Giving Away the Short Story
What do you do with ten short stories that you can’t seem to get into magazines or journals? When a story comes back with that rejection letter, many of us stick it in a drawer or filing cabinet and move on.
On his website, Ray Abernathy wrote:
“Several of the stories then visited me in the middle of the night to tell me they were tired of sitting on a virtual bookshelf and gathering dust unread. One of them was carrying a picket sign that shouted, “Free the Short Story 10.” They said they were humiliated and frustrated and were calling on all the stories in the book to sit down in my bedroom until people started reading them.”
Therefore, he decided to spend the next ten days, May 20 through May 29, giving away one short story a day so that his stories will find their way out into the world.
That’s what I call guerrilla publishing.
You can download his stories for the next ten days here and Free the Short Story 10.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Ray, my brother in the struggle, I, too, have taken up arms against the machine.
Every twelve days I launch a brand new short story from the ramparts of www.LongShortStories.com. Reinforcements are at hand!
Our battle cry?
“Save the Short Story!”
Wayne C. Long
Comment by Wayne C. Long — May 21, 2008 @ 6:48 am
thanks, wayne. i got a coupla dozen referrals from your website and i really appreciate the help. the catch-22 in all this, of course, is that some magazines and publishers refuse to consider material that has been “previously published,” even online at no charge! are we sure virginia woolf started off this way? please add me to your elist …
Comment by ray abernathy — May 30, 2008 @ 5:06 am