Thinking about Submitting

Not only have I not been writing much lately--I haven't been submitting the stories that I have in my inventory either. I aim to change this. My inventory is only about five stories, which is a bit problematic as well. I can remember times when I first started writing when I had a dozen stories in rotation. Most of those either sold or got trunked. And we know that writing isn't about quantity, but still. You're only as good as your last story in the short story world. And I tend to think that if I want to build a career (for a vague definition of the term career), I need to have at least a story or two coming out each year. I've been keeping up that pace so far, but I'm about to fall behind just because I haven't stayed on top of my submitting.

For a while, I decided that I would only submit my work to places that would take electronic submissions. I was making so little off of the sales that I did make that it wasn't worth the cost of postage and envelopes. I haven't decided whether I should change that policy yet or not, honestly. So many 'zines do take electronic submissions now. Which don't? F&SF, Asimov's, and Analog. The so-called "Big Three."

I'm kind of curious to see if I can build a reputation for myself without appearing in those markets. They don't pay that much better than anyone else, and their circulation isn't spectacular (although it may be better than just about everyone except Escape Pod). It's kind of weird, but for the purposes of building an audience, I think making reprint sales to Escape Pod might be the best thing I can do for myself.

That's a very weird situation, and really represents the state of the industry.