Magazines, Short Stories, and the Future

Tip of the Day: Check out Michelle Schusterman's First Draft Guide for the Focus Impaired Writer on YA Highway.

I've written a few short stories, but I don't honestly feel I've honed my craft as a short story writer, and a major reason for that is what the heck do you do with them after you've written them? What is the market for YA short stories? Not so great.

I didn't read short stories as a teen. I wasn't much into magazines. Actually, I used to buy this one magazine that printed the lyrics of popular songs. That's how old I am. I am several years B.G. (Before Google). I didn't really do magazine quizzes.

Friend of Kate's: Oooh, let's take this quiz.

Me: That quiz is rigged, you know.

Friend of Kate's: I don't respond to you when you're being weird. Okay, you're on a date and he talks about his car for an hour.

Me: That describes every weekend of my life.

Friend of Kate's: You don't get out that much. So, A, you say that's absolutely fascinating; B, you hide in the ladies' room; or C, you tell him to shut up?

Me: What kind of idiot would do any of those things? Fine, I want to get the "Nasty Shrew" score at the end. I'll pick C.

Friend of Kate's: But you wouldn't do that.

Me: The. Quiz. Is. Rigged!

Today I subscribe to Discover, the science magazine, so I can play "count the number of articles that go over my head."

BUT. This weekend, I was in the car shop (just picking up, not listening to anyone) and I saw Time Magazine's new issue on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. It looked interesting, but what caught my eye was the note that the content had been edited to fill the space, but if I wanted to read the full article on the Civil War, I could buy it from Amazon as a Kindle single.

So, what do you think? Will people start publishing their articles on line instead of in magazines? Will that create a larger short story market?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages