Writing Has Nothing To Do With Making Money

I wouldn't call writing my hobby, per se. It doesn't make me money, and I spend all my free time putting fingers to keyboard or occaisionally pen to paper. But it's not my hobby: it is my passion.

One of the things that's hard as a writer is finding publications that will accept my stuff. I've written previously about how my stories are often harder than many mysteries but gentler than hardboiled. In the online world of zines, I feel that I'm starting to build a name. I've appeared in a dozen different publications, some multiple times. I'm part of the Short Mystery Fiction group-- admittedly because it's free.

Getting my money's worth is always something on the forefront of my incredibably frugal mind. The 'big name' publications that many newer writers would give their writing hand to be published in charge a fair amount of money. And they insist that a writer read the publication before submission. (I have, but it doesn't seem to have helped me, but that's another issue.)

Now, one of my favorite zines is struggling with being free. And some of my fellow writers are unwilling to pay a small subscription fee. I don't get it. I'll support zines that I like. And more importantly, as a writer, I will *happily* support a zine that supports (ie publishes) me. Same as I shop at the retail supercenter that employees me-- it is in my best interst to support those who support me.

SO many people want something for nothing. Publication from a free ezine-- not only that but many writers also want to see payment(!) from these free ezines that they are not willing to purchase. How appalling. I know it is not all writers-- but there are enough. This is obvious with the number of zines and publications that fold so regularly. Publications need to make money to survive, through advertisements, subscriptions, or something else.

Please, support your favorite publications. Purchase subscriptions, click the little links to Amazon.com the next time you want to make a purhcase, make donations. If writers and readers don't support the publications we enjoy, they will be gone. And we will be resonsible for their deaths. The electronic ink will be on our hands.

If a hundred readers and writers each paid, say, $5 to a given publication, that publication would have $500 to pay for the domain name, contests, prizes, and the valuable time of the staff who produce it. Individually, five bucks is nothing. The cost of maintaining a website is more than nothing.

Luckily, there is a place for Bo Fexler short stories-- several places in fact. So far, the 'big' publications don't seem to want to touch me without rubber gloves and tweezers. But if the online zines fold, there will not be a place for Bo Fexler.

So, after all this ranting and pleading, I'll end by asking fans of Bo Fexler stories to find a few bucks in your wallet or even the change from between the couch cushions and see how you can support the publications that have accepted her stories. This isn't about me, it's about the benefit of ALL writers. I'm just one, with a quirky, bitter female private eye.

• Story currently in progress: Medium-Well
• Last story finished: DEATH BY PI (novella)
• Reason for not writing: school work