Macro-Micro Markets?
✴︎for when you're just a little too wordy...
Part of the fun of microfiction is fitting a grand story into a teeny-tiny parcel — distilling ideas to their very essences, paring words with a ruthless abandon…
But what about that one story that just needs a leeetle extra padding, no matter how much you work the text? What do you do with it?
You sub it to Macro-Micro Markets!
(…I just made that word up, I have no idea what you call them…)
But here are a few places that take (slightly) larger than 500 word stories:
Ink in Thirds
Word Count: 600 max
Genre: any
Open: until 7/31
Rate: $5
Sim Subs Allowed / No Reprints
What We Want:
This includes 3 word stories, 100 word stories, drabbles, microfiction, flash fiction, and whatever your imagination can conjure.
In reality, our only absolute requirement is to make us feel something! Sad, fine. Tormented, better. Angst, gah. Happy, meh—we’ll take it. Most importantly, move us with your words.
My take: I’ve subbed one double-drabble that was rejected in HOURS, so yay for quick responses!
Journal of Compressed Creative Arts
Word Count: 600 max
Genre: fiction and CNF
Open: until 6/15
Rate: $50
Sim Subs Allowed / No Reprints
What We Want:
The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts is looking for, as you might guess, “compressed creative arts.” We accept fiction and creative nonfiction, as long if they are compressed in some way.
For all submitters, we aren’t as concerned with labels—hint fiction, prose poetry, micro fiction, flash fiction, and so on—as we are with what compression means to you. In other words, what form “compression” takes in each artist’s work will be up to each individual. However, we don’t publish erotica or work with strong, graphic sexual content. In short, we want to fall in love with your work. That might happen in the way we’ve fallen in love with work we’ve previously published, or it might happen in a way we have yet to experience. Maybe reading that other work will help in knowing whether you should send your work to us, but in truth, such a thing might not be discoverable.
Here are a dozen things Matter Press definitely doesn’t want:
conversations in bars, cafes, restaurants, cars, hikes, or in some unexplained space where disembodied voices think they are way more interesting and clever than they are
anything written “after.” Nothing in conversation with, inspired by, or an homage to a preceding poem, artwork, or other text. Before is okay.
line break poetry or poetry written as prose with / between the lines where the line break would be
Pieces “after” the action, so that the protagonist does nothing except moments of glancing, thinking, reflecting, noticing, sitting, wondering, brushing, dreaming…
odd names of characters like Friglep or Zueron or Noir or anything that isn’t a name
a strange writing pseudonym that is a bunch of senseless letters strung together
the heading on a piece that still has the name of the writing teacher, English teacher, professor—along with the name of the class
yeah, the world is awful, the president is awful, the climate is awful, ICE is awful. It’s all awful. We know. No need to tell us. We 100% get it.
second-person stories. You can send such a story to your other favorite literary magazines; you do not need to send it here.
pieces that assume we will automatically care about your piece because you wrote it. We won’t. The piece needs to make us care. And pretty quickly. There are 100s of pieces in the slush pile. We aren’t a writing workshop that has no choice but to read each piece carefully and closely and lovingly because everyone knows everyone. We have choices. Hundreds of them.
the appearance of Jesus, God, or any holy being
any questions about the above
My take: None yet. I’m a little intimidated, tbh. But at least they know what they (don’t) want!
This last market has limited demographics:
Rough Cut Press
Word Count: 650 max
Genre: any
Theme: Speed
Open: until 4/27
Rate: $25
** LGBTQIA Authors only **
Sim Subs Allowed / No Reprints
What We Want:
We seek work of all genres by writers from the LGBTQIA community. We do not define or gatekeep what it means to be a queer writer: if you think your work belongs here, then it belongs here. To get a sense of what we publish please read some of our former issues. We don’t know what we like until we see it. Each month we announce a different theme, but don’t worry if the work you submit doesn’t quite fit: we often build issues and themes around work that takes us by surprise.
My take: none yet.
What you can look forward to from Micro Markets: themed and unthemed calls, monthly micro contests, micro-lit mags that are always open, micro-focused anthologies... maybe even some craft essays about writing microfiction and a place to feature YOUR published micros.
So dust off some of your tiny treasures, and let’s send them out into the world!