The topic of my previous post, on-line vs print publication
has provided some rich material. I’m now exploring other alternatives to getting
published. Here is a sampling of what I’ve uncovered so far.
Narrative magazine
was started in 2003 and “is
paving the way in bringing the best new stories to the digital world and to the
generations of readers who live there.” They pay their contributors well
and most of their content is free. Narrative
Backstage is a premium offering on their website for subscribers and donors
that features Narrative Outloud audio
stories and poetry. They also accept video submissions.
I happen to know that the Missouri Review publishes
audio stories but what I didn’t know is that you must first have your written work accepted by them. Here’s
how they describe their process:
“One of the many innovative ideas we’ve had in recent years
was to create an audio version of our magazine. Every issue, our staff, lead by
audio editor Kevin McFillen, gets an early uncorrected version of the stories,
essays, and poems forthcoming in the next issue. The audio team reads the work
and then selects a reader (or “performer”) from the Columbia theater community
whose voice best captures the text. They get together in our recording studio,
down in the basement of McReynolds Hall (it’s room 54 and, you betcha, we call
it Studio 54),
and then the audio file is edited for production. Each audio recording is then
included in the digital version of The Missouri Review.”
Pretty cool!
Heard
of Monkeybicycle? It’s an
imprint of Dzanc books:
“Monkeybicycle is a literary journal that lives both in
print and online. Deemed "better than the rest of the litmags"
by The Stranger, Monkeybicycle has been publishing a wide range
of authors--since 2002, and has had several
works included in Best American Nonrequired Reading volumes.”
Their website includes a podcast page where you can read about the featured writer and listen to them reading their stories or passages from their novels.
Nashville Review of
Vanderbilt University is going cutting edge:
“Nashville Review was
founded with two guiding principles: that our venue would be inclusive of all
forms of storytelling, and that it would be both free and available online to
anyone who wished to enjoy it. NR seeks to feature art not
traditionally recognized as literature—comics, film, music, visual art,
creative nonfiction, dance, oral storytelling and other performance
arts—alongside the more traditional forms of fiction and poetry.” The site has
a clean, bold look to it, easy to read and to navigate. Not always the case
with lit sites.
And
one of my fave research resources, The ReviewReview, has a solid article on audio publications where I learned about The Drum a literary magazine for your ears:
“The Drum Literary Magazine publishes short
fiction, essays, novel excerpts, and interviews exclusively in audio form.” They
produce 10 issues a year and I find their website to be easy to navigate and
fun to explore, for free!
I am
very excited about how this audio medium opens up new possibilities for publication,
as some of my clients do a fantastic job of reading their work aloud. And with
all the great technology readily available to record them, it’s highly do-able.
