I've been left to my own devices for the next three days. Three days in which I only have to look after myself and feed some animals. You'd think that I'd be bolting out of bed in the morning and chewing the day up like a day-chewer (great monster up for grabs there) but it actually takes some acclimatising to. I feel like there's something I should be doing, like I've lost something or left something behind. I'll figure it out for sure - it will probably take me three days though... Today, I have in mind to finish up a short story - that's my very singular goal. Actually it's quite a long short story. It's currently running at 14,000 words, so if you printed and bound it on thick paper, I guess it could fall into the realm of being a novella. Assuming that my synapses will start connecting again soon and that becomes a reality, what then?
I have a few choices I guess. I can 1: Try to sell it to a magazine, 2: publish it here or 3: wrap it up as a digital short and possibly also 4. smile secretively to myself and never do anything with it - in the big scheme of things, I don't think option 4 is much good to anybody so we'll throw that idea in the trash.
I'm thinking out loud here. If anybody is passing by who would care to comment, it would be interesting to see what others thinks of the idea.
So: 1. Sell it to a magazine. That means working up a shortlist of magazines that I think it would sit well within and would welcome it. If they pay, that's cool too but not for the money - more for the process of selling a story that was perceived to be worth something. I guess this will take a few weeks or maybe even months. I wouldn't like to speculate on how other magazine editors like to work despite my close proximity to the role.
With point 2, I could simply finish typing it up and post it here. That would take maybe 20 seconds and the whole world could read it. The downside of that are things like a) is that really perceived as publishing it? b) it depends who passes by to read it and c) can I quantify the extra audience gained?
Looking at point 3, that also has variables. I could a) wrap it up as a pdf here for free download or b) do a) and attach some kind of payment mechanism to it, c) launch it to the various number of e-reader stores out there and see who bites or d) taking it one step further, I could record it as an audio download and make it available as a short audiobook download only. That last option would be interesting that's for sure.
All of which suggests that any or all of those things are possible to do in a relatively short amount of time and all I need to is decide. I guess if you take the digital side of things away, you're left with what writers of the last however many pre-digital years have always been faced with, which is also interesting if you want to play things old school.
Looking at these choices, I think it all rather depends what I want the story to do for me, for itself and for me and the story as 'partners'. Here's what I'm talking about:
Would I like to be able to say I've been published in (for example) Weird Tales or McSweeneys? Sure I would. That would be something people would pay attention to in the future. It lends a lot more authenticity than dropping it on here - but then again, dropping it on here means people can read it immediately and I'm in control. If I write fast enough, I can potentially broadcast enough material here in a month that would take me over a year through other avenues.
A little part of me thinks that writers shouldn't have to think about this stuff too often… but then, those are the things that signify the difference between what the world will term a professional author and somebody who simply owns a website - no matter how professional.
And that perhaps, is what it all comes down to. How do you want to be seen? What's important to you and what do you see as professional and 'going somewhere'. I believe in commercial circles, this sort of thing is called having a 'business plan'.
Maybe it's like having children - you may attach hopes and dreams to them but what happens in the real world is they have their own ideas about things and how people interact with them is not for you to decide. All you can do is point them in the right direction. I might be closer to the truth there than I think.
I've read dozens of story compilations this year already and it's only the super elite whose names I can recall. What good did getting published in a collection do for those forgotten people?
The peculiar thing in all of this is that the story will be the same wherever it goes.