I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream - Publishing Short Stories

[Johnny Velvet]

In many ways it was naive of you all to believe that following the “fortunes” of Ireland’s men’s team since Euro 2016 wouldn’t inflict severe psychological damage on the fan base at large and I, my friends, am living proof. On a personal level, one upside has been that the trauma has congealed and condensed itself into a short work of horror fiction that I may have written and am now thinking of publishing. Now, before we go any further let me put you at ease. Firstly, I’m not going to inflict it on you. Secondly, I’m not going to ask any of the established and published writers here, “How do I get it published?”

Instead I’m merely looking for any suggestions on venues or publications that accept submissions in this genre from previously unpublished authors. The little research I’ve conducted to date has unearthed a few small outlets in Ireland that cater for horror and Sci-Fi but their submission guidelines and their back catalogues don’t really vibe with what I’ve done and what I’d like to do in future. I should also make clear at this point that I’m not from a literary background. I’ve no grounding in the canon and part of me is wondering if it isn’t a colossal waste of everyone’s time doing this. Particularly dispiriting is the apparent desire that many publishers have for their prospective authors to have some social media presence or level of engagement. Two words there: fuck that. If being a published author today means having to curate an Instagram/TikTok/Twitter account then I will - quite happily - bin off the endeavour and consider the time taken to write all of this as a “tax loss.”

In a nutshell, if you know of any publishers or websites that accept unsolicited pitches or works of let’s call it genre fiction then I’d appreciate it. I’ll do the rest. And probably fail miserably but, hey…

[George C.]

PM sent...

[imp]

Submitting fiction without an agent is almost impossible, unless you want to get snared by a vanity publisher. There just don't seem to be any publishers around any more accepting unsolicited proposals, let alone whole manuscripts. Given the reams of shite they get sent, it's understandable. Even the places that have a promising 'submissions' section on their website have usually filled it with a brief note saying they're not taking submissions "right now". And that note will have been there for years.

Submitting to agents can be as soul-destroying as submitting to publishers used to be before writers gave up submitting to publishers. Again, if you can find one that actually accepts submissions. And then will respond within a year. And then will say, "Sounds interesting, send me some more." And then says, "You're a genius!" or, "You're crap, but I can make us both rich!" (And then drops you two years later after not responding to your emails for a year.)

Having said all that, I genuinely wish you the best of luck, JV - keep us posted.