Survey for short story writers

Jason2 · Apr 27, 2013

Hello guys,

I would like to invite you to a quick survey for short story writers to see how we are all currently doing in publishing our works. I'm building a short story community website, and would like to understand writers' thoughts better to make the site useful.

Please only participate if you're a writer who writes short stories in sci-fi, horror and fantasy. You can copy the questions below and answer them in your reply. Thanks a lot!

1. How long have you been writing short stories?

2. How frequently do you write short stories (e.g. how many pieces a month)?

3. How many words do your short stories typically have?

4. What genre(s) of short stories do you write most?

5. What drives you to keep writing them?

6. How do you write your stories? (on desktop, pc? On paper?)

7. Where do you publish your stories?

8. If you publish your stories on websites, can you show me the sites/blogs where you publish them?

9. How do you upload your stories to the websites? (copy-paste into a text box, upload word document directly etc.)

10. With whom do you usually share the stories? (your significant other, family etc.)

11. How much audience and comments can you reach with these channels (e.g. 50 readers and 10 comments per story?)

12. How do you feel about the current publishing channels you have?

13. What are the 3 biggest problems you have in the current publishing process (if any)?

amergina · Apr 27, 2013

Jason said:
Please only participate if you're a male writer who writes short stories in sci-fi, horror and fantasy. I would imagine female writers are more likely to go with other genres.

Why would you imagine that? There are many many many many women writers of SF, fantasy, and horror.

jeffo20 · Apr 27, 2013

I can't help but be curious why you're excluding women from your survey.

Jason2 · Apr 27, 2013

amergina said:
Why would you imagine that? There are many many many many women writers of SF, fantasy, and horror.

You're probably right. I updated the original question to include all writers.

Jason2 · Apr 27, 2013

jeffo20 said:
I can't help but be curious why you're excluding women from your survey.

updated the original question. Thx.

SomethingOrOther · Apr 27, 2013

Jason said:
1. How long have you been writing short stories?

Over 60 fortnights.

3. How many words do your short stories typically have?

Exactly 3,584 — no more, no less.

4. What genre(s) of short stories do you write most?

Angry-sheep erotica.

5. What drives you to keep writing them?

Cars.

6. How do you write your stories? (on desktop, pc? On paper?)

Dirt, or clay tablet.

7. Where do you publish your stories?

The New Yorker.

8. If you publish your stories on websites, can you show me the sites/blogs where you publish them?

#7

9. How do you upload your stories to the websites? (copy-paste into a text box, upload word document directly etc.)

extortion + compliance

edit: Eh, I filled mine out before you changed it to include women, at which time I didn't think it deserved a serious response.

Jason2 · Apr 27, 2013

SomethingOrOther said:
edit: Eh, I filled mine out before you changed it to include women, at which time I didn't think it deserved a serious response.

lol. can you help provide some serious insight? thanks a lot.

mirandashell · Apr 27, 2013

I'm not exactly sure why we should....

You still haven't explained why you excluded women in the first place.

Jason2 · Apr 27, 2013

mirandashell said:
I'm not exactly sure why we should....

You still haven't explained why you excluded women in the first place.

I am concentrating on action-oriented sci-fi, horror and fantasy fictions. I just thought female writers might write more in romance, drama etc., so the answers might not be relevant. Of course, you're now more than welcome to join if as long as you write in sci-fi, horror and fantasy!

mirandashell · Apr 27, 2013

So.... you want to build a community around genres you don't actually know that much about..... ok then.

And yes I do write in those genres but .... I think I'll give it a miss.

slhuang · Apr 27, 2013

Jason said:
I am concentrating on action-oriented sci-fi, horror and fantasy fictions. I just thought female writers might write more in romance, drama etc., so the answers might not be relevant.

You're wrong.

I expect your automatic assumption about women writers has offended a lot of authors here, and turned people (not just women) off from wanting to participate. If you wanted writers of action-oriented scifi, horror, and fantasy, you should have asked for "writers of action-oriented scifi, horror, and fantasy." Guess what? That would have excluded writers of romance or drama just fine.

(Your original language also made genderqueer authors completely invisible, which: also not cool.)

AshleyEpidemic · Apr 27, 2013

Jason said:
I am concentrating on action-oriented sci-fi, horror and fantasy fictions. I just thought female writers might write more in romance, drama etc., so the answers might not be relevant. Of course, you're now more than welcome to join if as long as you write in sci-fi, horror and fantasy!

I hate to harp on this, but it offends me to have been excluded. Yes, you did update your post, but being a female never should have excluded me from the poll. Unless of course it was a gender comparison for whatever reason.

I write fantasy. I write horror. I write a bit of science fiction. And I am female. There are plenty of female writers who write in these categories.

To assume that a female would write in those categories, and thus be irrelevant to your survey, is judgmental. I'm going to stop, my fur has been rubbed the wrong way.

mirandashell · Apr 27, 2013

It was also extremely patronising.

amergina · Apr 27, 2013

It also shows a grave under-reading of the genres. Which doesn't bode well for a short story community website.

Plus, you know, there's a short story community right here in ~~River City~~ Absolute Write? Right?

(And then there's the assumption that men never write romance in their SF/F/H stories. Which is incorrect.)

Chris P · Apr 27, 2013

WildScribe · Apr 27, 2013

Jason said:
I am concentrating on action-oriented sci-fi, horror and fantasy fictions. I just thought female writers might write more in romance, drama etc., so the answers might not be relevant. Of course, you're now more than welcome to join if as long as you write in sci-fi, horror and fantasy!

*snort*

Old Hack · Apr 27, 2013

Let's remember, everyone, that RYFW works both ways.

Jason's original post was thoughtless, and his attempts to move on from that point have been clumsy: but that doesn't mean we get to poke him with our pitchforks, or hound him out of here.

Explain to him why you were offended; help him understand. It would be constructive, don't you think?

Bogna · Apr 27, 2013

I'm a biochemist and the idea that you would jump into surveying/studying something WITHOUT looking into the topics history kills me inside. My boss would have fired me in a heart beat. One of my favorite erotica/romance authors is male. Gender and sex have nothing to do with genres.

It's too early in the morning for this. I have lab reports to grade.

mirandashell · Apr 27, 2013

Old Hack said:
Let's remember, everyone, that RYFW works both ways.

Explain to him why you were offended; help him understand. It would be constructive, don't you think?

Ok, that's fair enough.

I was offended on several levels.

Firstly, that in this day and age, someone would still think that gender has anything to do with writing. Even the tiniest bit of research would show that it doesn't. Men and women and genderqueer write about what interests them and that can be anything.

I read a lot of sci-fi. Some fantasy and I used to read a lot of horror. And the mere idea that I wouldn't write because I'm female is both offensive and ridiculous.

Secondly, the fact that the OP wants to build a community and starts out by excluding roughly 50% of the population of the Earth is mind-boggling. It shows ignorance of his chosen genres and when added to the arrogance to pat us on the head when we point this out, it becomes too much.

I get that I don't know who the OP actually is. He may be young, he may have been brought up very cossetted with no knowledge that he isn't actually the paragon of humanity and other people live in different ways. Fair enough. But hopefully he will take this as a learning experience.

Survey for short story writers

Jason2

amergina

Pittsburgh Strong

jeffo20

Tyrant King

Jason2

Jason2

SomethingOrOther

-

Jason2

mirandashell

Jason2

mirandashell

slhuang

Inappropriately math-oriented.

AshleyEpidemic

Did you see my bag?

mirandashell

amergina

Pittsburgh Strong

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

WildScribe

Slave to the Wordcount

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Bogna

mirandashell