would be better insofar that your name will be linked to quality magazines thus binding an air of quality writing on your name.

However, if I'm to judge it, an article for a quality magazine takes more time to write and writing for many magazines, therefor, might lead to a decline in quality of the articles.

tl;dr The latter as long as the articles don't compete for your available time and therefor declining in quality

 

[Kyriakos]

I tend to agree, and quality is the most important issue here by far, but i was wondering if there is any advantage to having work (prose fiction in my case) in many magazines, since that way your name reaches more readers.
Surely being published in only one, good magazine, is great, but its audience is not increasing considerably from month to month, whereas different magazines reach different people

 

[downtown]

From the business prospective of the author, this isn't even a question. You want your work in as many (reputable) outlets as you possibly can.

If you become super famous, you can be more picky.

 

[Mise]

Assuming the magazines are of similar quality, I can't see any drawbacks to being published in several magazines rather than just one. Doesn't mean there aren't any drawbacks, just that I can't see any.

Isn't life hard when you have so many offers from publishers

 

[Kyriakos]

Yeah, but they are publishers of periodicals. My end is to have offers from publishers of books :\

So being in many periodicals could increase my prestige a bit, and make the latter easier.

If i could choose i would ideally want a standard (at least) monthly presence in one medium (magazine or paper) and then less frequent ones in other publications.

Lets hope the economic crisis makes some people turn to literature...

 

[Silurian]

Unless one magazine offers you a contract for a series of articles with sone sort of lock in then you should publish in as many places as possible.

 

[Mise]

Yeah, but they are publishers of periodicals. My end is to have offers from publishers of books :\

So being in many periodicals could increase my prestige a bit, and make the latter easier.

If i could choose i would ideally want a standard (at least) monthly presence in one medium (magazine or paper) and then less frequent ones in other publications.

Lets hope the economic crisis makes some people turn to literature...

Yeah, ideally that would be great, but that isn't the choice presented to you. There's no reason you can't later be offered a monthly serial, if you choose to accept offers from multiple publishers now. And there's no reason that turning down multiple offers will increase the likelihood of becoming serialised in one magazine. In fact, to my mind, you're much more likely to get a serial offer from one of the many publishers than if you just stuck with one. It's really a false dichotomy.

 

[mayor]

Yeah, but they are publishers of periodicals. My end is to have offers from publishers of books :\

So being in many periodicals could increase my prestige a bit, and make the latter easier.

If the final goal of the articles is getting the attention of publishers many magazines is definetly the better option. More articles = higher chance of a publisher seeing it.

But in that case it is even more important to keep timestrain in mind. Quality of the articles shouldn't dillude. Quantity =/= Quality and it's quality you want (I assume).

If i could choose i would ideally want a standard (at least) monthly presence in one medium (magazine or paper) and then less frequent ones in other publications.

Maybe a large magazine paper?

Lets hope the economic crisis makes some people turn to literature...

We discussed this during the weekend with the family. We reached the conclusion that people will watch more tv since that is "free".

 

[_random_]

Assuming the magazines are of similar quality, I can't see any drawbacks to being published in several magazines rather than just one. Doesn't mean there aren't any drawbacks, just that I can't see any.

Could there be copyright issues if anybody would want to publish a compilation of Kyriakos's short fiction?

Isn't life hard when you have so many offers from publishers

#firstworldproblems

 

[mayor]

Could there be copyright issues if anybody would want to publish a compilation of Kyriakos's short fiction?

depends. if it is an magazine that's doing a compilation of the articles he has written for that magazine, no.

if somebody wants to make a compilation of all the short fiction, yes! brace yourself to contact al media that Kyriakos has published in.
The magazine is owner of the copyright of the article not the writer (at least here in The Netherlands)

 

[Kyriakos]

Copyright issues can be really detrimental to any writer, and it has to be checked that the gains are more than the losses...

Which is why my first plan always was to keep A level work for books, B level work for printed magazines, and C level work for electronic magazines.
So far it has not worked though, i was forced to submit some of my best work to both of the latter media...

 

[Synobun]

More magazines seems like the better decision, but it really depends on the quality. If I were offered a spot in one of the top literature magazines, I would pounce on that and not accept any other offer from lesser magazines so that my work would be more of a highlight than a plague.

 

[downtown]

Yeah, the fact is, you really don't have that luxury. Given how competitive the book market is, especially for niche fiction writers like you, your best shot to do build the biggest personal following you can. The more eyeballs you can deliver, the better your chances are for a bigger payday (book deal).

Book (and good magazine) publishers deal with the copywrite issue fairly often. If somebody wanted to do a compilation book for you, the rights to your work can be (usually cheaply) purchased from the various websites.

 

[Kyriakos]

More magazines seems like the better decision, but it really depends on the quality. If I were offered a spot in one of the top literature magazines, I would pounce on that and not accept any other offer from lesser magazines so that my work would be more of a highlight than a plague.

Keeping in mind this is Greece and not the UK, there are hardly any "top literature magazines" around, although some are indeed more prestigious than others

But i mostly am going the magazine route out of hope that it will make me a bit more known, and therefore i will have better chances for future books

ps: The publishing game in this country is labyrinthine, since it seems that there are countless publishing houses, each magazine usually has its own small press for books too, and almost all bookstores have their own publishing house. Then there are 5-8 big houses (like the house Harkonnen ) but they appear to mostly release lesser quality work (?), definitely targeted at a more numerous public, which seems to sell in the tens of thousands.

 

[Save_Ferris]

I want my works printed in Downtown's magazine.

 

[Silurian]

You should not use Harkonnen as it could open up a big can of worms.

 

[Kyriakos]

Yes, i am sure the worms in Dune have their real counterparts in the Greek publishing sector, which is why so many people get devoured by anonymity

Then again i have heard it said that in Greece there are many more writers around than in much more populous countries, only the ratio of good writers to population seems to be the same.

 

[Silurian]

Well Greece is a country with good culture, landscape, food and history. I’m sure they inspire many people.

Hopefully I will see your photo on the back of a book in ten years time and say to myself “those curtains look familiar”.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hopefully I will see your photo on the back of a book in ten years time and say to myself “those curtains look familiar”.