About
First-Time Authors
We
started On The
Premises as a way to
showcase good stories from writers who aren’t big names in
the short story world. I think we’ve succeeded, but a
recent trend bothers me. In 2009, we published
significantly fewer first-time fiction authors than in our
first full year, 2007.
Intellectually, I know that about 30,000 short stories get
published every year from at least a couple of thousand
publications (both print and web). So it stands to reason
that there are thousands of published short story writers
who can write decent stories even though they’ve never won
an O.
Henry award or
anything similar. I can’t even imagine the number of
writers who have sold a story or two, then quit writing. In
the mid-1990’s, I fell into that category. (I got much more
serious about writing around ten years later.)
I’m still bothered, though, by how few stories we’re
publishing by authors who have never sold fiction before,
even to an outlet that only pays $5 or so. It’s a drawback
to the way we refuse to learn anything about an author
before reading each story--we have no way to identify
unpublished authors.
We are considering asking writers to identify themselves as
having sold fiction before, or never having sold any, and
we are considering reserving an honorable mention spot or
something like it for the best story by an unpublished
author.
If you have an opinion on this idea, let me know by writing
to Feedback@OnThePremises.com. In the
meantime, please enjoy this issue, and don’t forget to
check out the cartoons drawn by
this month’s guest cartoonist, Matt Howarth! (Yes, fans
of Kief
Llama and
Those
Annoying Post Bros. and all the
rest, THAT Matt Howarth!)
Keep writing and reading,
Tarl Roger Kudrick
co-publisher of On The
Premises magazine