yeah the internet is a wonderful thing, but it pretty much spelt the deathknell of the small presses and the short story oriented magazines.
I've had a couple of yarns published in hardback anthologies as well, but that was some years ago now.
And one was down to collaborating on a story with a friend who has the drive to just keep sending stuff out.
He stuck at it and does seem to be making some mainstream headway.
It helps that he doesn't have to work for a living any more
If you fancy reading some dark horror/sf - give paul pinn a try:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=paul+pinn&tag=yahhyd-21&index=stripb...http://paulpinn.webs.com/One the the stories we wrote together is in the collection: Ideopathic condition red - called The flayer, not for the faint hearted lol
Not sure what happened to the other one, hell i can't even remember what it was called.
I do remember it ws about auto-cannabilism
Paul doesn't do fluffy. And I only wrote a few horror yarns, sf, fantasy and space opera are my true loves.
(lol just realised I've got half authorship on a story in a book being sold on amazon ! God bless ya paul
These days short story collections are generally only published if you're already an established author. And that is getting harder and harder to do.
Technology has made vanity publishing easier - but if it's good enough to be published I believe you shouldn't have to pay for it yourself.
(although I am planning on self publishing the cookery books - so who knows lol)
We have a member who wrote a seriously great fantasy novel. Easily as good as anything i've read that has been published.
A lot of us were lucky enough to be proof readers for her. It had a little slinging in it which is how she ended up here.
She managed to find an agent (no easy task in itself).
And was told she needed to rewrite for a younger readership if she was serious about getting it published.
Harry potter has a lot to answer for. Publishing houses now seem to believe that only fiction aimed at younger readers will make them rich.
But historical fiction is popular at the moment so there's definitely something to aim for thearos
I currently lack the discipline to write for a living. I'll get back to it at some point
Every now and then i add a few paragraphs to something or other.
I've even recently added a slinger to one story. Might be the kick up the arse I need to do some writing, who knows