This being Veteran’s Day, I had the day off. I intended to spend most of the day writing on Shadows and Stars, on which I have spent a few hours so far, but I have also accomplished something else. After some editing, I submitted the stage version of “Murder by Plastic” my flash fiction thriller, to Lakeshore Players Theatre 17th Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival. I should know if I am a semi-finalist by the end of January.
The Lakeshore Players do not pay a lot, therefore for me the reward is more publicity and exposure for me and my works (should I win, of course). Sometimes this is more valuable than the financial rewards. This is how I feel about short stories and flash fiction. Short stories, for most of us, pay little if anything. The biggest payment to an author is in the exposure. It keeps your name in front of the public.
I am also finding out that there is more than one way to gain exposure as a writer. There is the publication of the work itself , the pre-publication publicity, and the subsequent sales and critical opinions (which, granted, may be good or bad) and renown if it a popular work. And there is the publicity to be gained by writing about the creative process and/or publicizing it before the work is published. Everything I see about publicizing and marketing one’s works boils down to getting one’s name in font of the public as often as one can. This often involves blowing one’s horn for the most miniscule of reasons.
As you may have noticed, getting my name before the public is what this article is doing right now.
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Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 