Is
E-Zine Publication for You?
Lazette Gifford
E-zines are everywhere on the World Wide Web. Some die quickly for lack of funds
or loss of the time needed to keep them going, but others are thriving. This is
a controversial market, and far from accepted as a real publication for
newcomers, let alone anyone who has an established career. So, is it for you or
not?
I like e-zine publication. Part of my outlook is based on my fundamental
attitude toward writing in general: I write because I love to write. Money and
prestige were never part of the 'why do you write' equation for me. Nor was the
need to have others read my material, though I was willing to share it. Why a
person writes -- and they can write because they both love to write and
want the money and prestige, of course -- often has a bearing on how they feel
about e-zine publications. This isn't a medium for everyone. I'm going to start
with the very tangible down side to publishing on the web:
Don't expect much money.
I suggest that anyone considering e-zines look for ones that pay at least
something, because it will make you feel better. Don't give your stories away
unless you have a compelling reason to do so. But over all, the web-based
publications are not paying much of anything, with the exception of places like
Scifi.com (http://www.scifi.com/),
and those are as hard to break into as the print magazines.
People who will not look seriously at web publication often draw attention to
the poor money available. I've seen people point out that although the Golden
Age pulp magazines paid 1 to 2 cents at best, in today's economy that would be
about 12 cents a word. Unfortunately, not even the current Pro Magazines pay
that much, so it's not a good comparison.
This is especially true for the writers who are just breaking into the markets.
The big money, and the majority of the spots in print magazines, go to
established writers. If anyone out there is writing because you think it's an
easy way to get rich (either in print or in e-zine), you need to sit down and
examine the markets more carefully. There are very few people, especially in the
sf/fantasy genre, who are making a living at writing.
Don't expect fellow writers to be thrilled and supportive of your new
publications in e-zines.
Many people think that publication on the 'Net puts you on the same scale as
some of the worst fanzine publications. It's not always so, though there are
inferior e-zines out there. However, not all of them are bad.
This is a new medium for storytellers. It's going to grow and change. Like those
fabled pulp magazines of the Golden Age, not all the e-zines are going to stand
the test of time. People remember the Golden Age of science fiction because we
know the names that survived it. However, there are very many people and
magazines that never took the next step when it came. Not all of the current
bumper crop of e-zines will settle in when civilization finally reaches this
wild and wooly New Frontier. A number of writers will also wait until this is an
accepted medium before they try to break into it. I like being out there in the
frontier.
Don't list your e-zine credits in cover letters to pro (print) magazines and
book publishers.
At this point, print editors are not interested in any sales made to e-zines and
e-publishers. Some of them may think that e-zines are fine, and may even have a
favorite or two -- but most are still in the 'fanzine' mode of thought. Listing
all those little e-zine sales (and fanzine too, if you go that route) only makes
you look unprofessional in their eyes. Don't give them any reason to think this
before they even look at the story.
Piracy on the Internet
People often fear that others can steal their stories if they're on the Web.
They can, it's true. But they can steal them from print as well, and not with
much work. A person doesn't even have to type well these days to put a story
into a scanner and run it through an OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
program.
If someone is out there looking for stories to steal, they will. However,
remember that the moment a story is written, you automatically own the
copyright. You do not need to register it. The story is yours. If someone
steals it, you have the legal right to demand it be taken down (if on a web
site) or credited to you, or whatever else is necessary.
Okay, that's a couple points on the bad side. What about the good side?
The Reading Public
While fellow (and especially published/established) authors may look down on
e-zine publications, very many readers do not. There is a huge audience out
there, and as more people become accustomed to looking for stories on the web,
their numbers grow. You can reach more people in a single day on a web site,
than print magazines have any hope of reaching in all their sales. Print
magazine sales are dropping, too. It's not that people aren't reading. They are
just finding their material in non-traditional locations.
You are likely to hear directly from those readers as well. If you have an email
address attached to the story, people can let you know what they think. Very
often that's a nice, uplifting reaffirmation that you are reaching your
audience. You can rarely get that with print magazines, and certainly not in a
time frame like you do on the web.
This is especially nice for a first sale. My first story sale was to Jackhammer
E-Zine (http://www.eggplant-productions.com/jackhammer/),
and within the day I had several e-mails from people who had read it. Some of
them were from friends I had directed to the story, but a couple notes were from
strangers. I had reached people I had never known.
A Thriving New Medium
New Web markets are opening up continually, while the print media,
unfortunately, is shrinking. Computers are both the blessing and bane for this
point. While there are new markets, computers have also made it possible for a
considerably larger number of people to write and submit.
That means there are a lot more rivals out there for that elusive publication
spot. So while the computer (via the Internet) has opened up the possibility of
new markets, it has also given the writer a lot of competition.
That's not as bad as it looks, though, because many writers aren't putting any
effort into turning out a quality product. They will write something and send it
off without proofing or rewrites, and generally without really caring. They do
this because it's easy to drop something into an email and send it off to some
poor, unsuspecting editor. This wont work any better in the e-zine field than it
would in the print one.
Anyone who can write well, and has a professional approach to their craft, is
bound to have a better chance than a large part of the other people submitting.
Do not fall into the 'It's only an e-zine' trap. If nothing else, consider this
as working practice for the print markets. Do your best!
Niche Markets
These are wonderful and I suspect that we're going to start seeing more of them.
Niche markets that are geared specifically to a certain type of story. The
problem with print magazines is that they must appeal to the largest number of
people in order to sell enough to be viable. Unique stories that may not draw a
lot of readers are less likely to be bought, no matter how well written.
On the web there is room for niche e-zines that can limit the type of material
they take to something very specific. If you have a story that has been turned
down by print because one editor says there's not enough fantasy to be a fantasy
story, but the romance magazines say they won't take anything with fantasy at
all, then maybe you should try some place like The Romantic Bower (http://www.theromanticbower.com/).
You've written a story that's too steamy for the romance magazines? Try some of
the erotica markets. Horror not selling in the print field? There are several
horror e-zines out there. Poetry markets are emerging as well. The possibilities
continue to grow, rather than shrink.
Look around and see if there's some place were you would feel comfortable
submitting stories. And if not, you might at least find some new publications
that you want to read.
So, if you are interested in e-zine publications, what should you do next?
Take your work seriously.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that just because it's for an e-zine, you
don't have to make it the best story you can. Real editors are going to read
this material, and you don't want to be embarrassed by it. You also don't want
your name remembered as 'that person who sends something every week and has a
misspelled word in every paragraph.'
Pen Names
If you don't want to be associated with e-zine publication, use a pen (web?)
name for those publications. You can always claim the material later. I know
several people who write for the erotica markets on-line who use pen names. If
you think you'd like to try out e-zine publications for material that hasn't
found a home elsewhere, but you also fear it will hurt your image, then go this
route. It's perfectly legitimate.
Study the Markets
That's something that should be done as seriously with e-zine publications as
well as with print. Know what the editor is looking for, and read what they've
accepted. See if the editor is discerning in what they put on-line, or if seems
the e-zine prints anything that's sent to it. Do you want to be associated with
the other material in this zine?
Check out the places like Speculations Rumor Mill (http://www.speculations.com/rumormill
) for notices on good/bad zines. For that matter, subscribe to Speculations,
which is a handy guide to both print and e-zine publications, with fine articles
and a lot of helpful information. It comes in the email and is far more up to
date than Locus or Writer's Market as far as new markets (short story and novel,
print and electronic) is concerned. It does only cover the sf/fantasy/horror
genre, however.
Read the guidelines before you submit!
Know exactly what the editor is looking for and how they want the material
submitted. Sending an attached WORD document to a magazine that only accepts
stories in the text of the letter is as unprofessional as sending a printed
story in Allegro BT font on purple paper to Analog. Don't do it.
I have enjoyed e-zine publication, but I do still want to see my stories in
paper print. I've also made a sale of two novels to a new e-book publisher --
but that is an entirely different market from e-zines, where (with few
exceptions) the short stories are free to the reader. E-books are bought and
even places like Barnes & Noble are starting to offer a few through their
web site. (I'll cover this in a later article.)
It's a new world out there, gang. Remember that there is always resistance to
change, but that change comes, nonetheless. We're standing at a point where a
new medium for publication is taking its first steps. Radio railed against the
advent of television as something that would ruin the market, but many bought
into it when they saw that it wasn't going away. Remember that the first
printing presses were thought to be the worst curse in the world by those who
were holding on to their lovely, hand-lettered manuscripts. Many of these people
didn't like that the moveable press made printed material available to the
masses.
That's the same sort of transition we're making here: We are watching a new
medium that spans borders, and opens up material to a potentially far wider
audience than the Golden Age Pulp authors could have imagined.
In my opinion, as writers we should 'buy into the market' while it's still
young, and make our mark while we can. We need to guide this medium in a
direction that we will be comfortable with in the future. Standing back and
waiting isn't going to necessarily create the avenue of opportunity that writers
will enjoy. We are especially in need of control since the Web is a graphics
environment, and the written word could easily get lost in all the pretty
pictures. (Why does the vision of a world moving from radio to television
suddenly come to mind?)
This is a new area for a new millennium and the electronic age. It's not going
to go away. This is your chance to step out into the new frontier.
Good luck!
Managing Editor,
Holly Lisle's Vision: A Resource for Writers
http://www.lazette.net/vision
My e-zine publication credits:
(material with asterisks is available on my website at http://www.lazette.net
)
Epilogue to a Lost Tale Jackhammer E-Zine, July 19, 1999
http://www.eggplant-productions.com/jackhammer
Soon to appear in their 'Best of Jackhammer' issue
*Waiting for God on the Eve of the Millennium Jackhammer E-Zine, December
20, 1999
*Sub-Textual Evidence for the Existence of Alien Life and the Extrapolation
of Internet Protocols Planet Relish, January 2000.
http://www.planetrelish.com
*Elfsong Jackhammer E-Zine, January 3, 2000
*Transgressed Dark Matter Chronicles, January 8, 2000
http://www.eggplant-productions.com/darkmatter/
Those Who Reach Jackhammer E-Zine, February 21, 2000
*Twilight Jackhammer E-zine, March 27, 2000
Hey Baby, What's Your Glamour (Writer's Duet with Paula Fleming)
Jackhammer E-Zine, April 10, 2000
A Fate Cast In Stones Ideomancer http://www.ideomancer.com/ (February 18, 2001)
Silky
(novel) Embiid Publications
http://www.embiid.net (March
1, 2001)
Material that's sold but not yet published:
One Demand Too Many Anotherealm
http://www.anotherealm.com
A Warrior's Work is Never Done, Dragonlaugh http://dragonlaugh.freeyellow.com/
Shepherd Boy
(novel) Embiid Publications
http://www.embiid.net