Writing Report March 29, 2020

This will come as a shock and surprise to many of you, I know, but the coronavirus is wreaking havoc with my writing schedule.

I’m fine (as of this writing), my wife is fine, all our family members are fine.  For that we’re truly glad and grateful.

But between social distancing and family obligations (nothing serious, just time consuming) my daily output has dropped dramatically.

I’ve also seen several markets I’d submitted to either implode or suddenly close or just va_n__i__s____h without a trace.

Which sets me to thinking about the future of (a) freelance fiction writing in general and (b) my own creative strategies as well.

I occasionally think I spend more time and effort trying to place my short stories than I do writing them.

Certainly with various market restrictions, I spend an inordinate amount of time researching the markets.

One certainly can’t make a living off of short fiction (I think Harlan Ellison was the last person to support themselves solely through freelance short fiction and that was 1955-57).  Freelance fiction writers can survive, obviously, but they range much further afield than the confines of the short fiction market.  Without longform fiction, television, comics / graphic novels, video games, and other venues, none of us could support ourselves off freelance short fiction.

So the huge hiccup we’re going through right now will visit far ranging change on us, much of which already started prior to the appearance of the coronavirus but now accelerated upon its arrival.

The old model for short fiction / essays / poems was for a publisher to arrange financing, assemble a publication (magazine or original anthology), delivery said publication to a distributor, and live off the proceeds.  (I’m leaving out a lot of steps and variables, of course, but those are the basics).

The financing could come in many forms, either an advance from a larger publisher / distributor / investor or a loan based on contracts and letters of commitment.  One of the best bits of advice I received when I was trying to decide whether to do the Serenity Christian manga project as either original graphic novels or a monthly came in the form of a question:  Do you want to spend all your time creating, or do you want to spend all your time chasing down advertisers?

I preferred the former to the later, yet even then I spent an enormous amount of time and effort into tracking down a suitable publishing partner.

So I commiserate with all those publishers and editors out there trying to make a go of it on shoestring budgets with minimum or non-existent staffs:  I feel for you.  Truly.

But I also recognize the light at the end of that particular tunnel is a train.

Already alternatives to traditional publishing let writers find a loyal audience and get paid for it.

I’m aware of sites like Wattpad and Medium and Smashwords but frankly haven’t investigated them in depth.

To my old(er) eyes, I see the danger of clouded rights issues, reliability in accounting, and frankly just seeming desperate.

Yet those same eyes can’t deny thousands of writers use them and attract tens of thousands of readers and in more instances than one would expect, money flows ///towards/// the writer.

(Siderbar:  Don’t never EVER enter a creative contest that requires an entry fee or submit to a market that charges a submission fee.  If you won’t listen to me, listen to Uncle Harlie.)

So clearly a sea change is already underway and the coronavirus is the tsunami wave that finishes the job.

Look, I’m fortunate insofar that between our Social Security and Soon-ok’s pension, we have enough to live comfortably on for the rest of our lives.  Holy shamolley, do I ever realize how fortunate and privileged we are in that aspect.

But the short fiction market already is barely cost effective.  My genre fiction goes first to the biggest / most prestigious markets.  Originally I planned to limit each submission to the top five markets, then post them online here if I couldn’t place them.

The drawbacks with that are the aforementioned market restrictions (many markets today will only accept one submission at a time from a writer) and the ever continuing ebb and flow of specialty markets where one might have a chance (indeed, I’ve sold several stories because an original market opens for stories specifically about left-handed truck drivers and by chance I happen to have a left-handed truck driver story [or the equivalent thereof] in the trunk].

Those of you visit here frequently know I’ve been writing fictoids (a.k.a. flash fiction or short-short stories).

While I’d written fictoids before, this current crop got their start from a Christmas gift I received from a grandson.

I really enjoy these, and when I can find a chance to sit down and writer them (their first draft is always by hand) I can crank out two to six an evening after my more formal writing.

These are shared freely on my blog because at 350-400 words, they’re not really cost effective for market submission.

If I could place a 400 word fictoid at the highest paying market for that sort of fiction, I’d net 40-cents a word for $160.

That’s a lot for a little, to be sure, but rates drop precipitously after that (not to mention that market publishes only three or four times a year).

$32 for a fictoid?
Not great, but okay.

$4 for a fictoid?  
Uhh, no…

Let them publish it for free?

Why should they benefit off my work but not me?

No, fictoids are cost effectively only as loss leaders to attract eyeballs here and possibly interest people in my longer work.

My longer short fiction (i.e., everything from 1,000 to 9,999 words; there’s a variety of opinion on what the boundaries of short story and novelette / novella lengths should be but for our purposes I’m limiting short fiction to that range) tends to be more satisfying, but those markets are drying up.

Sc-fi / fantasy / horror are much more viable markets than mystery / crime.  Other markets are so scarce I can’t find reliable information on them (this would include general and mainstream humor fiction).  The literary markets all offer their own particular shoals to navigate, and while they can pay well, again, those markets are far and few between.

So I’m thinking of steering away from conventional short fiction (i.e., 1,000 to 9,999) and focus exclusively on long form (i.e., novels and novellas I can offer via Kindle), using the fictoids on this blog to attract readers to the longer works.

(Speaking of which, I’m about a year ahead on my fictoids; they’re loaded up and set to appear one a week from now into 2021 with more to come after that.  So if I keel over in the near future, you’re still going to be seeing new fictoids into early 2021 at the least.)

None of this will preclude me from writing short stories that fall between fictoid and novella lengths, but that’s going to require perfect happenstances (good idea + time to write).

The other thing to consider is that with the old model publishing market being so badly shaken up, new opportunities in new formats will be opening up.

Which one of those will be viable in turns of adequate readership, etc.?  How many prose based venues will be open as opposed to drama and media based?

We are in, as the Chinese would say, for interesting times.

© Buzz Dixon