new ‘submission’ policy

So for the first few years I sent my stories into a lot of online publications and magazines. Some of them were desperate enough for content that they published my work, but the terrible truth was that nobody was reading it. There are five magazines that people read for their fiction and about 300,000 that nobody gives a shit about.

I stopped submitting stories for consideration about six or seven years ago but recently decided to give it another go. Mostly because I was curious about the state of flash fiction.

Let me tell you, my inbox is now bursting at the seams every morning with rejection emails. Sometimes I get rejected before I’m done sending it in. (“I see you’re about to hit send… let me stop you there.”)

So I guess there’s no shortage of people who are writing stuff. I take that as a good thing. Writing is supremely healthy and no doubt these things they produce are more worthy of publication because the authors are actually considering that somebody else might actually read what they wrote, as opposed to someone (hypothetically named Lance) who just writes stream of consciousness nonsense for their own amusement and then sends it in, making sure to disregard every guideline posted by these self-important sites.

Thank goodness I have my own website! I can post the most convoluted stories whenever I want without fear of rejection.

Which is my way of saying, if you have a similar story, I hope you’ll send it to me at lance@lancemanion.com so I can post it here too. Try to keep it non-political and between 100-1500 words if you can. Particularly interested in the odd and offbeat. If you are a ‘marginalized’ writer, (i.e. BAME, LGBTQ+, nonbinary, neurodivergent) I couldn’t physically care less. Neither do readers.

Warning: nobody gives a shit about this site.