Question on Short Stories

[Jay P Lang]

I have been reading a lot of Stephen King's short stories lately because I am writing a lot of them myself lately. I guess you could say I am on a kick lately. I really enjoy his stories but mostly I am completely engrossed in his story. How he started with short stories is something I hope to learn from. It is very hard to find out where to start though. Does anyone have any pointers on Horror story contests, magazines and the like? I checked on cavalier magazine and it turned out to be a men’s magazine now. I have more and more short stories piling up and nowhere to send them. Any suggestions? I think their good, I hope their good, but that’s a scary story in itself.

Thank you

[Jay P Lang]

I've been looking around all day for places to submit short stories and the market in the genre seems to be very slim. I checked a book or two out at the bookstore and there were maybe five magazines that they offered for horror. I was hoping to find a contest to enter. I wish Mr. King would hold a contest for writers to submit 1000 words, or even 10000, for us to write about something in particular. I know it would take a lot of time to read all of the stories we would submit but that is why you let all of us do the judging. You just don't tell the names of those who submitted and you don't let anyone who submitted vote. You could have a score system, 1-10, where it kept track and the top stories got put somewhere on the site (or, if Mr. King thought they were good enough, they could be published). I wouldn't need to get paid and I am sure many others wouldn't care to be either; it would just be cool to do it.

Anyway, still looking. Any thoughts? No answers so far.

BTW love the site, its fun to discuss these stories even though I am new to the Stephen King genre. I have always been scared of my own mind so I have stopped myself from feeding it horror, but time is ticking away and I can't put off destiny much longer. I feel I owe it to myself to get my stories out there. I am sure others feel the same but it is sort of an obsession for me to write and write until my hands go numb.

[JoeSherry]

Pick up a copy of Writer's Market, then get prepared to send out a LOT of submissions. After all if Uncle Stevie had a pile of rejection slips....But hang in there, and good luck!

[sam peebles]

Good luck on getting published! I can't really help you there, I don't know anything about it. I do think King held a contest similar to what you were discussing when he released On Writing, and I do think he actually read and rated the stories himself. Alas, I think it was a lot of work on his part (and very generous), and I don't think it'll happen again.

[Bryan James]

As stated, get 'Writer's Market,' and subscribe to the companion 'Writer's Digest.' 'Poets and Writers' isn't bad, but it has a lot of advertisements...the current issue does have a big section on contests, though.

Hell, send me a short, I'll send one back. I have two floating over at "Wierd Tales" and haven't heard anything.
~BJS

[Bev Vincent]

Look for markets for short stories at www.duotrope.com. It's the best resource on the web. Also try www.ralan.com.

In my opinion, avoid contests that charge an entry fee.

[Jay P Lang]

I went to pick up a copy, but before I bought it I realized there was only 3 pages on horror magazines and short story submissions in that ilk. I decided against buying it and opted to copy the suggestions onto some paper. I did, however, buy a few books about grammar and the like, Stephan King's book on Writing not being the least of which. I may have a false sense of pride or faith in myself, but I believe I can break through the scene if given the chance. I will continue to write and hone my craft and hope, in the end, that it will lead to somewhere special.

Who knows, I've been wrong before...

I doubt I will admit it though.

Mr. King said a bad writer could never be a good writer, a competent writer could be taught to be good, but that no one could become a great writer; you are or you aren’t. I hope it's true, it will make the discovery of which one I am easy enough because, I assume, it will be quickly apparent which I might be.

Grammar is my weakness, as I am sure you can probably see here. Hopefully I can mend that through practice and education.

[Bryan James]

Any decent cook can sling a Sloppy Joe. Most people like Sloppy Joes. Some folks don't eat anything but Sloppy Joes for their whole lives.

It's almost lunchtime, so I'm stuck in this food metaphor thingy,
~BJS

[jchanic]

I checked on cavalier magazine and it turned out to be a men’s magazine now.

Jay, back when King was contributing to it, Cavalier Magazine was a men's magazine. It's been a men's magazine since it began. Don't let that fact deter you. A market is a market.

John

[Jay P Lang]

Yeah, I realized that last night while reading through his book. He said he was one of the last on the train before men's magazines stopped using short fiction and started going more into graphical sexual stories. I think I will attempt to write them and see if the market might allow them again. I will think about sending one of my stories, but first I need to send them to myself to copyright them (nothing against you, just being cautious).