There are days when I'd just love to take some members of the crime fiction community out back to the woodshed and give them a good thrashing. This quote is from a man who has reprinted online stories in his own print magazines. He is speaking of an author who's managed to get a pair of novels published and says, "...is an example of how one can rise from the on-line ghetto of crime fiction."
Well, color me happy to be in this "ghetto" and having my short stories published in respected ezines that have published novelists like James Reasoner, Dave Zelterman, Hilary Davidson, Sophie Littlefield and a thousand other respected authors.
The Ghetto rules!!
12 comments:
Indeed. Personally, I prefer "seedy underbelly" myself.
Yep, that works even better, Chris!
Count me as a member of that seedy underbelly too!
That sure made me wince too.
Ooh, the cheeky bugger. And now I've got that Elvis song in my head!
With enough members, Chris, we can smite the bloody nay-sayers!
I know what you mean, Patti! It felt just like a slap in the face.
Curse you, Paul, now I'm hearing Elvis, too! :) Of course, I'm fond of this particular ghetto.
There you Sandra! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl0rJ5NJPEY
I started publishing short fiction online to build a resume that might help me get my novels published, but I have become a convert to the zines, with all the zeal that the term implies.
The zines are a fabulous place for short story writers, Al.
What I find most surprising is that writers who have sold a novel are now told that they should get some short stories circulating out on the web to build up name recognition.
The publishing world doesn't have its nose stuck quite so high in the air when they look at zines, but they're still not treated with much respect.
But the zines have been doing a lot of growing up in the last few years. They're no longer sites where writers publish only themselves and they're friends. They're great looking and well-edited with top-notch stories.
Thanks so much for saying this, Sandra (and for the kind shout-out!). The so-called "on-line ghetto" is publishing some of the best crime fiction today. Anyone who's looking down on it — or who thinks it's a place to escape from — is a dinosaur. I got my start in zines (thanks to Thuglit), but they are much more than a starting point. The "ghetto" is a not a neighborhood I ever want to move out of!
And what I am wondering is if he doesn't know the language well enough to understand what that statement meant to us. He has published a lot of those stories himself.
And that's what it's become out here, Hilary, a neighborhood of writers who care and support each other and cheer whenever someone hits it big.
I wondered about that too, Patti. Maybe ghetto was a poor word choice on his part but he actually sounded like being in the zines was like being at the bottom of the pile.
And there's a lot of writers out there who think that zines aren't a worthy place to publish their work. I wonder if it's similar to being published in the pulps vs being published in glossies back years ago?
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