My copy of this anthology of stories from EDF’s second year of operation dropped through my letter box the other day, and what a fine, professionally-produced piece of work it is. I’ve got two stories in there: my modern-day fable “Mirror, Mirror” and my Schroedinger’s cat story “Opening the Box”. I could list some of the other authors in there that I admire, but that would – frankly – take quite a long time. I am dead chuffed to be in the same table of contents as them.
The introductory pieces by the editors are also well worth a read – particularly the one by Jordan Lapp on finding a business model for fiction on the web. Here’s a slightly scary quote:
It seems that, excluding patronage, no one has yet found a profitable business model for short fiction on the web.
And that comes from an editor at the most-read flash fiction magazine on the web. Interestingly, though, he does say that one of their goals for 2010 is to raise their pay rates to semi-pro level instead of token, by the expedient of running a paid-for competition. Good luck to him there, although to be honest I’m personally not that concerned about pay rates at EDF (but don’t tell him I said so). The fact that EDF is such a well-read magazine makes it a terrific – and fairly competitive – place to get published in if you want to raise your profile a bit. Every time I’ve got a piece there, the hit count for this place goes up quite significantly, and for me that’s what I’m after right now. The big question, of course, is how to turn that exposure into £££.
Congrats, Jon! It is a fine place indeed!
Nik
Thanks, Nik – nice to see you here!
Congrats! This is, somehow, always a market I always forget to sub to. (Makes note on “Do this, Dummy!” list).
You should do, Barry 🙂 As I’ve said, the pay is lousy but the exposure is excellent. And they are a nice bunch to work with – the feedback is always helpful.
Thanks for the mention, Jonathan!
I realize that raising rates from $3 a story to $10 a story doesn’t make any difference in real terms, it does to the critics. To them, it’s the difference between an amateur and professional level publication–no matter what quality of story is involved.
Also, there are authors who won’t sub to a token paying magazine no matter what the exposure level.
EDF needs to grow, and at this point, one of the only ways to do that is to start attracting more critical attention.
Jordan,
Many thanks for dropping in! OK, I see where you’re coming from now. Makes perfect sense.
Must say it was fascinating to read about what goes on in the background of EDF. You guys seem to have your heads screwed on.