So issue 12 of Flashing Swords is out and available on Amazon.com.
I thought I’d promote this magazine here because it looks like the magazine’s editors are relying almost entirely on contributors to sell it. If you go to the Flashing Swords web page, the “current issue” link takes you to a Lulu page saying that the article you are looking for is unavailable, and in the listing of issues, issue 12 is not listed. There aren’t any reviews on Amazon, which is not surprising because I’m not sure how anyone would ever stumble upon the link. It’s the invisible issue.
This is a little upsetting for me. I usually submit to magazines based on readership rather than payment, because, really, even fifty bucks for a story is like paying myself fifty cents an hour for my writing. I’d avoided subbing to Flashing Swords for quite some time because readership was in the toilet, but that all changed when Crystalwizard took over. CW is now the managing editor of Abandoned Towers magazine, which is a pretty hopping place, but when I subbed my piece, she was helming Flashing Swords. CW is an excellent self-promoter, skills she probably honed selling her epic series of self-published fantasy novels. She is a woman who will get your work read. I subbed to her Time in a Bottle anthology for much the same reason.
But she left the magazine after my story was accepted, ownership changed, several issues were missed, and now we have the invisible issue.
Do I feel burned? Yeah, a little. All I can do is remember this incident the next time I’m looking for a market for a heroic fantasy short.