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What do you do with stories when you can't find a suitable market?

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Alex Harford
(@alexh)
Posts: 292
Silver Member
Topic starter
 

The reason I ask is I have a story (not sff) set in the 90s about a teenage girl who practices ballet but would like to become a pro wrestler. I signed up for a Duotrope trial after not finding suitable markets. As the market for young adult novels is big, I wrongly assumed there would be at least some market for YA short stories, and I haven't found suitable pro or semi-pro paying markets on Duotrope either.

Should I look out for possible anthologies or calls that might be a fit (I've already had the story over a year)? Wait until I've sold a few stories (fingers-crossed) and offer it on my website? It's a story I'm really proud of and would like to get out there and read, and I had amazing help from an editor to get the female-perspective right. I only have one trunked story so far, and I don't want this to be another. I've found a suitable market that pays 1c/word, but I'd like to try more established markets first. Even for general fiction, there doesn't seem to be much.

In general, what do people do when pro then semi-pro markets have been exhausted? And another reason I ask is I imagine this will happen a lot more in future!

P.S. I hope it doesn't seem like I'm self-rejecting. wotf008

35: - R R R | 36: R HM R R | 37: HM HM HM SHM | 38: HM HM HM HM | 39: HM HM HM SHM | 40: HM R SHM SHM |
4 SHM / 12 HM / 7 R

 
Posted : August 19, 2019 1:39 am
(@danecurley)
Posts: 49
Bronze Member
 

I share them with my first readers (friends and fam who are actively interested in reading my work) and edit them thereafter as if I was prepping them for a market. New markets are born every week. Good to have a stable.

 
Posted : August 21, 2019 1:53 am
RETreasure
(@rschibler)
Posts: 957
Platinum Member
 

When my stories have made the rounds of all the suitable markets, I just save them. If a suitable anthology comes up, I want to have them available. Since I'm still a very new writer, though, I don't have many! Some of my very early stories, the ones I cringe to think I sent to places like F&SF, I've put up on the blog. If nothing else, they show how far I've come!

V34: R,HM,R
V35: HM,R,R,HM
V36: R,HM,HM,SHM
V37: HM,SF,SHM,SHM
V38: (P)F, SHM, F, F
V39: SHM, SHM, HM, SHM
Published Finalist Volume 38
Pro’d out Q4V39
www.rebeccaetreasure.com

Managing Editor, Apex Magazine

 
Posted : August 21, 2019 1:55 am
Alex Harford
(@alexh)
Posts: 292
Silver Member
Topic starter
 

Thanks. I think that's something I needed to hear to make me feel more comfortable about saving them. I've worked so hard, I don't like stories sitting around feeling like they're doing nothing!

35: - R R R | 36: R HM R R | 37: HM HM HM SHM | 38: HM HM HM HM | 39: HM HM HM SHM | 40: HM R SHM SHM |
4 SHM / 12 HM / 7 R

 
Posted : August 27, 2019 10:05 pm
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