I have a specific question about publishing. I too love dystopian fiction (in fact I'm reading 1984 again right now and the similarities with our world today are more than disturbing), and have a desire to write and publish it. I am stuck between sending my short stories out to magazines and so on, and publishing them myself on my substack (I actually have published past stories - here's a link to a story you may enjoy about COVID-19 https://open.substack.com/pub/hemibowman/p/coming-soon?r=b87nb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web). Do you have any guidance on this, or any specific pieces covering it? I want to share my work, but I feel sending to magazines is a strategy of the past. What do you think?
I read your story, thank you for sharing it. That was quite a twist at the end! I was afraid I would have to post a long "I do not agree" comment for a minute there, and "how did you find my substack??" Lol.
In response to your question about publication: Submitting to magazines is a great strategy if you share the worldview and sensibilities of the magazine editors. Sad to say, but at least in science fiction and fantasy, the magazines are thoroughly gatekept by the woke, the scientific-consensusists, the lockdown enthusiasts. You could submit such a story as you shared here to these magazines as a public service--hoping to lead them into examining your point by saving the twist until the very end--but not with any expectation of being accepted into their publications, I'm afraid.
I don't expect this situation to last forever. Eventually the pendulum will swing back and there will be more diversity of opinion in the publishing world, simply because there exists a great demand for it. Until then, your best bet may be self-publishing. Substack is good, so are ebooks and even print books. You can put a short story or novella on Kindle in ebook form. The trick, if you want to succeed in self-publishing, is to keep publishing and have each book or story refer back to the others (or to a reader email list) in a great web of marketing.
Apart from that, I'll offer you the same advice I would offer to any would-be fiction writer, regardless of worldview. Practice your chops. Read books on the elements of fiction: characterization, plot, theme, POV, dialogue, etc. Take writing classes. Get your work critiqued by other writers, and learn how to critique their work. It may be difficult to find a writer's group that will not cast you out due to your dissenting views, but you can circumvent their ire by submitting your least controversial stories to them. What you want is feedback on your storytelling, not on your ideas and opinions. Many of these groups are perfectly well-suited for that.
Thank you for the reply, I appreciate it! Yeah haha I know; I live in an academic setting, strangled by the conformity of those you described: the "woke, the scientific-consensusists, the lockdown enthusiasts" so the story in part was supposed to do as you say - lull them into a false sense of security until the final twist - and my essential point (that the lockdowns have grave consequences). I have (not only with that story, but others) been rejected from magazines and don't know why exactly - they usually don't give me an answer but sometimes I suspect it is for another reason ....
I was in a writing group in my hometown but I stopped coming because they forced me to wear a mask ... hopefully next year that will chill out.
I may double-down on Substack, and create a collection of sorts of my best scfi-fi/speculative stories and then put that on kindle, always linking to that with each new story.
One more question: Have you ever used Substack as a place where you can upload drafts? Get them critiqued and then improve upon them? Because that seems to me to be an advantage of Substack, that you can edit your posts - each story can be a work in progress (and you can get feedback from your audience).
Epic again!
I have a specific question about publishing. I too love dystopian fiction (in fact I'm reading 1984 again right now and the similarities with our world today are more than disturbing), and have a desire to write and publish it. I am stuck between sending my short stories out to magazines and so on, and publishing them myself on my substack (I actually have published past stories - here's a link to a story you may enjoy about COVID-19 https://open.substack.com/pub/hemibowman/p/coming-soon?r=b87nb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web). Do you have any guidance on this, or any specific pieces covering it? I want to share my work, but I feel sending to magazines is a strategy of the past. What do you think?
I read your story, thank you for sharing it. That was quite a twist at the end! I was afraid I would have to post a long "I do not agree" comment for a minute there, and "how did you find my substack??" Lol.
In response to your question about publication: Submitting to magazines is a great strategy if you share the worldview and sensibilities of the magazine editors. Sad to say, but at least in science fiction and fantasy, the magazines are thoroughly gatekept by the woke, the scientific-consensusists, the lockdown enthusiasts. You could submit such a story as you shared here to these magazines as a public service--hoping to lead them into examining your point by saving the twist until the very end--but not with any expectation of being accepted into their publications, I'm afraid.
I don't expect this situation to last forever. Eventually the pendulum will swing back and there will be more diversity of opinion in the publishing world, simply because there exists a great demand for it. Until then, your best bet may be self-publishing. Substack is good, so are ebooks and even print books. You can put a short story or novella on Kindle in ebook form. The trick, if you want to succeed in self-publishing, is to keep publishing and have each book or story refer back to the others (or to a reader email list) in a great web of marketing.
Apart from that, I'll offer you the same advice I would offer to any would-be fiction writer, regardless of worldview. Practice your chops. Read books on the elements of fiction: characterization, plot, theme, POV, dialogue, etc. Take writing classes. Get your work critiqued by other writers, and learn how to critique their work. It may be difficult to find a writer's group that will not cast you out due to your dissenting views, but you can circumvent their ire by submitting your least controversial stories to them. What you want is feedback on your storytelling, not on your ideas and opinions. Many of these groups are perfectly well-suited for that.
Good luck, Hemi!
Thank you for the reply, I appreciate it! Yeah haha I know; I live in an academic setting, strangled by the conformity of those you described: the "woke, the scientific-consensusists, the lockdown enthusiasts" so the story in part was supposed to do as you say - lull them into a false sense of security until the final twist - and my essential point (that the lockdowns have grave consequences). I have (not only with that story, but others) been rejected from magazines and don't know why exactly - they usually don't give me an answer but sometimes I suspect it is for another reason ....
I was in a writing group in my hometown but I stopped coming because they forced me to wear a mask ... hopefully next year that will chill out.
I may double-down on Substack, and create a collection of sorts of my best scfi-fi/speculative stories and then put that on kindle, always linking to that with each new story.
One more question: Have you ever used Substack as a place where you can upload drafts? Get them critiqued and then improve upon them? Because that seems to me to be an advantage of Substack, that you can edit your posts - each story can be a work in progress (and you can get feedback from your audience).
Anyway, thank you Starr.
Now I'm hooked. Looking forward to Chapter 3!
Me too.
Chapter 3 is up! Chapter 4 will be released on Sunday.