Saturday, July 11: Mississippi Mud
MAD for MAGAZINES
by John M. Floyd
I read a lot of short stories. Mostly mystery/suspense stories, and mostly those featured in magazines.
There are of course two other good places to find short fiction: (1) anthologies containing the work of different authors and (2) collections of stories by the same author. I read a lot of those too, especially the annual “best of” anthologies and the occasional collections by King, Deaver, Lippman, Block, and others. But magazines remain the prime source for short stories.
The Supermarket Market
The advantage of magazines is accessibility — even if you don’t subscribe, you can find them anyplace from grocery stores to bookstores to corner newsstands to doctors’ waiting rooms. And even stories that are included in anthologies and collections are often reprints of tales that first appeared in magazines. The stories in my own two collections of short fiction, Midnight and Rainbow’s End (30 stories in each) were all previously published elsewhere — AHMM, Woman’s World, Murderous Intent, The Strand, etc. My publisher said he actually preferred that approach, since he was more comfortable taking a financial chance on stories that had already been given a “stamp of approval” by editors of other publications.
E-Zines and P-Zines
Short-fiction magazines fall into two areas: print and electronic. Most of the best are print publications, but several Internet zines regularly contain outstanding stories as well. I admit to a bias, there – I’d rather read a story on the printed page than off a computer screen. But I realize not everyone feels that way.
What follows is a list of print and e-magazine markets that feature– or featured– mystery shorts. This is by no means all of them, just some that I’m familiar with. (Those that are out of business or on hiatus are marked with an asterisk*, and some that vanished long ago, like Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine and Black Mask, I didn’t even mention.)
The Periodical Table (with updates from Fred, Gus Dearden, Sandra Seamans, and Dick Stodghill)
- Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
- Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
- Plots with Guns
- The Strand Magazine
- Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine*
- Woman’s World
- Murderous Intent Mystery Magazine*
- Mysterical-E
- HandHeldCrime
- Dogwood Tales*
- Orchard Press Mysteries
- Thrilling Detective
- Red Herring Mystery Magazine*
- Mystery Time*
- The Cozy Detective Mystery Magazine*
- Whispering Willows Mystery Magazine*
- Thuglit
- Cemetery Dance
- Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine*
- Crimewave
- Hardboiled
- Capper’s
- Over My Dead Body*
- Blue Murder*
- Amazon Shorts
- Hardluck Stories
- The Atlantean Press Review*
- Detective Mystery Stories*
- Short Stuff for Grownups
- Virginia Quarterly Review
- Raconteur*
- Boys’ Life
- Just a Moment*
- Thema
- Reader’s Break*
- Crimestalker Casebook
- Writers Post Journal
- The Back Alley Webzine?
- Crime and Suspense E-Zine*
- Mouth Full of Bullets*
- The Storyteller
- Yellow Sticky Notes*
- Heist Magazine*
- Enigma*
- P.I. Magazine
- The Rex Stout Journal*
- Spinetingler Magazine
- Murdaland*
- Nefarious: Tales of Mystery*
Some of the above, as I said, have folded; others, like The Strand, have died and been successfully resurrected; and a few – AHMM, EQMM, etc. – have been here for years and years and are still going strong. The stalwarts have thrived, I believe, because of a combination of outstanding editors, competent writers, and loyal readers. If any of those three ingredients are missing, there’s little chance of continued success.
From a Writer’s Perspective
I’ve been fortunate enough to publish fiction in most of these magazines (although some of them perished immediately after featuring my stories, a fact which should probably worry me a bit) and I’ve come to admire and respect their editors, past and present. A few have become friends of mine, and one even co-wrote a story with me, years ago. Most I have never met.
I owe all of them my sincere thanks. It is my hope that the failed magazines might acquire new life, that the survivors continue to be popular and prosperous, and that those just starting out find the writers and readers they need.
Missing Pages?
I’ll close this discussion with a question: Do any of you know of markets I’ve omitted? Please reply, if you do. As a reader I’m always looking for new magazines to try, and as a writer I might want to submit stories to them.
I’ve been doing both too long to stop now …
PHOTO CREDIT: The photograph of a Belgrade magazine kiosk was taken by Australian photographer ‘captain oddsocks‘.
That’s a long list … a lot longer than I would have imagined! (But then again, I too have a bias toward print versus the computer screen.)
At least I’m not the only person to have put stories into markets that then closed after the issue I appeared in. For the longest time I thought it was just *me* that this happened to…
Thanks for the list!
Maybe it’s the deadly combination of Joseph and John– an editor’s brain just explodes handling all that talent!
I hate to say this, but Murdaland folded last year, John. There’s a list of markets on my blog on the left that all publish crime/mystery stories. Some zines, some print, and a mixture of paying and non-paying markets.
I didn’t see “The Back Alley” on your list, John, but I have stepped on snakes without seeing them so I may have missed it. http://www.backalleywebzine.com
When it comes to putting magazines out of business, I have few peers.
Sandra and Dick, I incorporated your changes in the article.
– Ed.
Hey gang — Thanks for your mention of markets I’ve omitted and those I was wrong about. I’m sure there are more that have folded and I just haven’t heard the news yet. The longevity of small-circulation magazine editors (and the mags themselves) seems to be about the same as that of college football coaches.
I still mourn the passing of markets like Dogwood Tales, Mystery Time, Red Herring, etc. Any of you remember them? Those folks were very kind to aspiring writers.
Is the Back Alley still alive? From a look at their site, I wasn’t sure. The last issue came out in December 08, I think. Now it’s mid-July, so for a quarterly publication it would seem they’re at least quite a bit behind (in all fairness, though, they’ve never published quarterly–even their first volume had only three issues).
Excellent list, John.
Blue Murder was a loss that hit home for me. They accepted one of my stories and folded before they printed it.
Spinetingler Magazine (assuming you mean http://www.spinetinglermag.com) is no longer on hiatus. They just released their Spring issue and accepted one of my stories for Fall.
Gus, I’d forgotten about Back Alley until Dick mentioned it. I don’t know any specifics — I hope it’s still kicking.
I’m also glad to hear, Fred, that Spinetingler (and yes, we’re talking about the same magazine there) is still healthy. Congrats on your upcoming story.
Interesting article and list, John!
What’s sad is how difficult it is to find these magazines, even the more well known ones, if you are NOT a subscriber. When I was a kid I remember buying EQMM at the corner drug store. Now its basically Borders or Barnes and Noble, and they only stock a few issues.
This is a great list! Now I know where to send those stories when they come back from either EQMM or AHMM.
One magazine I’d add to the list is Playboy. Sure, it’s a commercial magazine, and not specificially a mystery magazine, but it continues to publish lots of crime fiction to this day, unlike many other “glossies” (Lawrence Block, Lorenzo Carcaterra, Mario Puzo, Scott Turow, to name just a few). I’d say it’s the Holy Grail for any distinguished fiction–or mystery–writer. But of course, like I said, it’s not a short story magazine.
Wow! Thanks for the list! Didn’t know about most of these! Would love to bop back to the ’40’s just to see a newsstand filled with fiction magazines! Was at a chain bookstore today and only found one fiction mag. (Cemetery Dance). But if I wanted a magazine telling me about a makeover…
The sad thing is, as most of you know, many current magazines that once featured short fiction no longer do (Good Housekeeping, Redbook, The Atlantic Monthly, etc.). I recall seeing a short story by Stephen King — “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” — in Redbook many years ago.
Who knows, maybe the e-zine markets are helping, and will help, to fill that gap.
And yes, Playboy is indeed a prestigious and high-paying market for short stories. I should have remembered that, since its articles and stories are of course the reason I used to subscribe to it. Right . . . ?
PI Magazine is still being published but I don’t think they have published fiction in decades. I had a few stories in there in the eighties.
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Speaking of Stephen King, he is featured in this month’s Esquire. A short story called “Morality.” It’s really good, suspenseful–has anybody read this? Esquire has quit publishing fiction some time ago, I believe, but for Stephen King they gladly make an exception. You gotta have that kind of power in the industry, huh?
I’ve not read “Morality,” but I’ll look for it. An excellent mystery/crime short by King is “Mute,” one of the stories featured in his recent collection JUST AFTER SUNSET. I loved that one.
As for your comment, Dale, you’re right — many of the current mags I listed aren’t available except by subscription. Some that I do see in bookstores and on newsstands are EQ, AH, Strand, Woman’s World, and (now and then) Cemetery Dance, Boys’ Life, and Thema. Wish there were more.
Yes. I actually have the Playboy issues containing the Stephen King shorts “Mute” and “Willa.” Both fantastic and affecting.
Another great King short story in the same vein is “LT’s Theory of Pets,” collected in EVERYTHING’S EVENTUAL.
You’ve reminded me that I need to get those King collections down off the shelf and reread them: EVERYTHING’S EVENTUAL, NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES, NIGHT SHIFT, SKELETON CREW, etc.
Boy do I love short stories . . .
John (and those of you who are interested), you can read Stephen King’s latest short story “Morality” online here:
http://www.esquire.com/fiction/fiction/stephen-king-morality-0709
It helps that King is damn good and entertaining. The intros and story notes in his collections are half the fun! Hey, the Saturday Evening Post published a story by Ernest Hemingway’s nephew. E.H. never got accepted by SEP by the way! (But Robert A. Heinlein did!) Thanks Yoshinori, for the link!