Oh wow, two posts in one month!
I had a few thoughts, though, and I wanted to share.
First thought: Submissions, as an unpublished/underpublished fiction writer are tough going. I think, though, that most writers make it even TOUGHER by worrying a lot about scatter-shooting their submissions to hundreds of magazines they're unfamiliar with, and then just sitting around and waiting for the responses.
Here's the thing, though....... you HAVE to be familiar with the place you're submitting to. I mean, read the damned magazine a few times at least, just to make sure you're not wasting your/their time and, really, your paper. That's the thing - literary magazines have this groove, and the few consistent, interested readers they have definitely have an expectation about what they'll find in their favorite magazine's pages. They aren't going to divert from that style. Why should they?
Next, once you get a rejection, SEND SOMETHING ELSE OUT. Even if it is to a different magazine, send something to someone. Keep things going out constantly. Have 10 things out at all times, at least. Even after you get one thing published. Along those lines, keep records of what you have sent to whom. Keep writing new material, editing, revising, workshopping, and then... SENDING. Show them your progress. If you're serious about appearing in print/hypertext, that is the only way.
Second Thought: I wish I had the time to get my own online literary mag under way. I have the site built, the webspace, etc., but no time to actually do the thing, at the moment. Maybe once I am back in school full time and no longer working. That's okay, I can wait. I mean, do that many people read each online magazine unless they are conceptually brilliant? I think not, I think most people are generally ignorant that such things exist, or that such things have classically been the proving grounds for stories that eventually became their favorite movies, such as the basis for National Lampoon's Vacation, based on John Hughes short story Vacation '58, first published in National Lampoon Magazine in 1983, republished in the most current issue of All Story.
Maybe people should be more aware of lit mags, maybe more of online lit mags... and maybe we need to give them more reason to read them. WRITE WRITE WRITE BRILLIANT WORK!
Stuff to think about.
