I love books. I mean those bundles of paper and print that you must turn pages to read, hold in your lap or up in your hand, with their handsome or ugly covers, their special smells, and that give off the instant signal that what you have before your eyes is YOURS! Sure, you may decide to lend it, but you expect to get it back...well, you get what I mean.
The problem with getting into one of those wonderful things is that you have to be either much better at writing than 99% of others who do it, or you have to stumble on a subject that has unexpected importance and resonance for an enormous number of potential readers so your publisher can hope to make a financial killing, or you know the right people in the right places who are willing to support and/or promote you because of who you are. When none of these situations apply, you end up with electronic publishing when you run out of time or hope or can't afford to do it yourself.
Well, I've just happened on another one of these havens for homeless manuscripts. Www.bookstogonow.com is calling for short stories. Their turnaround time is impressive: less that two weeks. I haven't been able to get out of them what the copyright status is, but they offer a return to the author in the form of a portion of their small charge for the story they publish, which is supplied with a "cover" and an author's note. They seem to have a pretty varied list, largely genre, but they took my short story that isn't of that ilk. I might earn a dollar or two if I'm lucky. Give them a look--for fun.
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