What do you do with stories when you can't find a suitable market?

[AlexH]

The reason I ask is I have a story (not sff) set in the 90s about a teenage girl who practices ballet but would like to become a pro wrestler. I signed up for a Duotrope trial after not finding suitable markets. As the market for young adult novels is big, I wrongly assumed there would be at least some market for YA short stories, and I haven't found suitable pro or semi-pro paying markets on Duotrope either.

Should I look out for possible anthologies or calls that might be a fit (I've already had the story over a year)? Wait until I've sold a few stories (fingers-crossed) and offer it on my website? It's a story I'm really proud of and would like to get out there and read, and I had amazing help from an editor to get the female-perspective right. I only have one trunked story so far, and I don't want this to be another. I've found a suitable market that pays 1c/word, but I'd like to try more established markets first. Even for general fiction, there doesn't seem to be much.

In general, what do people do when pro then semi-pro markets have been exhausted? And another reason I ask is I imagine this will happen a lot more in future!

P.S. I hope it doesn't seem like I'm self-rejecting.

[DaneCurley]

I share them with my first readers (friends and fam who are actively interested in reading my work) and edit them thereafter as if I was prepping them for a market. New markets are born every week. Good to have a stable.

[RSchibler]

When my stories have made the rounds of all the suitable markets, I just save them. If a suitable anthology comes up, I want to have them available. Since I'm still a very new writer, though, I don't have many! Some of my very early stories, the ones I cringe to think I sent to places like F&SF, I've put up on the blog. If nothing else, they show how far I've come!

[AlexH]

Thanks. I think that's something I needed to hear to make me feel more comfortable about saving them. I've worked so hard, I don't like stories sitting around feeling like they're doing nothing!