A Call for Top Notch Indie Authors’ Books

The Deepening now offers feature spots for small, good, fiction magazines who publish short stories. We offer:

• space to include up to one feature spot a week on The Deepening to qualifing magazines and ezines,
• inclusion in the weekly digest that is emailed to subscribers,
• plus a week’s worth of free banner advertising.

The cost?

Nothing.  We’re interested in promoting good short stories and the periodicals which publish them.

The catch?

Your magazine or ezine must qualify, and, to qualify, you have to publish short stories that The Deepening’s editorial staff, that shifting body of active editors, find to actually be stories, not just angst-driven, plotless “stuff”. In other words, the majority of stories you publish MUST have “story”, must have “plot,” and must provoke, and we do mean provoke, the reader to read on.

Here are some samples of what does not qualify:

• “The Happy Ending was a dive bar out in the desert that had no address and no signage. Basically, you could go there only if you’d been there before. The logic of this appealed to me for some reason,and so I agreed to go with my friend Kendall after work…” –Excerpt from Trust by Paula McLain, Narrative Magazine
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• “THE MIDDLE OF SPRING in Memphis, and it felt like winter. Tonight, setting out the recycling, she shivered and it took a good ten minutes to get rid of the chill. She had him hold her, his breath warm at her neck. They lay in the bed…” –Excerpt from Immigration by Richard Bausch, Narrative Magazine
  _
• “It was a dreary time in my life. I was going through a rough patch at work. I was supremely bored, though up till then I’d always been immune to boredom. I was going out with two women. That I do remember clearly. One of them was getting on a bit—she must…” Excerpt from William Burns by Roberto Bolaño, The New Yorker

Here are samples of what is acceptable:

• “This one was good. He could sell this one easily. Framed—a dull flat gold patina perhaps, which allowed the glow of the work to dominate—he could expect fifteen hundred. And that was in Brighton. In the London gallery, three to four thousand. It was ironic. He could really use the money. But this one was not for sale.” Excerpt from The Comeback by Vanessa Gebbie, Rose & Thorn Journal (Winter 2010)
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• ‘ “…would you mind telling me where we’re going?”
  
  “To stop this nonsense,” replied Quince grimly. “We’re going to find the competition and make it very clear to them that they are simply not wanted. I mean, after all, how popular can oblivion actually…oh!”
  
  At that moment they topped…’ –Excerpt from The Other Option by Jamie Brindle, East of the Web>
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• “The lottery was conducted–as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program–by Mr. Summers. who had time and energy to devote to civic activities. He was a round-faced, jovial man and he ran…” –Excerpt from The Lottery by Shirley Jackson,  americanliterature.com

To apply, simply submit your magazine to us at editors@thedeepening.com with the subject line: Fiction Magazine Feature. In your email, include a well-written article about your magazine, including:

• your mission statement,
• your magazine’s editorial perspective concerning short stories,
• a linked list of stories, including titles, authors, blurb, and excerpt which best represents the stories you’ve published,
• a list of the magazine’s owner(s) and editors,
• frequency of publication,
• when the magazine/ezine began publishing,
• a jpeg of the latest issue’s cover,
• the cost to readers/subscribers, if any, or the requirements for access,
• anything else you may consider pertinent, interesting, and enticing.

Of course, the magazine must be available online, and, of course, we must be able to read your listed stories to judge whether or not we think you qualify as a magazine/ezine to be featured…which means giving us access to your stories if they are paid subscriber access only.

Continue reading about Opportunities for Small, Good Fiction Magazines

Member authors can link their feeds directly into their author pages. So can publishers. Just another new benefit of membership.

Continue reading about New Member Feature on The Deepening