This how-to book was different than what I expected because the advice was for writing loving, family-oriented ghost stories for women's magazines in Great Britain. I don't think there are too many markets, or any for that matter, in women's magazine in the US. Mostly, American women's magazine tell us 50 ways to have an orgasm. (49 of them don't work. I've tried.) I wonder if an anthology of sweet, kind of sentimental ghost stories would find a market in America. Nah, Americans want 50 ways to have an orgasm with a ghost. Which reminds me of a story I'm writing.
I've had more luck selling horror horror stories than I have funny or sentimental ghost stories. Readers want to be kept awake at night, shivering under their weighted blankets. (It's harder for ghosts to get ya under a forty-pound blanket.) Or they may be in a nightie hoping for a supernatural climax.
Never-the-less, Ms. McGurl has some good pointers for short stories in general. In fact, my favorite story of hers, included in this book, was one she couldn't sell. The ghost could travel through time, but couldn't leave the space she was in. A new concept (to me) of a haunted house.
It's a pleasant book, told in a chatty style. If you're looking to write stories that would make Stephen King leave his lights on all night, this isn't the book. It's still a nice read about nice ghosts
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