It’s the End of the World as We Know It

After a troubling start to the year for writers of short crime fiction—Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine changing ownership, leading to distribution delays for print issues; Level Best Books restructuring after a partner retired, causing delays in release dates for anthologies; Tough going on indefinite hiatus; and Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine changing to an annual publication focusing on Sherlock Holmes material and closing to other subgenres of crime fiction—mid-October brought a wave of distressing news: Down & Out Books, publishers of several anthologies each year, announced their closure; Unnerving Books, which published anthologies and a magazine, closed; and Black Cat Weekly announced that its last issue would be the 2026 Halloween issue unless someone takes over the publication.

There’s no good way to spin bad news. Except: Shit happens.

I’ve been writing short fiction professionally for half a century. I’ve seen genre markets contract—I’ve even seen an entire genre disappear—and I’ve seen new markets arise.

I lost three key mystery markets in the 1980s when Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Espionage Magazine, and the revived The Saint Magazine ceased publication. (I had multiple stories published in Mike Shayne and Espionage; had one accepted but not published by The Saint.)

I lost several magazine markets during the late 2000s and early 2010s as the rise of the internet led to the demise of several men’s magazines, and survivors reduced the amount of fiction they published.

Around the early 2010s, I lost several anthology markets when Cleis Press changed owners, and when StarBooks Press and Xcite Books ceased publication.

And I suffered significant loss when the last two confession magazines—True Confessions and True Story—shut down in 2017. (The confession genre had been good for multiple short story sales every month for years, but the entire genre disappeared after the last two magazines closed, leaving me with several unsold stories.)

After each of these setbacks, I took a deep breath, spent time studying the markets, and adjusted what I wrote and where I submitted. I persevered.

So, after you’ve cried in your beer or cursed the gods, or however you deal with setbacks, it’s time to get back to work.

It’s your writing career. Take charge of it.

SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE

Anyhow, in the middle of all this month’s bad news, I received some good news: I had two stories accepted—one for an anthology, one for a magazine—checked edits for a story upcoming in Dark Yonder, read page proofs for a story upcoming in Lunatic Fringe, and saw the cover for The Vigilante Crime Pulp Fiction Anthology, which contains one of my stories. I also reached an oral agreement with a publisher to take on the anthologies I had in the production pipeline at Down & Out Books.

* * *

“Black Velvet” appears in Lunatic Fringe (White City Press), edited by J. Alan Hartman.

“4:13 a.m.” appears in The Vigilante Crime Pulp Fiction Anthology (Vigilante Crime), edited by Matthew Louis and Philip M. Smith.