[maldusiecle]

The volume is higher, by a lot. More books are being published now, because the barriers are so low. The problem is that the quantity is overwhelming, no one can sift through all of it. Literary magazines were never "gatekeeping" in the sense that it's never been necessary to publish your work in a literary magazine in order to be a successful author, but they were an opportunity for authors to get their work in front of a fairly dedicated audience.

As for quality, debatable. We're living in a golden age if you're into YA fiction, that's for sure. I'm not an expert, but I've found international literature more interesting than domestic stuff for some time. Unfortunately, a lot of these magazines were also the first places foreign authors appeared in English translation, so that stuff could easily become less accessible soon.

[rwj]

Controlling access to "opportunity for authors to get their work in front of a fairly dedicated audience" sounds awfully like gatekeeping.

[maldusiecle]

There's always going to be some kind of gatekeeping at some point in the process--even in a purely digital marketplace, there's limited attention. Small publications like this are pretty much the least limiting form of this: relatively cheap to produce, many of them with only a few employees, publishing many short pieces, often skewing toward authors without existing followings.

There's a huge difference between controlling access to a niche audience which in large part exists because of the publication itself, and controlling access to publication in general.

[marcus_holmes]

> so that stuff could easily become less accessible soon

Surely if there's no lit magazine to publish them, they'll publish their stuff on the web? And then it'll be available (even if translated with Google translate).

[maldusiecle]

Do you really think it's worth reading poetry translated via Google Translate?