1. Once upon a time I was a baby writer living in the center of the universe known as old/my NYC; some would say, I was in the heart of all the scenes, but this was unbeknownst to me since I had no connections to any literary or publishing world: I was a “grown-up” teacher with room mates who loved reading and collecting my observations in notebooks.
Then we all became writers because of blogging and through the now famous bookstore McNally Jackson, I discovered self-publishing. Then I learned of journals. And rejections. And prestige. And awards. And the ladder. So, it all happened very backwards for me. And thank Zeus for it! I have never forgotten, especially in the U.S., that if the only people who are reading your work are in said literary journals, then let me break your heart: no one is reading your work. (This may not be the case in Ireland and Ireland is a separate case study). Esteemed writers who used to write for Playboy had a bigger readership in that regard. Ray Bradbury, Chekhov etc. had many readers than literary accolades, the equivalent of our “blogs” I suppose? Not sure of that equivalency to be honest.
2. I don’t know if I agree with this: “a piece published online will always be read by more people than a piece published in print, especially over time.” I have seen sites close and things disappear. People’s obsession with substack...am I the only one who remembers Posterous?! It was awesome (and made plagiarism very easy by reposting, similarly to Tumblr lol) and Jack’s Twitter bought it and then poof- took it all down. There goes your content. Not to mention most people wouldn’t have made the effort as you did with Minor Literatures.
3. I once submitted fiction to 3AM -never heard back. I am not cool enough.
4. I once told an editor about my book idea who wasn’t really listening to me until I mentioned that the essay I wanted to expand had been part of an anthology which was reviewed in 3AM. They jotted my name down. I was over it by the time they asked to spell my last name.
5. Any literary journal that continues to thrive (primarily in Ireland but even there it’s getting saturated but they may not be impacted because for every writer they have two readers and every writer is a reader) is because they recognize that obsessive READERS are the lifeblood.
Sites go down, copies of journals end up in the recycling bin. But the wayback machine is better at salvaging websites! I guess the “natural” tendency of writing is to get lost eventually, with a few exceptions.
I should add: perhaps the counter-thought to my original comment is, “oh yeah? No one is reading the journals you say? But the “real readers”, the ones who really matter, (aka agents and publishers and those who are in the awards business) are reading and those are the readers one needs.” 😵💫
I hope you do a piece on the new Twatter site, where I was felt the urge to write:
"We're safe here, the undesirables can't hurt us here," I get a whiff of snobbery and an urge to start upsetting people. But I won't, I'll hold it down.
The Devil in me itching for mockery!
Am I 'far-right' now or is this humour alright here?
Because of the posts saying things about their safe-space Shangri La, where only the 'right sort of people' are welcome.
I was told I'd be blocked if I rock the boat. I ain't too fussed about being blocked by those who don't get me, or the easily offended. They ain't my 'audience' and it makes no difference to me.
1. Once upon a time I was a baby writer living in the center of the universe known as old/my NYC; some would say, I was in the heart of all the scenes, but this was unbeknownst to me since I had no connections to any literary or publishing world: I was a “grown-up” teacher with room mates who loved reading and collecting my observations in notebooks.
Then we all became writers because of blogging and through the now famous bookstore McNally Jackson, I discovered self-publishing. Then I learned of journals. And rejections. And prestige. And awards. And the ladder. So, it all happened very backwards for me. And thank Zeus for it! I have never forgotten, especially in the U.S., that if the only people who are reading your work are in said literary journals, then let me break your heart: no one is reading your work. (This may not be the case in Ireland and Ireland is a separate case study). Esteemed writers who used to write for Playboy had a bigger readership in that regard. Ray Bradbury, Chekhov etc. had many readers than literary accolades, the equivalent of our “blogs” I suppose? Not sure of that equivalency to be honest.
2. I don’t know if I agree with this: “a piece published online will always be read by more people than a piece published in print, especially over time.” I have seen sites close and things disappear. People’s obsession with substack...am I the only one who remembers Posterous?! It was awesome (and made plagiarism very easy by reposting, similarly to Tumblr lol) and Jack’s Twitter bought it and then poof- took it all down. There goes your content. Not to mention most people wouldn’t have made the effort as you did with Minor Literatures.
3. I once submitted fiction to 3AM -never heard back. I am not cool enough.
4. I once told an editor about my book idea who wasn’t really listening to me until I mentioned that the essay I wanted to expand had been part of an anthology which was reviewed in 3AM. They jotted my name down. I was over it by the time they asked to spell my last name.
5. Any literary journal that continues to thrive (primarily in Ireland but even there it’s getting saturated but they may not be impacted because for every writer they have two readers and every writer is a reader) is because they recognize that obsessive READERS are the lifeblood.
Sites go down, copies of journals end up in the recycling bin. But the wayback machine is better at salvaging websites! I guess the “natural” tendency of writing is to get lost eventually, with a few exceptions.
I should add: perhaps the counter-thought to my original comment is, “oh yeah? No one is reading the journals you say? But the “real readers”, the ones who really matter, (aka agents and publishers and those who are in the awards business) are reading and those are the readers one needs.” 😵💫
its a reasonable definition of the lifecycle of literary magazines... if you remove the anecdotes you end up with a nice life cycle flow chart!
Spot on, mate.
I hope you do a piece on the new Twatter site, where I was felt the urge to write:
"We're safe here, the undesirables can't hurt us here," I get a whiff of snobbery and an urge to start upsetting people. But I won't, I'll hold it down.
The Devil in me itching for mockery!
Am I 'far-right' now or is this humour alright here?
Because of the posts saying things about their safe-space Shangri La, where only the 'right sort of people' are welcome.
I was told I'd be blocked if I rock the boat. I ain't too fussed about being blocked by those who don't get me, or the easily offended. They ain't my 'audience' and it makes no difference to me.
Do you mean Bluesky? I wrote about it last week: https://theleftovers.substack.com/p/the-algorithm-doesnt-love-you-back. It's as shit as Twitter. Same people, repeating the same crap.
Ah, yes the algorithm piece. I saw it, but I didn't remember the Blue Sky bit. I'll have another look. Cheers.