Looking for an alternative to Nerve Magazine

January 10, 2008 8:56 PM

I am looking for a magazine that would be interested in a story I've written about being in love without sexual attraction. Nerve is the only magazine that I can think of, but from the looks of things, I doubt they accept anything from writers outside of sunny California. My story isn't sexual explicit, but I don't think a mainstream/family-friendly publication would be interested in this. Does anyone have any suggestions for a Nerve-esque magazine (or zine) that accepts non-fiction that isn't supposed to make you horny?
posted by haasim to writing & language (13 comments total)

Nerve is based in New York.

But I think you're right about them not being interested.
posted by bingo at 9:07 PM on January 10

Nerve accepts contributions from anywhere:

FICTION & PERSONAL ESSAYS
Before sending anything, please read our mission statement and acquaint yourself with the kinds of short stories and personal essays we publish. Here is what we do not publish: porn, "erotica," play-by-play sexploits and purple fiction (read: overwrought romances in the airport-novel genre). Nerve aims to be frank about sex, but not necessarily explicit. We prefer fiction and personal essays under 3,000 words, although occasionally we publish Quickies and Raw Nerves, which are articles that are approximately 600-800 words (Quickie and Raw Nerve pitches can go to [e-mail]). Send fiction submissions in the body of an email (or attached as a Word document) to [e-mail], or mail to Michael Martin at the above address. Personal essay submissions should be directed to [e-mail] or mailed to Michael Martin at the same address. Unfortunately, Nerve no longer publishes poetry. All submissions should have a cover letter that indicates your previous publishing history.

http://www.nerve.com/aboutus/submissions/
posted by cmgonzalez at 9:07 PM on January 10

Nerve is based in NYC, for whatever that's worth.
posted by padraigin at 9:07 PM on January 10

Maybe salon.com or slate.com?
posted by kitty teeth at 9:18 PM on January 10

Maybe I'm way off base here—this is not my field, sorry—but maybe The Sun?
posted by brett at 9:37 PM on January 10

Is there such a thing as arousing non-fiction?

Mmm, tell me more about the sub-prime crisis! Oh yeah!
posted by oxford blue at 2:27 AM on January 11

The Erotic Review?
posted by tallus at 3:34 AM on January 11

Sounds like a New York Times Style Section's 'Modern Love' piece.
posted by desuetude at 6:24 AM on January 11

i don't think the erotic review is the way to go (i say this as former avid reader).

it would help more if we knew what your article was about. you have to really narrow down your target audience. who do you want to read the story? who would want to read the story? housewives? business men? singles in their twenties? what demographic are you going for?

once you have the answers to those questions (and tell us) we could better identify a possible market for you.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 6:51 AM on January 11

Ok, well to be more specific:

The piece is basically a personal story about an ex-girlfriend who met every criteria as an ideal partner for me. Let's call her Lisa. She was smart, beautiful and politically liked-minded. But when we made love there was no chemistry, we didn't fit physically--I literally couldn't kiss her properly because her mouth was so petite. The whole situation drove me crazy. She was perfect on paper and yet we didn't fit. In my story I explore our difficulties with passion, while reminiscing about a high school sweetheart. Let's call her Tracy. I had practically nothing in common with Tracy and yet our relationship was more passionate than any relationship I've been in since. And the more I thought about it, there's been an element of mutual disdain in every passionate relationship I've been in.


Anyway, the piece is primarily set inside a motel room during a romantic getaway. The story is about 1500 words and it has some profanity (and I would like to keep it that way).

I hope this summary was helpful.
posted by haasim at 8:08 AM on January 11

Is that your pitch? I can't think of anyone who'd take that, and I'm fairly familiar with the sex-based freelance market. You might start looking around to see if any of your friends work at small magazines who need to fill space.
posted by klangklangston at 11:35 AM on January 11

The premises for most stories are rather simplistic when you think about it. (It's all in the details.) And really, I imagined this story would be a kind of bite-sized, slice of life--the kinda thing you might find in the Sunday paper.

My posting above is not the actual pitch I'm using for editors. I didn't want to give away the whole story in my summary to you guys. But thanks anyway for the replies--both encouraging and snarky.
posted by haasim at 12:12 PM on January 11

The premises for most stories are rather simplistic when you think about it. (It's all in the details.) And really, I imagined this story would be a kind of bite-sized, slice of life--the kinda thing you might find in the Sunday paper.

I think you'll have better luck with the personal essay angle than the sex angle when looking for the appropriate venue for your audience. This does not sound like sex writing.

Have you looked at smaller and online literary magazines like some of these -- you'll have to seek them out to see which have the appropriate tone.
posted by desuetude at 1:09 PM on January 11