There are far too many desperate authors inundating the relatively few places that take unsolicited submissions. The folks with actual budgets have to throw up draconian requirements just to keep things down to a dull roar, and they still get enough submissions that they don’t have to pay squat. It’s very much a buyer’s market out there when it comes to short fiction.
Guess I can always throw ‘Audition’ on Kindle Vella. It won’t make any money there, either, but maybe it’ll help my Amazon algorithm.
Moe Lane
PS: It will not get better. In fact, thanks to people spamming slush piles using AI, it will somehow manage to make things even worse. I should just be grateful I have fans.